Pete Wells of the NY Times wrote:Is this how you roll in Flavor Town?
Somewhere within the yawning, three-level interior of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, is there a long refrigerated tunnel that servers have to pass through to make sure that the French fries, already limp and oil-sogged, are also served cold?
What accounts for the vast difference between the Donkey Sauce recipe you’ve published and the Donkey Sauce in your restaurant? Why has the hearty, rustic appeal of roasted-garlic mayonnaise been replaced by something that tastes like Miracle Whip with minced raw garlic?
And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?
Is the entire restaurant a very expensive piece of conceptual art? Is the shapeless, structureless baked alaska that droops and slumps and collapses while you eat it, or don’t eat it, supposed to be a representation in sugar and eggs of the experience of going insane?
Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?
Did you finish that blue drink?
Oh, and we never got our Vegas fries; would you mind telling the kitchen that we don’t need them?
exvaxman wrote:On a humor forum I read, there was a long discussion of the review. The whole long thread boiled down to "only idiots eat in times square with the many great places just two blocks away" that it was set up for the tourists who didn't know better. Apparently the TGI Fridays in times square is one of the most visited and profitable places. Yuk. As one person put it "this was set up for the Olive Garden crowd".
exvaxman wrote:On a humor forum I read, there was a long discussion of the review. The whole long thread boiled down to "only idiots eat in times square with the many great places just two blocks away" that it was set up for the tourists who didn't know better. Apparently the TGI Fridays in times square is one of the most visited and profitable places. Yuk. As one person put it "this was set up for the Olive Garden crowd".
Habibi wrote:Apparently high-minded New York Times critics eat there as well. I have no donkey beef with the review, but it is so obviously a set up to talk shit about Guy Fieri, his show, and food, from the perspective of a "sophisticated" urban critic. A fucking spectacle - both the restaurant and the review.
jesteinf wrote:If you spend massive amounts of money to open a high profile, crappy restaurant you deserve to have said restaurant called out as crap. Why should he get a pass?
Besides, the review was a fun read.
ASIAN STYLE PIZZA LOAF EXPLOSION
An old country recipe from the Orient, kicked up Guy's way. We start with a 100% authentic NYC 'za, topped with potstickers, a double helping of 'roni, and piled high with Wasabi Chee-tos (made in house daily), then roll it all up, dip it in our special buttermilk beer batter, and double deep fry it 'til it's extra crispy. Your ASPL is made to order, and sliced tableside for an experience you won't soon forget. (Have it smothered in Guy's Famous Famous Jalapeno Mexicali Cole Slaw for just an extra 3 bucks)
$37
jesteinf wrote:And Guy Fieri bashing is fun! DadBoner has elevated it to an art-form on Twitter. I mean, this is just epic.
MariaTheresa wrote:If you want to sell a brand, then you need to be careful. Fieri has made a name as someone who loves simple food, usually sold at tiny restaurants for low prices. That's his tv personality. If he pins his name on a restaurant that sells $30 plates of bacon-wrapped shrimp, it's not this NY Times review that's going to do in the American Kitchen and Bar (and potentially the Guy Fieri brand); it's the gap between what he presents on tv and what he gives customers on their plates.
at Observer.com, Joshua David Stein wrote:But what makes Mr. Fieri truly reprehensible is that he’s exploited a mythology that appeals to the downtrodden to deliver unto them cholesterol and all its long-tail misery. By advocating an America in which the symbols of our salvation—manufacturing (embodied in those classic cars), rock ’n’ roll (the old guitars), and a return to the rough-hewn America of yore (the vintage flags, the faux taxidermy mounts)—becomes linked inseparably with a place in which pepperoni and mozzarella deserve to be rolled in panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried, where the quantity of sauce on a fry demands even more frying, where chicken alfredo has many thousands of calories, Guy Fieri is using patriotism as a Trojan Horse for his infectious and insidious garbage.