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Michelin is a global guide that reviews cities all over the world and they have expanded greatly into North America with guides in NY, Chicago, California, Washington DC, Florida, and Vancouver.
There is nothing remotely "unmeaningful" about people from those places talking about how their cities did in the most recent ratings.
Its meaningless for comparison purposes. They exclude way too many places to make apples to apples comparisons.
City vs City doesnt mean Every City vs. Every City All the time.
Does it?
That’s besides the point. AASB is referring to people that judge a cities food scene using “# of Michelin rated restaurants” as a factor. Not saying you’re one of them, just that they exist and it’s a bad marker.
City vs City doesnt mean Every City vs. Every City All the time.
Does it?
No, but if you're using a metric that excludes at least 30 of the country's 50 biggest metropolitan areas from the comparison, then there's no way you should call what you're doing "comparing US cities" based on that metric. The best you can do is "compare US cities measured by" whoever's doing the ranking.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Prior to this year Florida was not Michelin rated. I never felt slighted or shortchanged because restaurants here were lacking such a designation at that time, yet I often scoped out Michelin ratings as one source, among others (local papers, Wine Spectator, Eater, Zagat, Gayot, NYT 36 hours in __ , friends from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, etc in part to see if reviews were consistent) online when deciding where to take clients in NYC, Chicago and SF.
Last edited by elchevere; 12-07-2022 at 10:04 AM..
Fine dining scene in US is incredibly overpriced - factor in up charges on everything and the 30 is the new 15 tip expectation and you can fly to Europe, stay in a nice hotel and eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant for the price of the dinner + tip at an equivalent US restaurant
Based on the list 18Montclair posted, I’ve dined in Per Se, Jean-Georges, Daniel ( Chef Boulud is the excellence personified.) Le Bernadin, Little Inn (I wanted to live in their ladies’ room. So pretty and opulent.).-the food was great, but I wasn’t licking the bowl. Or I must have an unsophisticated culinary palate.
I get easily distracted by the beautiful decor (one of my rabbit holes is to study the stylish luxury restaurants and hotels worldwide.) so the food, while great, becomes the non-priority.
In my amateur view, I do think the Michelin star system rates more than just the quality of food. If I’d like to impress someone the Michelin Star lineups provide outstanding imagery and go-to status. That said, outstanding food served in a great restaurant may not always meet the Michelin standard and that’s more than fine. In fact I, unsophisticated palate, often ate the kind of food that’s like in Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode that one goes “I have to sit down!” because it made you weak on your knees in the non-fancy unassuming holes-in-the-wall little eateries of all places.
Ps. I miss Zagat guide, used to buy it all the time. And relentlessly checking the Time Out magazine dining section before going out on the weekends. Forbes is kind of hit or miss so I’m not sure how much an authority they are. Ranking is fun but is not be-all and end-all.
No, but if you're using a metric that excludes at least 30 of the country's 50 biggest metropolitan areas from the comparison, then there's no way you should call what you're doing "comparing US cities" based on that metric. The best you can do is "compare US cities measured by" whoever's doing the ranking.
So basically your issue is the title of the thread?
Because there is nothing wrong with the OPs initial post or the discussion about Michelin star-rated restaurants in the US.
No, but if you're using a metric that excludes at least 30 of the country's 50 biggest metropolitan areas from the comparison, then there's no way you should call what you're doing "comparing US cities" based on that metric. The best you can do is "compare US cities measured by" whoever's doing the ranking.
I don't have a problem with that as long as you're only comparing the areas that the Michelin guides are covering. My problem is more that they don't seem to cover the same expanse of areas for different metropolitan regions, so making a comparison on a metropolitan area level doesn't seem to work either. Granted, SF proper isn't massive, but their coverage of the larger Bay Area does go really far out there, but does not seem to do the same for other areas.
So basically your issue is the title of the thread?
Because there is nothing wrong with the OPs initial post or the discussion about Michelin star-rated restaurants in the US.
Yes. That's my chief issue.
If you want to compare Michelin-reviewed US cities to one another, that's perfectly all right. Just don't pass it off as a comparison of US cities' dining scenes, which is what I took the title to infer. Too many are left out to make the comparison valid or worthwhile.
Ultimately, however, I think Michelin should up its efforts to inspect American restaurants to take in more cities. As I said before, if they had as many Restaurant Guides as Green Guides, that would be an advance.
Edited to add: But didn't someone upthread say that Florida's tourism agency sponsored the Michelin Guide for that state? Maybe the way to do this is to convince state tourism departments to pop for the cost of those Michelin inspectors.
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