A Day in the Life of a One-Star Restaurant Rating
Our view of Mission Cantina recently. Photo credit: Julia Bainbridge
New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells dropped his review of chef Danny Bowien's Lower East Side restaurant, Mission Cantina, last night. He gave it one star.
This, it should be noted, is not bad, per se. New York Times stars “ratings range from zero to four stars and reflect the reviewer’s reaction primarily to food, with ambience, service and price taken into consideration,” states the newspaper after each review. Mission Cantina could have gotten no stars, or could have been skipped over for review. But, as this is New York City, packed with restaurants and egos and lots and lots of feelings, le star is being made out to be A Big Deal.
Let’s talk about what’s happened since the review hit the Internet. Welcome to A Day in the Life of a One-Star Restaurant Rating.
The review, the bad:
Referencing the $10 menu items, Wells wrote: “[W]hile much of the nonconformist Mexican food at Mission Cantina is curiously unsatisfying, the disappointment does not sting the way it would if the prices were higher.”
"[W]hile some of the food can be remarkable and original, a surprising number of things do fizzle on this menu, a book of wet matches from a chef who can make sparks shoot from his fingertips."
"The parts didn’t go back together again, like a clock taken apart by a 5-year-old," wells wrote of the main ingredients in Bowien’s tacos.
"Later in the meal, a rotisserie chicken, good if not earth moving, came with rice so greasy I put down my fork."
The review, the good:
"I would run back for the fried chicken wings, dusted with a spice mix that’s like a dehydrated mole poblano, down to the sesame seeds and chocolate. Mexican cousins of the magnificent ones from Mission Chinese Food, the wings are one of the few dishes in which Mission Cantina pushes so hard against the original cuisine that it breaks through to the other side. Crunchy, fiery and messy, they are both recognizable and new."
"There’s almost nothing recognizably Mexican about the bowl of supple, tender collards braised in beer above fluffy, creamy masa treated like grits. With an angry orange sluice of hot sauce on top, this masa is Southern, if it’s anything, and it’s so good I ordered a second bowl while I was still spooning up the first, shaking my head over the profound corn flavor."
"Making masa from scratch is not, to put it mildly, the easiest way to run a Mexican restaurant. If you are running an inexpensive Mexican restaurant on the Lower East Side, it’s almost lunatic. And it’s awesome. It tastes like a promise from Mr. Bowien that one day everything on the menu will soar to its level."
The user comments, nytimes.com:
"Ouch. Apparently, I won’t be eating here."
"[T]his review is clearly off. There’s nothing here which would make me want to eat at this restaurant. It’s cheap? So what? Foodwise, NYC is the king of cheap AND good."
“‘For those prices, you don’t grumble too loudly when a dish fizzles.’ And yet there’s a bit of grumbling in this review. One star? Really?”
"One star, based on what’s written, seems generous."
“‘It tastes like a promise from Mr. Bowien that one day everything on the menu will soar to its level.’ Ickily reminiscent of the manner in which disappointed-but-still-proud-dad’s-words-of-wisdom are doled out in the final moments of traditional sitcoms. And probably this sentiment is misplaced, no? Mr. Bowien opened two vaguely Chinese restaurants about 3,000 miles apart, and before the 2nd one’s mouse problems have been resolved, he’s opened a vaguely Mexican joint. It seems more likely that he’ll open, say, a vaguely Norwegian spot in Las Vegas rather than focus on perfecting Misson Cantina.”
The tweets:
This, to those of you who both don’t live in New York and aren’t food writers (99.9% of you, we’re guessing), is but a whisper of activity compared to the usual cries and screams. Still, Guy Fieri-level backlash or not, you’d be surprised what one star (again! not bad!) can do for a restaurant in New York. (See: the flurry of excitement over M Wells Steakhouse in Long Island City.)
We’ll be watching Mission Cantina to see whether or not diners continue to pack the restaurant. From our seat inside. While we nosh on the wings. Because they’re freaking fabulous.
