Pete Wells

• King
• Foxface
• Mercado

"A friend who has made herself a regular at the SoHo restaurant King sums up its appeal, with deep approval, as “food on a plate in a room.” This undersells the place — King offers much more than that — but she has a point."

"The restaurant, which opened in September, is not a show-off. The dining room is small, tidy and nearly square, painted the pale color of butter in the winter. Windows stretching to the ceiling along the north wall look out on the dormered Federal townhouses of King Street. The facing wall is broken up with a single abstract painting, a doorway to the kitchen and a long opening behind which the four people who make up the entire kitchen staff can be seen at work. It is a room content with being just a room, and letting you focus on the people you’re with and the food that’s on the plate."

Pete Wells, NYTimes