Well Deserved Highly Rated Restaurants
 

Since there is an active thread about overrated restaurants, I thought it might be equally interesting to have one where the restaurant lives up to its hype. I'll bet we find significantly more disagreement here than in the other thread.

Here are a couple.

San Francisco,
Michael Mina

Santa Barbara
Bouchon

New Orleans
Commander's Palace
Emeril's

CityZen in D.C.

Here are mine.
 

Gary Danko in SF: phenomenal food, great service, reasonable prices (for a high-end place)

Daniel in NYC: incredible experience and great food

Alto, Gilt (NYC)
Roussillon (London)
Taillevent (Paris)
Laurie Raphael (Quebec/Montreal)
Enoteca Pinchiorri (Florence)
Patrick Guilbaud (Dublin)

And agree that CityZen (DC) and Daniel (NYC) are pretty darn good too.

DB Bistro (also by Daniel) in NYC is excellent too. Best Tarte Flambee I've had outside of Alsace (and that includes Paris).

Agree with Michael Mina. Expensive for what you get, so I think Gary D's is a better deal. But MM's food is fantastic, no question about it.

Commander's Palace is amazingly good. Huge portion size, also, not like the California dainty little portions. We were very impressed.

Coi - San Francisco

Have to disagree with Gary Danko though. Great good - horrible, overbearing service in an awful space. Remove half the tables and then I might go back.

Would agree and add Sanderin.

I disagree with Emeril's.

I agree about Gary Danko -- just a wonderful dining experience!!
I also agree with Taillevent in Paris -- probably the finest dining experience I have ever had.

I would add:

Beittedine, London -- some of the best Lebanese food I have had
Benares, London -- very good, albeit expensive, new Indian cuisine
Hiramatsu, Paris
Benoit, Paris
Lai Wah Heen, Toronto
Matsuhisa, Los Angeles
Charlie Palmer Steak, Las Vegas
Yew, Vancouver
Jade, Singapore

I thought Coi was totally weird. It is neat though, with the 11-12 course meal. But the flavors were totally strange--like soy sauce and cherries, fish with chocolate, etc. Just very strange stuff. Maybe it's changed now. I was there about 1 year ago.

Where is Jade in Singapore? I hope it's not Crystal Jade.

A few
 

Not necessarily the best meals I ever had, but lived up to expectations and in many cases surpassed, in no particular order:
Combal.Zero in Torino
China Blue at Conrad in Tokyo
Made in China in Beijing
(way back in the day) Spice Market in Bangkok
the main Chinese restaurant in the Grand Stanford in Hong Kong
Xu in Ho Chi Minh

On a less happy note Gordon Ramsay in Tokyo is perhaps the most disappointing meal I've had anywhere in world (although I don't think it ever got rated high enough that I should have been surprised.) The whatever it is in the Grand Hyatt in Shinjuku is a close second for that "award?" And that was long before Bill Murray supposedly got lost there.
best
adg

+1

I would have to disagree with Michael Mina. For the type of food they are trying to produce at their prices, there are a handful of other restaurants I'd rather go to. I would definitely go to Gary Danko (see below) over Michael Mina. Also, those trying to get a quiet dinner may be surprised at the noise level.

I would agree about the great service and reasonable prices (for that type of place) but I would never say phenomenal food. Consistent and good food, yes. In fact, I was tempted to put Gary Danko in the overrated thread, but in general they somewhat live up to their hype.

I agree on Daniel in NYC. Very good food/experience.
I would add Tru in Chicago. I had an incredible tasting menu meal there in November. It was worth every penny.

Going to Daniel this weekend. I was there around 8 years ago.

If I had known what you say about Tru, I would have gone there instead of C Trotters. We went to C Trotters instead because it is so "famous", but what a totally average meal for $155/per person prix fixe. We were going to go to Tru, but we spent so much money at Trotters and did not have such a great meal, we decided to save our cash instead.

Bang for the Buck
 

There are so many different factors. Per -Se in NY is now $275 USD per person (Service Included) and 47/48 of the people I know who have eaten there have had nothing but good things to say about the experience. It's not an average tuesday night kind of place, though.

Jean George

Daniel/Cafe Bouloud/db Bistro (From Fanciest to less formal)

La Grenouille

Probably means Jade at the Fullerton, the place that invented
cocoa-crusted ribs.

Good evening, all.

The topic is "Well Deserved Highly Rated Restaurants." I know that readers of this forum will enjoy reading -- and even having a spirited but civil discussion -- about that topic.

However, personal attacks and off-topic discussions of who is foolish and wise, etc., etc., don't add very much. If you must jab at each other, please take it to PM. Hence, posts that veered us away from our enjoyable, civil, and fun forum (or responses thereto) have been deleted.

