Originally Posted by
pinniped
It'd be interesting to break this down a bit further.
If you live in a city that has quite a few Michelin stars, have the restaurants in that class gotten better or worse over time?
If you live in a city that has a vibrant streetfood or food truck scene, has that level of eatery gotten better or worse?
Have your mom & pop sidewalk cafes gotten better or worse?
(Not exactly food...
) how has your local craft brew, wine, or cocktail scene evolved?
And finally: what about just access to good fresh groceries, farmer's markets, local meats, etc.?
My $0.02 is that things have improved over time across most categories...only thing I can't really comment on is the Michelin star level. (Michelin won't give my favorite burnt-ends shack any stars...total hose job.
)
In my opinion, things have either gone down at the upper end, or my expectations have gotten too high. I think I've been some form of disappointed in about half of my Michelin star meals over the past year.
Don't know what constitutes the lowest of the low end, but my recent meals at some American places haven't been bad at all, utterly defying my expectations that I would probably get crap.
One example - a place called Molly's Kitchen near the Anaheim Convention Center. Just a non-descript restaurant in a nearby hotel (think it might have been the Best Western, don't remember) and I was expecting an enormous, American-sized portion of mediocre food. Couldn't have been more surprised - it was a normal sized portion, tasted fine, and the service was excellent.