Here are some of this week's most noteworthy restaurant reviews from across the country:

Broward-Palm Beach

Cypress Nook

Seeing a group of Floridians try to keep warm in a cold wave is like watching the pope perform a bris: We have absolutely no idea what to do with ourselves in such conditions. All those pained expressions, the shivering, the wardrobe problems -- it's God's cruel joke on a region ordinarily blessed with the best weather in the world. More >>

Dallas

Holy Grail Pub

Just what makes a pub a "pub"?

If we're speaking of an English place, it should serve fish and chips. Most of them list a number of beers and perhaps a few interesting whiskeys. A long wooden bar says "pub," as do library shelves, wooden beams and a decorated mirror. More >>

Sara Kerens

"Large scoops of fried goat cheese perched in a thin layer of tomato basil soup--not your standard pub grub at The Holy Grail"

Houston

Yelapa Playa Mexicana

The Peruvian-style ceviche at Yelapa Playa Mexicana had mahi-mahi, squid and shrimp pieces tossed with "local citrus" fruit and avocados in a mélange seasoned with pasilla chiles and hibiscus. It's one of the most ingenious ceviches I've ever had, if a little on the sweet side, and one of three ceviche variations on the platos crudos section of Yelapa's menu. All three come in your choice of raw, Peruvian-style or fully cooked "Texas-style" versions. More >>

Kansas City

Chez Elle

When the Summit Theatre opened at 17th Street and Summit back in 1913, not even the fanciest dining room in town -- the marble- and gold-leaf-bedecked Pompeian Room in the Hotel Baltimore, which actually held more patrons than the 660-seat Summit Theatre -- offered anything as exotic as crepes. More >>

Los Angeles

Bludso's BBQ

If the fires are burning high and you turn up at the right time of day, the barbecued beef brisket at Bludso's can be as good as barbecue gets -- an impressionist painting of meat, a damp vapor you inhale so fast and so unconsciously that you barely remember you were eating meat at all. More >>

Anne Fishbein

"Thick hunks of cow, cooked long and slow"

Miami

Mandolin Aegean Bistro

Mandolin Aegean Bistro is the sort of petite neighborhood joint that kindles a kinship with diners as soon as they enter. Perhaps this is because the baby-size restaurant makes you almost feel the need to protect it. Plus the former 1940s home is adorably adorned in blue and white (do paint stores in Greece bother to stock any other colors?), and quaintness fills the air as tangibly as extra-virgin Greek olive oil fills vials on each table. More >>