Restaurant Critic Roundup: High-Minded Hot Pockets, San Diego

As always, the ratings range from stars to bells to beans, but every review offers specialized insight into the food, atmosphere, and service of eateries in each city's dining scene and the critics eating at them.

First up, New York City: restaurant critic Pete Wells finally found his perfect hole-in-the-wall, a quiet sushi bar in TriBeCa that lets its food speak for itself. In fact, though it's been open since April, the restaurant didn't even have a name until last week when the operators learned Wells was writing a review. (For the record, it's now called Ichimura at Brushstroke.)

Keli Dailey didn't have the same eye-opening experience at San Diego's Cusp. Not that anything was bad, necessarily. It's just that the menu, what Dailey calls "Mediterranean soft-sell," was conspicuously lacking any showstoppers. He mentions the "high-minded Hot Pockets" and, most notably, the lack of a dinner burger.

Washington, D.C. is famous for its Ethiopian restaurant scene, and Gebeta doesn't disappoint. What's most important to Tom Sietsema is that Gebeta doesn't get lost in the crowd. He said it provides an experience that's both authentic and unique at the same time, from the menu items to the hot towels at the end of the meal.

From the East to the West, from North to South, the weekly restaurant critic roundup is here for all of your dining out needs. 

Restaurant Critic Roundup: 9/26/12

Check out last week's Restaurant Critic Roundup.