Buffalo needs a good SINGLE source of restaurant reviews... a stack of old Gusto's and websearches is too frustrating. The Artvoice review issue is helpful until it discredits itself when you see that Mighty Tacky is the "Best" mexican restaurant. The Wegmans guide is a collection paid advertisements. ACK! I lived in LA for a while, and I had a Zagat in my car and in my office. It was indispensible. Anyone know a good local book publisher? (I'd gladly help compile!)
oshinko read my mind. The only trouble is that the editorial on Bill's site comes from volunteers so it is not as comprehensive as a service that was run like a business would be. Bill's done a fantastic job; I love being able to go back and look at reviews that are ten years old. Unfortunately, there are a lot of restaurants that are not listed and many reviews are too old to be valid any longer. I truly admire his dedication to this huge undertaking which is really just a hobby for him.
Buffalo should have at least ten restaurants with five Michelin stars! We have the best restaurants in the world.
Christa, the Zagat guide is complied by peopel who dine in the restaurants and then write their reviews. They are not necessarily professional food critics. I've been a reviewer for the Zagat guides for about eight years. The truely prestigious food guide is the Michelin because of its strict professionalism. The mere fact that it has so few reviewers who adhere to the narrow criteria makes the awarding of the stars so desirable for the chefs. They have not yet published their guide for Japan. I'm not aware of one for Hong Kong. If you were to ask Thomas Keller whether he would want the three stars from Michelin or the highest rating from Zagat, he would undoubtedly choose Michelin.
Ditto on Bill Rapaport's Guide, I often frequent his site, and often share my experiences as well in the for of reviews.
The atmosphere of the place pictured represents exactly what I would choose to avoid. I get chilled just looking at it. Places like this one reminds me of hospital food and has the same degree of intimacy. On second thought if you could remove the obstructions if might make a great banquet hall.
I completely agree with your point, BuffedOut. Michelin didn't begin to produce Red Guides for the US until 2005, and they only have guides for San Fransisco, Los Angeles, NYC and Las Vegas. The rest of the country relies as heavily on Zagat as those cities used to.
The power of the Michelin star is evidenced by the fact that Tokyo's first Red Guide completely sold out in less than 2 days (reported by the Japan Economy News). It probably helped that Tokyo restaurants received more stars than any other city in the world (191 to be exact). As for my report that they will be coming out with a Hong Kong guide, I apologize. That's one of the problems with fact-gathering on the internet. I double checked, and you are correct, there are currently no public plans for a Hong Kong guide, I've made note of it in the article.
As one of the many lucky individuals that has Zagat's ear, can you shed light on what your experiences with them have been like? I'm sure we're all anxious to know how it all works. With 34,000 members of the general public weighing in for the NYC guide alone, they must have an extremely efficient system.
Michelin (3 star) is indeed the finest rating system for Europe and the few US cities. Zagat has no merit whatsoever. The best rating system for dining in the US is the Mobil-Exxon (5-star). Thomas Keller mentioned above has two restaurants with five stars. Which is incredible, as there are only about 15 in North America. Half of those are restaurants attached to fine hotels. http://mobiltravelguide.howstuffworks.com/restaurants-channel.htm http://mobiltravelguide.howstuffworks.com/restaurants-channel.htm
Christa, anyone can weigh in with their opinions for Zagat. At least that was the way when I started with them. Go to Zagat.com. Because the guides are consumer-based, they are definitely less prestigious than those guides, like Michelin, which are complied by the cognescenti who rate the restaurants on the cuisine alone. That is why I doubt that a restaurant would be downgraded because there is a burnt out light bulb in one of the restaurants as you mentioned above.
What drives Zagat's publication for an area, for instance, like the Buffalo metropolitan area, is population density. So perhaps Zagat would publish one for all of Western New York State.
Christa,
Great article. For more about Bernard Loiseeu's , The Perfectionist(Life and Death in Haute Cuisine) by Rudolph Chelminski, is a fascinating book detailing Loiseau's life, and the world in which he lived.
You may borrow mine.
mix, the top photo is an amazing restaurant in las vegas. There are several in las vegas that rank in the top in the world. Mix sits on the 60th floor of The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Zagat doesnt cover Buffalo? Damn farmers
The photo definitely is about " eating in a high style" from a personal point of view I can't understand trying to emulate birds and bats. I declined a job at the Sears Tower after bouncing back down the elevator and realizing I couldn't be around food that high in the air. A friend invited me to dine at Windows On The World which I declined, an experience of dining at the Skylon Restaurant made me understand concerns about safety and eating don't MIX. PS ,,,,, 9-11 unfortunately confirms my suspicion . I'll stay on the ground with the farmers thank you.
