This week is a big one for fans of lists of fancy New York City restaurants! Once again we have all been treated to the double-whammy of Google-owned Zagat Survey and Michelin dropping their restaurant rankings. And guess what? Most of the same expensive restaurants are still considered as good as they were last year.
According to Zagoogle, which comes up with its list thanks to a survey of 44,309 diners, the top ten restaurants in NYC are: Le Bernardin, Per Se, Bouley, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park, Jean Georges, La Grenouille, Mas (farmhouse), Sushi Yasuda, and Sushi Seki. Meanwhile, according to the French tire tasters (which comes up with its list thanks to a team of anonymous tasters) the seven "three star" restaurants that are "worth a special journey" are Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Masa and Per Se.
Put 'em all together and what do you get? Sure seems like Le Bernardin, Per Se, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park and Jean Georges are worth a try if you've got the dough. Still, you have to wonder what Bouley, La Grenouille and Mas (farmhouse) could have done to better please the Michelin men? We're chalking Sushi Yasuda and Sushi Seki's high rankings up to the Survey's long-standing sushi preference.
Still, along with giving the city another list of restaurants to aspire to one day spend their entire rent check at and then vomit right back up, the two announcements also gave us some stats about New York City dining to work with. Specifically from the data-heavy Zagat, which reports that for the first time in the survey's history its surveyors reported cooking more meals at home than eating out/taking out (6.7 versus 6.4)! Still, that could be due to the changing dynamic of Zagat's survey sample since it became a free Google service—especially as 60 percent of those asked said they are eating out the same amount as they were a year ago (and 19 percent say they ate out more).
