Garr Has Rice 'Epiphany' at Taj Palace, But Still Only Rates Restaurant an 86

"Little things mean a lot. Even something as little as a grain of rice can mean a lot." That's what she said. Or rather that's what you wished she said. But actually it's what Robin Garr wrote in the intro to his LEO Weekly review of Taj Palace. And while the alt-weekly still publishes Garr's take scoreless, he posted one on his Hot Bytes forum (ain't editorial control wonderful!). Would you like to know what the score is? It's an 86:

Trust me on this, folks. I love Indian food, and I'm a fan of Taj, which has survived a journey around three East End locations. I go there fairly often. But the other night, sampling a bite of simple, extra-long-grain basmati rice from a side platter, I suddenly experienced what philosophers call an epiphany, a sudden, almost spiritual insight into the deeper meaning of things. Specifically, rice. And Taj Palace. [LEO Weekly]

Two-and-a-half stars (out of 4), "good," was all that Marty Rosen saw fit to sprinkle on Cafe 27 in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Chef Zachary Wolf's menu offers a well-considered variety of dishes at moderate prices, and he often shows a fine eye for colorful presentations. A roasted corn and steak salad ($9) is a case in point: Multi-colored lettuces make a bright frame for a yellow scoop of roasted corn, chunks of red and green bell peppers, and slices of grilled flat-iron steak. As described on the menu, the dish sports Asian flair, with a sesame Thai dressing, but a preferable alternative might be the house-made bourbon-maple vinaigrette. But sometimes appearances are deceiving. An order of crab cakes — three, of good size — had a crisp golden finish that was set off nicely by red-gold sweet chili sauce, but it was hard to detect much crab flavor in the soft innards — probably because the ratio of crab to filler was pretty low ($8). [Louisville Courier-Journal]

For the local newspaper voted most likely to resemble a high school yearbook, The Voice-Tribune, Robin Garr reviewed Marketplace at Theater Square. He scored it a 92 on his forum, two points higher than what he rated the restaurant in 2011 for LEO Weekly:

I sipped an intriguing Prosecco-based, orange-scented cocktail ($10) as we started our meal with crusty artisan baguette and butter, then moved on to two excellent apps: Four fine golden rounds of fried green tomato ($9) on greens and corn, kicked up with a spicy Sriracha aioli; and a bowl of pan-roasted brussels sprouts ($9) bathed in a tart-sweet Bourbon hoisin sauce with dried cherries. A spinach salad ($8) with local Sheltowee Farm mushrooms, bacon and gorgonzola was fine. [Voice-Tribune]

·All Week in Reviews [~ELOU~]

[Photo: Courtesy Facebook/Taj Palace]