[moonmonkey]

Quite a few surprises here, looks like food in the UK is not that bad if you have a bit of cash.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...462820,00.html


Top 50 places to eat

1 The Fat Duck Bray, Berkshire

2 El Bulli Montjoi, Spain

3 The French Laundry Yountville, California

4 Tetsuya's Sydney

5 Gordon Ramsay London

6 Pierre Gagnaire Paris

7 Per Se New York

8 Tom Aikens London

9 Jean Georges New York

10 St John London

11 Michel Bras Laguiole, France

12 Le Louis XV Monte Carlo

13 Chez Panisse Berkeley, California

14 Charlie Trotter Chicago

15 Gramercy Tavern New York

16 Guy Savoy Paris

17 Restaurant Alain Ducasse Paris

18 The Gallery at Sketch London

19 The Waterside Inn Bray, Berkshire

20 Nobu London

21 Restaurante Arzak San Sebastián, Spain

22 El Raco de Can Fabes San Celoni, Spain

23 Checcino dal 1887 Rome

24 Le Meurice Paris

25 L'Hotel de Ville Crissier, Switzerland

26 L'Arpège Paris

27 Angela Hartnett at the Connaught London

28 Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons Oxford

29 Le Cinq Paris

30 Hakkasan London

31 Cal Pep Barcelona

32 Masa New York

33 Flower Drum Melbourne

34 WD50 New York

35 Le Quartier Francais Franschhoek, South Africa

36 Spice Market New York

37 Auberge de l'Ill Illhaeusern, Alsace

38 Manresa California

39 Restaurant Dieter Muller Begisch Gladbach, Germany

40 La Maison Troisgros Roanne, France

41 The Wolseley London

42 Rockpool Sydney

43 Yauatcha London

44 The Ivy London

45 Gambero Rosso San Vincenzo, Italy

46 The Cliff St James, Barbados

47 Le Gavroche London

48 Enoteca Pinchiorri Florence

49 Felix Hong Kong

50 La Tupina Bordeaux

[tooki]

Maybe they should have consulted chefs outside the U.K.!

The British certainly have some good restaurants, but obviously nowhere near 1/3 of the world's best. Unh-uh, nope.

tooki

P.S. w00t, 8000th post!

[The Godfather]

The Wendy's down my street is in MY top five list.

[E's Lil Theorem]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

...
13 Chez Panisse Berkeley, California

....

I've been to that one. Even though the food was good, I'm pretty sure I've had better. The service is great though, so if you want to impress a lady around here, that's the place to take her.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

i can vouch a few of those NY places are fashionista/look how pretty i am/european men with bright clothing and sunglass/break out the nice jewelry places to eat

but whatever, i vouch for my neighborhood coffee shop where they know my name and they have ketchup in hands reach

[Mithras]

9 Jean Georges New York
13 Chez Panisse Berkeley, California
20 Nobu London (well, New York)
34 WD50 New York

been to these ones, not yet to Masa or Spice Market. Have to say that WD-50 was pretty cool, it was wildly inventive and delicious food.

Like APU, on any given day I'll choose the falafel stand. But on any given day I'm not rich, either. Nothing wrong with having delicious food all the time if you can!

[Mithras]

The top New York one, that "Per Se" restaurant, is a fixed $175 per person + tax + tip + drinks, by the way. I'll go if I've I win the lottery and have had all of my other earthly desires fulfilled.

[ManOfSteal]

14 Charlie Trotter Chicago

Yum.

[Mithras]

Originally Posted by Mithras

The top New York one, that "Per Se" restaurant, is a fixed $175 per person + tax + tip + drinks, by the way. I'll go if I've I win the lottery and have had all of my other earthly desires fulfilled.

Hmmm, and "Masa", #32, is your choice of fixed-price $300 or $500 per person. Guess I won't go there either...

[RonnieoftheRose]

I have been to many of those on the list and they are all crap. Haute Cuisine? It's only hawt if people over business meetings are trying to impress each other. I've eaten better food at small unknown restaurants and the portions were much bigger too. And nothing beats homecooking for value and taste!

[RonnieoftheRose]

Originally Posted by tooki

Maybe they should have consulted chefs outside the U.K.!

The British certainly have some good restaurants, but obviously nowhere near 1/3 of the world's best. Unh-uh, nope.

tooki

P.S. w00t, 8000th post!

Well, yes. London has more restaurants per person than any other city and the most trained chefs too (Tokyo is second). My dad had a restaurant for some time. I'm thinking of opening one myself somewhere near Liverpool Street in a few years. If it does well I'll expand it to four.

[Mithras]

Originally Posted by RonnieoftheRose

I have been to many of those on the list and they are all crap. Haute Cuisine? It's only hawt if people over business meetings are trying to impress each other. I've eaten better food at small unknown restaurants and the portions were much bigger too. And nothing beats homecooking for value and taste!

Listen, I've eaten at a few of these, and like I said I love the falafel place more than anything. But I wouldn't call the food crap -- I had delicious food at the places I went. Not worth $500 for me, but I think it's dumb to pretend that some of these chefs don't make a yummy plate. Just because there's a lot of obnoxious pretension wrapped up on it doesn't mean there isn't an inner core of plain old good food.