Thank you,

cblaisd
Moderator, Dining Buzz

Jade is in the Fullerton Hotel.

http://www.fullertonhotel.com/dining/outlet/jade.html

Have to disagree on Commander's Palace. I was impressed by it in the 1990's when it was regarded one of the top 10 restaurants in the US (I seem to recall it ranked #6 at one point).

However, my visit to CP after the reopening post-Katrina was rather disappointing. Service standards were not as high as before and the food, while not bad, was not exciting nor particularly well prepared, either.

Hopefully they have improved since, but based on that experience, CP certainly did not live up to its reputation.

Cheers,
T.

I feel Chez Dominique in Helsinki is certainly worth the buzz. Food-wise it beats any other two-star place I have visited and the service is superb. And especially their lunch is a fantastic value.

Dinner is quite expensive, but that is to be expected.

Cheers,
T.

I would like to visit Scandanavia one day. I will definitely check this place out if I go. I also want to visit Stockholm and Copenhagen. Do you know of comparable places there?

Noma in Copenhagen is a must-go. Two stars, rated the tenth best restaurant in the world last year (Chez Dominique was 38th or so). There are ten or so one-star places in Copenhagen.

Stockholm has two two-star places, but one of them (Edsbacka Krog) is closing down this February. The other one is Mathias Dahlgren at the Grand Hotel. Five one star places, the most notable probably Espresso which was selected as the Swedish restaurant of the year.

Helsinki has three one-star affairs in addition to Chez Dominique. Two of them (Demo and Postres) are very good, in my opinion. The remaining one (Carma) I don't much care for.

There is quite a bit of discussion about Helsinki restaurants in the Scandinavia forum.

Cheers,
T.

Gramercy Tavern, Per Se in NYC.

San Francisco - both Michael Mina and Gary Danko have been great in my experience.

D.C. - CityZen

NYC - Momofuku Ko. Probably the best meal I have ever had. And at $100 for the tasting menu it is a great deal.

Boston/New England - O ya, Craigie on Main, Fore Street in Portland

London - Marcus Wareing

Ubuntu in Napa. It still flies a little under the radar for omnivores such as myself, but the restaurant serves great vegetarian food and one doesn't miss meat while eating there. My vegetarian fiancee loves the place. Wine list has some fun picks.

Dining Room @ the Ritz in SF. "I-Ron" Chef Siegel combines some Japanese ingredients and techniques with mostly French techniques. Service is uniformly formal but if your waiter perceives you to want a more chatty/friendly service they will do so naturally. A good waiter should pick up on these things. Food is best from their choice of tasting menus.

La Folie in SF. This fits the bill as one of the best "value" but very high-end French restaurants in the city. Those who complain about puny portion sizes, never seem to do so at La Folie. This restaurant also flies a little bit under the radar but is an easy safe choice.

A common thread about these restaurants is that there aren't much "hype" about these restaurants compared to their competitors.

Sorry to hear that. Our visits were all pre-Katrina. Do they still have the Bread Pudding Souffle? That was one of the most memorable desserts I have ever had.

F12 in Stockholm is quite good.
http://www.f12.se/
http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/gui...nt-detail.html

I also thought Emeril's was just so-so.

My favorite is Le Pre Catelan in Paris.

I went to Ubuntu once. That was one of the most expensive meals I've ever eaten if you look at money spent/weight of food ratio. I was starving when I left and had dropped around $50/person for lunch with no alcohol. I went looking for a slice of pizza afterwards.

I would like to go back to the Dining room. I agree, that was a great place. The presentation and setting is quite spectacular. The food did not blow me away. It was excellent food, but not a stunner.

I have been to La Folie twice, and I have always enjoyed it. I think their food is quite excellent.

I recently enjoyed the food at ARIA in sydney and can fully recommend it to anyone.

Completely lived up to the hype imo.

Very expensive, but well worth it for a special occasion.

tito's tacos, los angeles.

A few that I have truly much enjoyed:

El Bulli, Roses, Spain
Tetsuya, Sydney
Mozaic, Bali
Cityzen, Washington DC
Le Bernardin, New York City
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Paris

El Bulli?! Lordy...how the hell do you get a reservation there? (I'm green with envy)

Tetsuya is pretty impressive. Next time you are in Aus try the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld 2.5 hours drive out of Melbourne. The chef/owner Dan Hunter was formerly an Executive Chef an Mugaritz in San Sebastian - For me it's up there with Tetusya

My trip report from 2008:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...en-w-pics.html

West in Vancouver, BC Canada

+many to Mozaic, although friends said they were recently overwhelmed by Russian mobsters sitting at the next table there. The food remained excellent, however, and evening was still success, if not quite what they had first imagined.
The russians apparently had the tasting plus wines, and then some.
adg

Interesting sidenote from a different thread (overrated restaurants) -- somebody here seems to hate elBulli with a gusto.

Cheers,
T.

Another favorite (although may be off the beaten track for many)
Gellius in Oderzo Italy
http://www.ristorantegellius.it/
Outstanding.