I remember the Head Hunter telling me while looking out the window of that job interview, that I'd have the highest office for a food executive in America, my only thought at the time was-- did I really see a plane fly by under the window--- holy shit I'm out of here.
Speaking of Farmers--- Norman Farmer and I were working at the Twenty Fifth Street Cafe in Ellicottville, I'm the cook Norman the waiter. A lady donned in a full length Coyote Coat and jewels every where breezes in and tries to force a seating, although we were operating on a by reservation only policy. The lady tells us she is there to do a review of the restaurant for a Toronto news paper about ski country. Norm asks some friends of ours if they would mind having two join them and we break policy and seat her. After dining she announces that her meal was the best she ever had in America, also she was a relative of the Michelin people and would make us famous. I told her no thank you, the publicity would do more harm than good. At the time I was going thru a domestic problem and not looking for notoriety, but there was a notice about the visit in the Ellicottville paper.
Buffalo has some great restaurants but there are a couple high profile places putting out pretty medicore food with poor service. These places continue to pack'em in because we do not have a knowledgable critic that is willing to stop the madness. Then there are the few under the radar joints that might be the best in town but struggle because the dining crowd continues to pack the same places for years. Okun can't recognize the places that are working with the best ingredients and have the best service, she is just on cruise control.
Basically every place is either 3 or 3.5 stars. Even though 2 stars is hardley a slam. (I think it indicates average) and we have plenty of those.
Go ahead, vgs, name names. The people have a right to know and we'll trust your judgement. Name them names.
I've worked in several Michelin rated restaurants and it is no joke. Everyone freaks out around the time that the reviewer is known to be in town....single diners are watched VERY carefully. To be honored any stars is quite an honor and speaks volumes about a restaurant. Oh, and MIX got no stars. The critics despise that place, actually. In GQ it got torn apart. It's Alain Ducasse' version of a club now. Obviously the view is great and that chandelier is ridic, but they do like 400 covers a night--not Michelin material. But check Mr. Ducasse' new joint in NYC opening this month...OH and Zagat? All I can think of is the Chris Farley skit......
Salamooch,
I agree with you regarding Zagat. I felt that they needed to be mentioned in the piece because they are, in my opinion, the best known multi-city U.S. restaurant guide. I thought it would have been wrong to not include them.
As far as MIX goes, I haven't been there so I can't comment. The Michelin star they received in 2007 was talked about here: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2007/11/15/317272/alain-ducasse-regains-crown-as-most-starred-chef.html
and here:
http://www.gastronomydomine.com/2007/11/michelin-guide-las-vegas.html
And, by the way, did you know that GQ named The Old Pink's steak sandwich the best in the country a few years back? Just a fun fact while we're on the subject.
Alright, forget about MIX. Done. Now, why did Daniel only get 2 stars?! And pretty much every JeanGeorges restaurant got starred!? Kinda sketchy. I'm stoked when the little guys get starred, like The Spotted Pig. Cool joint, indeed--a bit hyped, but good shit nonetheless. But needles to say, Buffalo should have NO RATINGS. Like, in any publication because noone says anything bad!!! Spineless! The Snooty Fox was RAVED about here and the food's embarassing to anyone with a clue! Just keeping it real. Really real.
From what I understand about Michelin, it is unlikely that any of Buffalo's restaurants would skate away with a star. Nothing against us, I think that's the case with most of the country. I do, however, think that we as a region need a more comprehensive way to determine and locate restaurant ratings than the methods we currently have access to.
salamooch, Would you guess that there are inspectors out there that are tending to award stars for name recognition rather than the actual dining experience? Just a guess based on your comment.
I've been to three restaurants that have been highly rated by internationally recognized organizations and all three have been over priced, hyped and pretentious, in my opinion. It could be my taste in food is not educated enough to know the difference between what the stars say, but when traveling by asking the locals ( food service, hotel workers) usually I get good results from inquiries about where to eat. Anyway the best meals I've ever had, have been in non commercial settings, it may have something to do with the intentions of the host not being tainted with concerns for profit. My rating system would be, is the place clean, is the staff friendly, is the staff competent, is the food presented well, does the food taste good, are the portion adequate, is pricing reasonable for what you get, given the opportunity would I go back.
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