It is a big jump to go from 1 to 2 and although I love Ki I don’t think that is egregious. There a lot of other non food factors that come into play…location, service, wine list, etc.
Now Baroo that is just f’in insane!
Actually, imho Ki blows Baroo away in all aspects. I think Baroo deserves a Bib or 1* maybe.
Don’t want to get into an internet kerfuffle. I will just say I love Baroo and think it is one of the best restaurants in the U.S. for me, the vegetarian menu is deceptively, extremely complex. Michelin struggles with certain types of food for example look how long it took Noma to get three stars.
I absolutely love Ki and as you know from my posts here I have been a big supporter of both places and know him well from Atomix and Blanca where I was / am a regular and from Benu and Jungsik. For some reason I missed his stint at Meteroa. If Chef Ki wants 2 stars he can get it. I was just highlighting it takes a lot to move from 1 to 2 stars… just look at Kato.
I have to run as I am on my way to Meju by far the hardest Korean reservation in NYC : )
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Not kerfuffling, expressing an opinion. I’m also confused by their criteria for Bib Gourmand, where a fast food like place can earn one, thinking Pollo la Brasa & now Sonaratown. Personally, Michelin isn’t very influential when I make choices. More an issue of trying to understand their rather secretive approach.
Michelin is useless in LA specifically, and the US in general. I find its usefulness decreases in relation to the distance from France. YMMV, as Robert’s does.
I wish Michelin would leave LA. Covid certainly muddied the waters terribly but I’ve always felt the LA restaurant scene was about as creative and vibrant as could be just prior to Michelin coming back. Seemingly overnight everything became tasting menus/omakase because those got stars and so that’s where the investments were headed.
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A Bib Gourmand per Michelin is a high quality meal (at least three course) at good value. Baroo price’s is too high too be considered for a Bib. I also found a stat that ~1% of restaurants that were awarded a Bib move up to 1 star.
It’s very confusing to me to see Sonoratown & Pollo la Brasa, both places I love, on the Bib list. Not sure how they meet Bib criteria. I guess you could Have a taco, caramelo and Burrito and call it a 3-course. LOL
The other thing is Michelin will award certain chefs, like Silverton who they love, thinking Lapaba, which is mediocre at best and shun a place like Etra, which blows it away (as well as Maccheroni Republic which made Bib???). The biggest miss is Pizza Sei not awarded at least Bib. Pizza Sei 2.0 just opened, which undoubtedly should deserve recognition. Chef William is really pushing the boundaries of pizza.
Agree on Sei!
The 2 best traditional BBQ places here get bibs, as well as a traditional mom-pop Vietnamese place in Charlotte that’s now difficult to get into. I think there is a local / diversity element to this too.
Shows how out of touch Michelin is in LA. She was once a creative dynamo (original Spago, Campanile, La Brea Bakery, Mozzaplex 10 years ago (although I’ve never been a fan of the pizzeria). Now she does comfort food with the likes of Phil Rosenthal for old people. I’m in that cohort and totally uninterested in her recent forays.
Yeah, she really is just coasting at this point. The Mozza group is good enough, but there’s much better in each category. I go to the Larchmont FM. The crowd waiting to eat at the diner is vast. Lots of IGers and tourists I think.
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Great description! There was a truly special place here in the 90s, one of the first spinoffs from Magnolia Grill, that was recently resurrected competently by a new owner who retains some of the old dishes but in a tiring old style of excess. The one time we revisited the average age looked at least 15 years older than me and my wife!
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What about a tasting menu or omakase makes the food not creative? I think the food at places like Vespertine, Somni, and Seline are more creative than 99.999% places in LA.
Tasting menus are in decline in NYC and have been for a few years. There are still many available.
I have been curious to watch so many new ones open in LA.
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Small sharable plates and a la carte seem to be the thing now. It’s (literally) a bigger palette to work with and it gives diners much greater flexibility with the meal and the variety and the cost.
I think I feel about “small shareable plates” the way many feel about tasting menus - enough already! So sick of them. First, small and shareable are often mutually exclusive. Second, it’s not a meal, it’s a buffet. Third, it makes for lazy and sloppy service because dishes can come willy nilly, and makes things simpler for the restaurant, while making my experience more haphazard. Fourth, I often dine solo and the portions are often tough to manage into a satisfying combination. Sometimes it works, of course, but mostly when the server starts with “let me explain our menu, everything is meant to be shared,” as if that’s somehow exciting or innovative or compelling, I just want to leave.
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If it’s a first time trying a restaurant, my wife and I will opt to go the tasting menu route. We can try more dishes and it tells us more about what it’s capable of. If we return, we’ll order a la carte.
It can be too much food (Dalida, Penny Roma), but that’s a first world problem. We’ll see how it goes at Maria Isabel.
+1,000!
It’s a flawed concept from the start.
Plates meant to be shared should be large portions, not small. Sharing 3 shrimp or 2 scallops among a party of 4 is lame.
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I’ve been served one scallop on a shared plate menu. 
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