Two and a Half Stars for Cafe Barjot; the New Lark and Stateside Shine

The past two weeks, the city's restaurant critics have reviewed Cafe Barjot, the new Lark, and Stateside. Here's a roundup of what they're saying:

Providence Cicero finds a neighborhood gem in Capitol Hill's six-month-old Cafe Barjot: "[it's] so diminutive that I hesitate to call attention to it...But good food demands attention...Niçoise, picholine and Castelvetrano olives lolled in a warm oil bath fragrant with citrus, herbs and spice. Sauerkraut showed up again among other pickled things: hot peppers, shredded carrots, daikon and a scene-stealing, whole, soft-cooked egg. If you can’t get enough of that sauerkraut (and I can’t), it also accompanies excellent pork sausage and oven-roasted potatoes." Two and a half stars. [ST]

Nicole Sprinkle visits the newly reopened, more spacious Lark, and finds the portions small but the fare mostly stunning: "Appetizers feel more like bites, entrées like appetizers. Yet nearly everything Sundstrom and his crew send out is a refined balance of creative flair and flawless execution . . . The burrata with charred leeks, olives, and olive-oil croutons is some of the best of that cheese you’ll ever find, oozy as ice cream melting off a cone in the hot sun and lightly but necessarily salted."[SW]

At  Vietnamese hot spot, Stateside, Kathryn Robinson is enamored by the service, among other things: "[While Stateside cuisine is not fusion,] if it’s thrills you’re after, opt for dishes where Johnson presses the playful interpretations further: embellishing shingles of amberjack crudo with tangy lime leaf powder and a perfumy ice of bergamot oranges, for instance, or pairing soy--lacquered beef short ribs with classic French sweet celeriac puree and a tart mix of green apple, ginger, and jalapeños—a textural and flavorful masterpiece, at once buoyant and down to earth. Which brings me to service: as down-to-earth as exists in this town. Every server and host we encountered was adept, unaffected, kind, and funny without being hilarious . . . They were, in short, as careful as the kitchen. And that’s saying a ton." [SM]