I’m aware that most or all “Top restaurants lists” are deemed overly subjective and are mainly self-serving to the publishers. I’m not saying that list is an exception. But ever since I’ve been made aware of this list, I thought that the majority of the entries were deserving of the rankings that they were included in.
I’ve not looked at this list during last 2 years and even now I see many restaurants that, I think, still deserve their inclusion in it.
I’m just wondering about 1 prominent restaurant that had always stood out in most Best Lists. There was a stretch of several years when I’ve always seen The French Laundry positioned among the top 5 in this annual list. I’ve eaten there a few times in the last decade and thought that it was truly deserving of being included among the top 3. It’s not in this Top 50 (it’s now #85). Has it fallen from grace?
Lists like these are so subjective and unless you have been to each restaurant multiple times it’s really hard to say how accurate they are.
I’ve been to about 25 or 30 of the top 100 and personally don’t think ten or so belong on them including Estela and Cosme.
Like Ethan said, the food at Estela is excellent although I’m not sure it is world class, but the other aspects of the entire dining experience there have some gaps.
The food at Estela is good but nothing special. The service stinks as the main concern is to turn tables. The Burrata is subpar and the best thing I had was the Mussels escabeche on toast. How many other restaurants in NYC can you get oysters, steak tartare, burrata, ricotta dumplings, etc? I don’t get it.
THAT SAID…this is a clear sign that Thomas Keller is viewed by many in the food world as a man whose time has come and is going…first there was the Times’ ** review of Per Se. Now, both Per Se and TFL have dropped off the top 50 list and into the 51-100 list. Whether or not one agrees with this, the point I took from it is that Keller is seen as a “has been” to some extent.
From my own $.02, isn’t it time to move on from Oysters & Pearls and Salmon Tartare on a Cone?
What Wilfred wrote. And Kelller was at his best before he opened Per Se. Hard to be in two trans-continental places at the same time. Closed circuit tv doesn’t count.
I have a ton of respect for Keller based on everything I’ve ever read about him, but haven’t had the chance to do TFL or Per Se. And now sadly it does seem like his time has come and gone, and I don’t much desire to visit either of them. Bummer.
On a similar note I’m curious how Alinea fares over the next couple of years. My first meal there was the greatest culinary experience of my life by a wide margin. The second, five years later, was almost almost a let down. Granted my expectations were high but there were a handful of dishes deploying concepts I’d seen elsewhere.
With the renovation and revised menu, as well as the retirement of some signature dishes (hot potato/cold potato and black truffle explosion), I’m hopeful they can successfully reboot.
I think what Achatz is doing proves Wilfred’s point. It is time for him to move on from Black Truffle explosion (which everyone in the world does). It is time to move on from the slate gray dining room, the bubbled menu etc etc. Whether Alinea 2.0 is to be successful is yet to be seen as it is too new but I applaud the team at Alinea for having the guts to take a Michelin 3*** restaurant, one of the best restaurants in the world and completely redo it.
I’ve eaten at both The French Laundry and Per Se. Assuming price is no object, I’m willing to accept the possibility that there are 50 better restaurants spanning the globe. The world is a big place, and that’s not a lot of restaurants. While I liked Per Se (just last Fall), it was wicked expensive and seemed a bit derivative of TFL. I wouldn’t go as far as Pete Wells, but I can see why people might conclude that it’s become a bit stale.
That said, the French Laundry, for me, is the finest restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. Septime is not a better restaurant than TFL by any metric (apart from price). TFL has better food, better service, and offers a better experience in a nicer environment. I’ve eaten at a few of the other places on the list; I think you can make an argument regarding places like Saison, Le Bernardin, and L’Arpege. Each shines a bit brighter than TFL in at least one area. While I’d rank them differently, I couldn’t say that the list is wrong to put them ahead of TFL. But Septime? Please.
Edit: Just saw that Per Se is ranked ahead of The French Laundry. That’s as close to proof that this list is deeply flawed as “proof” can exist in this context.
The list is like a slightly better version of the WS Top 100. It has a whole host of flaws, but it in no way can be seen as an objective reflection of what are the best restaurants. It tries to reflects trends in restaurants, but I actually think it does so really poorly. It’s almost inconceivable, for example, that a highly experienced diner could dine at Saison and 11 Madison Park and think that EMP was the vastly superior and more important restaurant.
Is it possible that TFL dropped because it was closed for a long time? Maybe they didn’t want to drop it off the list entirely, but docked it for lost time?
