March 27, 2006
The City's Best, According to AOL
AOL has released their Cityguide for New York with a list of "The 2006 City's Best," some of which are a surprise and others which were not so surprising. Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope took Cityguide's top restaurant honor, beating out big names like Daniel, Le Bernardin, Per Se, and Masa. The Chef and co-owner of Stone Park told the Daily News, "We're very thrilled - winning these types of contests really attests to the loyal support of our customers."
Peter Luger Steakhouse was the top-ranked in two categories, best steakhouse and best burger. Somehow, the Shake Shack didn't even turn up on the top-10 list in the burger category. H&H won the best bagels, Virgil's won best BBQ, Shun Lee won best Chinese, Nathan's took best hot dog, and Nobu was rated the best Japanese. In another disservice, John's Pizza in the West Village somehow ended up topping the pizza rankings. With John's Pizza and Lombardi's at 1 and 2 in the Pizza rankings, Gothamist has to wonder a little who is rating these establishments. At least for the pizza, it seems like tourists have thrown their weight behind John's.
Who do you think deserved or did not deserve to be on the top rated lists?
Photo of steak at Peter Luger by Tien Mao
|
L&Bs Spumoni Garden should be in the best pizza list fo sho
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/11350504/brooklyn_ny/l_b_spumoni_gardens.html
I dunno. This list looks really fishy. Perhaps this is what happens when nominees are selected by people who don't go out very much (and who rely on press releases to learn about culture and entertainment - *cough*mageditors*cough*).
this list is a joke.
Yes, I agree. Nearly every winner is NOT the best in its category. Who won best bread? Wonder(R)? Incredibly pedestrian choices.
come on now, brouhaha, let's not drag wonder's bread into this.
Just an FYI for people wondering about the methodology of how the winners were picked (I didn't think it was clear in the initial post):
"Who picked the City's Best® nominees?
The City's Best® nominees are selected by AOL CityGuide's editorial team, which is comprised of staff editors based around the country. ...
Who decides the City's Best® winners?
Answer: You!
From October 3, 2005 to February 15, 2006, AOL CityGuide users (no membership required) are invited to vote for one City's Best® nominee per category per city. User votes submitted before February 15 at 3PM EST will be tallied, thereby ranking the nominees and determining the number one winner in each category in each city. Results will be revealed in early March 2006.
Users may vote in as few or as many categories as preferred, and in categories in cities other than their own. For example, Dallas users may vote in San Francisco and vice versa."
In any case, based on the methodology, it's clear that the winners weren't exactly based on quality.
Best beer selection category is a sad joke. Pathetic.
yeah, not sure how brooklyn brewery can win that. i mean, it's all their own beer.
It's gotta be based on tourist rankings. Virgil's gets #1 in BBQ, and it's in Times Square -- I usually never heard of Virgil's as great BBQ. It's usually RUB, Dinosaur or Blue Smoke heading up people's lists.
And for Corner Bistro to take a back seat to NY Burger Co. for best burger? NYBC isn't the worst burger in NYC, but Corner Bistro is consistently high on everyone's lists (hell, it's usually the gimme for #1).
I would not place much weight in this.
That Peter Luger's steak looks a tad well done.
We usually get our's so rare, it's blue.
So, maybe it is tourist rankings.
You don't go to Nobu for sushi. Its got innovative/great Japanese fushion, but the sushi is OK. I don't know about Blue Ribbon in Brooklyn, but Tomoe deserves to be up there. In any case, the list didn't seem too bad for me. Hard to distinguish between the top 10 in this city, and most of my favs were up there.
But shame on you Gothamist for equating Japanese with Sushi. They do need a "top Japanese" vs "top Sushi" category, however -- with Honmua-an, Omen and Kai up there...
Shun Lee as best Chinese is a running cliche whenever this type of list comes out. At least they didn't pick Tao.
2 references to shake shack in 1 Day!!!!!! what the fuck Stupid gothamist. Try to make the most insanely popular place on the planet even more popular. Now instead of my hourly wait to get a burger it'll only be 2 hours. THANX A LOT!!!!
well, w/r/t virgil's, at least they didn't pick dbq.
People who rely upon AOL for dining advice deserve to eat terrible meals.
Didn't Peter Luger get a bunch of health code violations one or two years ago? Can't exactly bode well for best steak.