Jonathan Gold and Besha Rodell Don't Agree on The Rose

Welcome to Good News/Bad News on The Rose, chef Jason Neroni's highly anticipated revamp of the 1970s institution done in partnership with Sprout Group. The reviews are rather polarizing, winning Besha Rodell's seal of approval while taking a light beating by Jonathan Gold. So what's the overall word?

J. Gold and B. Rod have different perspectives on pasta

And the pasta here, even the eggy pasta used to make the English pea agnolotti, tends to be distracting: tough, dry, soggy on the surface but barely cooked through. A dish of spaghetti with Dungeness crab and local uni should be luxurious, almost sybaritic. It isn't. [LAT]

Neroni's pastas are up there with the best in the city, and many diners who ate at Superba will recognize his decadent smoked buccatini carbonara, as well as his particularly deft hand with the more pungent ocean creatures and their rightful relationship to noodles. [LAW]

And peas

Baked sugar snap peas were limp, greased rather than flavored by the little mound of whipped lamb fat that came with them. [LAT]

The dish gets a vibrant green broth poured over it, made from parmesan and more sugar snaps, and its garnish of mint and pea tendrils brings extra brightness. And yes, the lamb lardo is just as funky and mouth-coating and bold as you'd think it might be — but somehow, in contrast with the exultant freshness of the other ingredients, it works. It doesn't just work, it's fantastic. And clever. [LAW]

The critics both dig the charcuterie

If you liked Neroni's cured meats at Superba, you will be happy with the charcuterie here: his famous "porchetta di testa," head cheese cured to resemble pastrami; seared thumbs of soft rabbit mortadella served with a fried quail egg; blinding-white lardo with mulberries; and a sweet, butter-smooth chicken-liver mousse with a bit of onion jam — or all of them served on a plank. [LAT]

Neroni has gotten better at charcuterie (and he was pretty good at it to begin with), and the butcher's board is a wonderland of bouncy rabbit mortadella topped with a fried quail egg; chicken liver pâté almost smoky in its meaty depth; various pâtés; a silky, funky porchetta di testa pastrami served with rye toast and pickles; and a feathery pile of "country prosciutto" served with "whipped pimento cheese." [LAW]

But mention better dishes at neighboring restaurants

The crisp black fried rice with squid and aioli is not quite as delicious as its equivalent at Dudley Market a few blocks away, but it is good enough. [LAT]

Lunch provides grain bowls, some pretty good pizzas and a saucy meatball sandwich that only suffers when you compare it to the one around the corner at Gjusta. I can't tell you what magic makes Gjusta's superior, just that it is. [LAW]