Butter-poached lobster with beárnaise mousseline at Per Se (Photograph: Roxana Marroquin)

Jay Cheshes dines on the new lounge menu at Per Se, which “may be the city’s most tepid recession concession.” Large prices and small portions make for a three (out of five) star experience. [TONY]

The Southern-fried joint The Brooklyn Star, run by Momofuku alum Joaquin Baca, gets three stars from TONY: “The iced tea flows, Johnny Cash croons, and seriously hospitable servers shuttle some of Williamsburg’s most satisfying low-country grub.” [TONY]

The dive-bar formula fails to translate to Prospect Heights at two-star The Manhattans. TONY finds “the undistinguished interior…is like a slovenly fratboy’s dream house. And the beer selection is as negligible as the decor.” [TONY]

Frank Bruni visits Terrance Brennan’s “calculating, somewhat cynical operation” in Tribeca, writing, “cheese animates and dominates Bar Artisanal—and helps give it what modest appeal it has.” [NYT]

To celebrate the Fourth of July, Alan Richman tries a “feat of biblical proportions”: to eat his way through the entire menu of his childhood favorite Katz’s Delicatessen. He only gets a third of the way before claiming that “I’m not sure any man alive has ever eaten so much terrible food.” [GQ]

With a dining room recently opened to the public, the Croatian Rudar Soccer Club hosts Robert Sietsema, 15 friends and facilitates their “enormous gastronomic and alcoholic intake.” [VV]

Shauna Lyon manages to get a reservation at the resurrected “claustrophobe-celeb” Minetta Tavern. The “modern-nostalgic speakeasy” cocktails may be “more fun to read about than to drink,” but “the rightful star is the much talked about $26 Black Label burger.” [The New Yorker]

“DBGB-LISH,” screams Steve Cuozzo. The new Daniel Boulud “for the masses” may be working out “DBugs” (while Cuozzo works out his puns), but “the flops come in dribbles, the hits come in torrents.” [NYP]

Danyelle Freeman samples the authentic Mexican “hybrid of street food and family-style cooking” from Mesa Coyoacan in Williamsburg. “Garcia’s [black mole sauce] is phenomenally flavorful. It’s a 37-ingredient mole that requires its own chef” gushes Restaurant Girl, and awards it three stars. [NYDN]