What the experts recommend: TV chefs who still care

Craft Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio is so popular, he could easily “rest on his laurels and let his name bring in the crowds,” said S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times. Yet this spacious “power-lunch spot,” a 3-year-old spinoff of the original Craft in New York, “continues to be a serious restaurant with seriously good food.” Expert execution and superb ingredients are the keys to great contemporary American cooking, and Colicchio’s staff delivers. Plates are big and served family style. To start, try the frisée salad or the braised octopus—thinly sliced and served with diced potato and mint vinaigrette. Among main courses, the meat dishes are best, both well sourced and cooked to perfection. A locally grown lamb sirloin is roasted to a “deep, rosy pink and almost velvety in texture”—just another example of Colicchio’s getting “all the details right.” 10100 Constellation Blvd., (310) 279-4180

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Del Posto

New York

Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich’s “temple to Italian cooking” followed a bumpy road to greatness, said Sam Sifton in The New York Times. When the two celebrity chefs opened this “24,000-square-foot palazzo of mahogany and marble” five years ago, critics faulted everything from the theatrical service to the presence of a piano, which they deemed “suburban and twee.” But following some fine-tuning of its menu and space, Del Posto last month became the first Italian restaurant to receive four stars in the Times since 1974. Located on the edge of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, it has become a place to sit in luxury “while eating food that bewilders and thrills.” Among the “insanely good” pastas are a spaghetti with Dungeness crab, jalapeño, and scallion. Luxurious main dishes include a “complicated plate of grilled pork and head cheese with peas and mint.” Picky diners had given up on Del Posto; they’ll be back now. 85 10th Ave., (212) 497-8090

Garces Trading Co.

Philadelphia

In his new BYOB restaurant, Iron Chef Jose Garces is testing just how casual fine dining can get, said Craig LaBan in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The dining area at Garces Trading Co. almost “resembles a food court” because it’s ringed by sleek, glass-walled shops selling meats, cheeses, and pastries to stop-in customers. Before dinner, you can even pick up a nice Garnacha at an in-house wine store. “But once you’re seated, this is very much a full-service Garces experience, from the fine stemware” to the sometimes too-precious presentations. Most dishes are keepers—including a truffled potato-leek purée of vichyssoise that is “poured tableside over sea-sweet scallops and duck-fat-poached fingerling potatoes.” Rich deep-dish pizzas pay homage to Garces’ hometown of Chicago. And don’t miss the chorizo-studded rabbit paella. It’s now “among my favorite things to eat in the city.” 1111 Locust St., (215) 574-1099