Restaurant reviews - an interesting art

I've read restaurant reviews at least since the mid seventies. Some of us used to follow a couple of writers to hole in the wall restaurants of many cultures in the very large Los Angleles area.

Reviewers taught me a lot over the years. Sometimes I'd confuse the reviewer with myself, as in movie reviews. On movie reviews, I was amazed when Paulene Kael, back in her day, wrote what I thought in better language than mine. On food reviews, my favorites were in the old LA Herald Examiner - those were the ones that found great small restaurants. Now I read a lot of food bloggers and newspaper restaurant reviewers like the SF Chronicle's Michael Bauer, and am starting to follow sites like Yelp and Chowhound - all as a kind of hobby, just to follow what's happening.

Which brings me to the first review lately that has struck me as a effort towards satire, if not mastery of it, somewhat mean, but acknowledging of an institution, the recent review by NYTimes critic Sam Sifton on the restaurant, Nello.


Do you follow any food reviewers?