1.5 Stars Out of 4 for Legal Crossing and More Reviews

"When Legal Crossing is at its best, it is because someone in the kitchen really knows how to cook seafood," writes Devra First in a one-and-a-half star Globe review (out of four). "Maybe that person isn't always in the kitchen." While there are some highlights, there are "too many dishes" with "overcooked, or oddly cooked, fish," and there's the trying-to-be-edgy cocktail list that gives of a "whiff of misogyny and objectification," not to mention the "managerial type" calling waitresses "idiots" in earshot of diners. The inclusion of brownie dust with a "run-of-the-mill sticky toffee cake" baffles First. "There is no brownie on the menu. Is this kitchen baking brownies for the sheer purpose of pulverization? Is that not a crime against baked goods?" [BG]

First also writes a "Quick Bite" overview this week, peeking into new restaurant-meets-art-gallery Liquid Art House, which features a menu offering "flavors from Eastern Europe, Asia, and beyond." (One menu highlight: Green Circle chickens, which "might eat better than you.") The scene includes "one of the prettiest [bars] in town," plus "flickering candles, orchids, the smell of perfume." There's a chandelier that "looms like an ornate spider," and "Draco Malfoy's good twin is drinking at the bar with his boyfriend." [BG]

When the first Bondir opened almost four years ago, it was a "shy miracle," writes Corby Kummer for Boston Magazine. It was a "heartfelt restaurant" that had "a sincerity that shone through even complicated or stilted presentations." Kummer heads out to Concord to Bondir's newer sibling and finds it "just as earnest as the original, but with the awkward-to-graceful ratio much higher than it was in the early Cambridge days." While Bondir Cambridge has been "honed...to seemless perfection," Bondir Concord could benefit from "a bit more boldness, married with restraint." But there are at least some good things happening already: "There are plenty of flavor revelations to go around." [BM]