Devra First Pans Society on High

Devra First's meals at Society on High would "begin well" before "things begin to fall apart," enough to garner only one of four possible stars. The Globe critic says the "overdone and overly salty" pork chop "doesn't deserve" the "excellent server." A rib eye has "plenty of flavor," but the potatoes served with it are "a bit of nostalgia for childhood paste-eaters." One redemption: "friendly bartenders and strong cocktails." To First, Ian Just's third restaurant (he is reportedly selling his other two, Sorriso and Les Zygomates) was started with "real ambitions," but "they aren't being realized." [BG]

Marc Hurwitz, of Boston's Hidden Restaurants, visits China King and is happy to find so much of what he loved about the owners' prior Chinatown Restaurant, King Fung Garden. He recommends the signature dish, a $40 Peking duck meal that "will easily be enough for a table of four," and the pork bun appetizer, which consists of "seasoned pork and delicious broth inside of thick wrappers." Another "highlight" is the Shanghai chow mein, a "fabulous dish (with) thick and chewy noodles." Hurwitz notes that those in the restaurant business have "already discovered the place." [BHR]

Brand new restaurant Beat Hôtel is "a sensory overload of high-concept eating, drinking and entertainment," according to Luke O'Neil ("the decor is a bit like what might happen if Urban Outfitters designed a restaurant," said his friend.) In this week's Thursty column in the Metro, O'Neil feels the food and drink at the Harvard Square establishment will "meet, if not exceed, the quality standard set by The Beehive," its sister restaurant in the South End. Cocktails are "craft-populist" (a Manhattan variant called Granny Takes a Trip) and sometimes eclectic (the Rum Cha Chen includes Thai tea infused rum and condensed milk syrup). O'Neil notes the menu "seem(s) a bit over-priced, but that's likely to correct itself within time." [Metro]