Consolidated "Best Restaurants in the World" thread
 

List of the world's 50 best restaurants .... according to "Guardian"

more here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story...463042,00.html

What do you think ...?

Slightly Anglo-Saxon viewpoint, is there not? ONE restaurant from Asia, and that in the ex-colony. And a certain "Guide Michelin" type preference for glitzy surroundings and "traditional" service. But as this is aimed at British readers, why not?

I think most of the 600 chefs and experts on this panel were english in england, given a choice of 100 restaurants, 50 of which were in england.

The Ivy takes the cake.

I'm not that big on gordon ramsey, even.

Sydney Restaurant
 

Well IMO Claudes is way better than Tetsuyas.

Claudes tasting menu is always fantastic.

www.claudes-dev.tnd.com.au

This list is quite ridiculous..... The Wolseley? The Ivy? Nobu London? These are all good restaurants but world's best??

Oddly there is no mention of Taillevent, Paris nor Daniel in New York. Or a bona fide Japanese or Chinese restaurant.......

I echo luxury's sentiments... It's like the author did research by reading tourist guides instead of actually dining at these establishments.

I know these wouldn't be on my 50: Chez Panisse (tired), Nobu London (nothing special), Felix (maybe judged on the special urinals - otherwise should be like 10,000).

Any thoughts on El Bulli? We're going there end of this month. Talked to a lot of people who have dined there, but none fairly recently. I'm hoping we can speed the course by course service up a bit as my husband has a bad back & can't sit for 3 hours or more straight...

Nice! Sour grapes here... I sent an e-mail to them last year but was dinged. Give us a report when you get back.

for those of us who speak American not English:

what is dinged?

ding like ring or like dinje? ( i know dinje is not a word but if i wrote dinge would you get my pronunciation?)

what does it mean?

thank you

I actually made a reservation for the wrong month... oops!! Was thrilled to receive a confirmation until I realized my MAJOR istake. Emailed them back & there was nothing at the time, but 2 weeks late, 'an opportunity arose.' I was in shock - never expected to get one, let alone two reservations after screwing things up so badly. I promise to report back! The car & driver there alone is 340E round-trip - yikes! But I heard the road is impossible up to the restaurant & I want to enjoy some wonderful wine(s)!

Well, officially a joke in my opinion. In the last month or so Ive eaten at Angela Hartnett and the Wolseley. Eaten at the Ivy a number of times as well as many of the others such as Grammercy Tavern. All good, and I would recommend to anyone. But not are even in the same class as Taillevent, Ducasse in New York or Le Bernardin. Interestingly, one they didnt mention in England, Gidleigh Park in Devon is quantum leaps above Angela Harnett or the Wolsely. Likewise, putting Grammercy Tavern ahead of L'Arpege and Angela Hartnett right next to it is ridiculous. I could name a bunch of restaurants, not on the list, in New York alone that I would say are better than the Ivy for instance, that arent on the list; just for starters and in no particular order:

Ducasse
Daniel
Le Bernardin
Tabla
Honmura An
Kai
Jacks Luxury Oyster Bar
Jewel Bako
11 Madison
Picholine
Balthazar
Mix
Vong


Well, you get the idea.....

For those that might be interested in a report I wrote about five years back on the Fat Duck (and a few other things). I will say it was a memorable experience.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179661

From the urban dictionary:

1. dinged
To get rejected, usually from a graduate school.
"Man, I got dinged yesterday. The decision letter came in a small and thin envelope."

Here is a recent article - unfortunately in German - about the "Fat Duck"

http://www.zeit.de/2005/24/Siebeck_2fKolumne_London_1

The author is a famous food critic in Germany/Europe .. he was not "thrilled" about the restaurant and the food .. to say the least.

Or the country, it appears. Half the article didn't have anything to do with the restaurant but rather to do with badmouthing England (and it's football teams and it's car manufacturing plants). While he obviously didn't like the restaurant, he came across as having an agenda to prove that the list was biased and that Germans should have had a better showing. I will certainly say it was different. Not generally my style (give me a good bowl of soup noodles any day and I am happy enough) but glad I had an opportunity to go.