Today's announcement that Sam Sifton would be soon stepping down as the Times Restaurant Critic (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/sam-sifton-new-york-times_n_960540.html) has prompted many to look back over the new National Editor's two years on the food beat. Reuters media critic Felix Salmon was quick to condemn Sifton's record (http://twitter.com/#!/felixsalmon/status/113682362105212929) via Twitter, even suggesting that its mediocrity was grounds for the Times to hire from outside this time.With the end in sight, it seems safe to say that Sifton will not go down in history as one of the Times' best restaurant critics. At his worst, his star ratings felt (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/dining/reviews/12rest.html) arbitrary (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/dining/reviews/04rest.html?pagewanted=all) and his prose was overwrought. Our friends at Eater loved compiling his bon mots into slideshows of purple decadence (http://ny.eater.com/archives/2011/07/finding_moments_of_zen_in_sam_siftons_restaurant_reviews_1.php). He never wrote a review as gleefully mean as Frank Bruni's uproarious review of Ninja (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/dining/26rest.html) or as incisive as Ruth Reichl's famous review of Le Cirque (http://personals.nymag.com/blog/4399/post_74915.html?dcb=personals.nymag.com).More... (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/sam-siftons-restaurant-reviews_n_961004.html)
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