Metacritic-Rezensionen

A sharp, upbeat, well-wrought meditation on love and race that kicks the new year in movies off to a terrific start.

Tom Cudworth's script nails the ale-drenched details of twentysomething existence.

The film gets an "A" for effort, but doesn't have the courage to really get as bloody, messy and dirty as its subject matter inherently is.

It takes very good actors to convey this kind of nuance, and the cast of Restaurant does consistently splendid work.

Solid performances, capable visuals, and the honesty of the interracial subject matter make Restaurant stand out from the typical "I'm an artist, not really a waiter" pack.

If Restaurant feels like a high-caliber TV drama, it's one that tries to pack an entire season (plus pilot, plus backstory) into one episode.

Cudworth's script gives the characters more depth than is the genre norm, and the ensemble acting is terrific.

Director Eric Bross has a smooth nonstyle that serves him well until the screenplay turns melodramatic at the end.

Pretty familiar stuff, but the performances--by Adrien Brody, Elise Neal, Simon Baker-Denny, and Lauryn Hill--are relatively fresh and sincere.

It's hard to think of a single memorable line from Restaurant, even a memorably bad one.