Donna Covrett

Cincy Sharp puts a fine point on it.

Because a good portion of my job included critiquing restaurants, we thought it would be fun to turn the tables and invite chefs and restaurateurs to critique me. So we created a Sunday night pop-up dinner, invited a few dozen restaurant industry folk, charged them money, and handed out score sheets. We asked them to be honest. They were.

Donna Covrett's final review.

At the six-and-a-half acre Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, things can get really wild.

There’s a seat in Zula that may be the best of the nearly 1,200 or so found within the four-block radius of restaurants and bars surrounding it.

Kaze showcases many dishes and traditions of Japan, but it’s a stretch to identify it singularly as a Japanese restaurant. It has roots in an *izakaya* eatery, best defined as casual gastropub or small plate restaurant, traditionally serving noodles, skewered meats, sushi, and sake (*izakaya* translates somewhat to “hang out in a sake shop”), but Kaze still has one foot in the great American canon of hearty main courses.

Local restaurateurs Dan and Lana Wright and their restaurant Abigail Street star in an episode of America's Best Bites, a new series on Cooking Channel.

Wassim Matar circles his dining room with assured ease and a wide smile. A poised emcee, he graciously extends a smooth manicured hand to meet the diners crowding the tables of his eight-month-old restaurant, throwing back his head in hearty laughter when a customer blithely faults the housemade pita bread for his “food baby” waistline.