[RonnieoftheRose]

Originally Posted by Mithras

a lot of obnoxious pretension wrapped up on it

And don't ask anyone to listen to a post. No can do.

[Eug Wanker]

Maybe they should have consulted chefs outside the U.K.!

Yup.

20 Nobu London

I've been to Nobu in New York. It was very good, but Susur in Toronto is definitely better.

And nowhere else have I seen statues of Colonel Sanders in a restaurant, not even KFC.

[waxcrash]

Originally Posted by ManOfSteal

14 Charlie Trotter Chicago

Yum.

No foie gras for you.

[ManOfSteal]

Originally Posted by waxcrash

No foie gras for you.

Yum Yum.

[Kenneth]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

49 Felix Hong Kong

Not bad.

[ThinkInsane]

Originally Posted by Mithras

The top New York one, that "Per Se" restaurant, is a fixed $175 per person + tax + tip + drinks, by the way. I'll go if I've I win the lottery and have had all of my other earthly desires fulfilled.

Which makes it rather affordable to some of the others listed. I paid $1900 for dinner for four at The French Laundry. And by no means was it worth it. I don't think I've actually dined at anywhere else on the list, giving it a casual glance. And honestly, I can't see myself being in any big rush to change that.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by ThinkInsane

Which makes it rather affordable to some of the others listed. I paid $1900 for dinner for four at The French Laundry. And by no means was it worth it. I don't think I've actually dined at anywhere else on the list, giving it a casual glance. And honestly, I can't see myself being in any big rush to change that.

I spoke to the chef at Susur (where meals are around $200-300 per person with wine), and he only takes his family to places like Chinatown or Koreatown, or anywhere else inexpensive or whatever. In those types of places, for $200 you could feed a family of 4 nicely for three square meals.

[OldManMac]

P. T. Barnum was right.

[Ghoser777]

Exactly what I was thinking.

"Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done."

-- P.T. Barnum

[RonnieoftheRose]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

I spoke to the chef at Susur (where meals are around $200-300 per person with wine), and he only takes his family to places like Chinatown or Koreatown, or anywhere else inexpensive or whatever. In those types of places, for $200 you could feed a family of 4 nicely for three square meals.

Ha. In Bombay you can go to a five star restaurant in a top hotel and have a three course gourmet Indian, Chinese or Thai meal and drinks for three people - total 1500 rupees. That's about 12 dollars. Yes, twelve. Best food I ever had in a restaurant and I've eaten at all the top places. After that you can go to an outdoor area or rooftop to smoke a hookah. No hookah jokes please.

[Cipher13]

Originally Posted by tooki

Maybe they should have consulted chefs outside the U.K.!

The British certainly have some good restaurants, but obviously nowhere near 1/3 of the world's best. Unh-uh, nope.

tooki

P.S. w00t, 8000th post!

Ahh, well, that accounts for a fraction of the posts you knocked off my count. Where are the rest, though?

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by RonnieoftheRose

Ha. In Bombay you can go to a five star restaurant in a top hotel and have a three course gourmet Indian, Chinese or Thai meal and drinks for three people - total 1500 rupees. That's about 12 dollars. Yes, twelve. Best food I ever had in a restaurant and I've eaten at all the top places. After that you can go to an outdoor area or rooftop to smoke a hookah. No hookah jokes please.

Whatever. Yeah, I've eaten at excellent restaurants overseas that cost a pittance, too, but that's hardly a meaningful comparison.

Obviously I'm comparing Susur in Toronto with other restaurants in the same city.

[DeathMan]

mmmm. indian food. must....leave....small.....town.

[GSixZero]

Ok, I agree with what's been said so far, but had this point:

Even if these were the 50 best restaurants in the world, how the hell would you differentiate #1 from #2, or even harder, #37 from #38. It all comes down to personal taste, not actually differences between restaurants.

[Destonius]

What a bunch of jive ass BS.
It would be a bit better if they bothered to setup categories for different types of food.
What a bunch of retards. I love every type of food and feel that they are all great for what they are.

Plus, some of the best restaurants are open only to guests that have been invited or
referred to. Many high rank restaurants in Kyoto are like that, for an example. You can't
just walk in. You have to have someone introduce you to them. You then have to shelf out
minimum $500 ~ $1,000 per person for a dinner. Did they survey places like this too? Doubt it.

[Destonius]

I just love that these freakin' experts only list places in the West.
(HK included, being an ex-Brit place.)

I mean, best Japanese restaurants are in Sydney and New York!?
WTF!!!! Oh yeah, and Popeye's serves the best Cajun food. Right?
These country bumpkins never even been to Japan!! Damn bigots.
(or most of the world for that matter)
What a bunch of freakin' idiots!!

[Kerrigan]

Of the top ten, it looks as though 4 are English and 3 are American. I have long known that London is one of the best places in the world to eat, and this goes a long way to confirm that. It might be expensive, but the food is exquisite.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Cipher13

Ahh, well, that accounts for a fraction of the posts you knocked off my count. Where are the rest, though?

I didn't remove any posts. I don't know why the software doesn't count all old posts, but that's the problem -- even if we fix it, the next time the system re-counts posts, they will go away. Don't go slandering me when I didn't do anything.

tooki

[OreoCookie]

Too bad I don't know one of them