Results tagged “zagat”

Zagat released its 2010 NYC edition and, as expected, old favorites remained on top. The most popular restaurants are Gramercy Tavern (number 1), Union Square Cafe, Le Bernardin, Babbo and Daniel while top food can was deemed to be founded at Le Bernardin (number 1), Daniel, Jean Georges, Per Se, and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Asiate had best decor and Per Se has best service.

Back when antediluvian diners sought opinions without the help of the Internet, Tim and Nina Zagat built a restaurant survey and ranking empire, which grew into a sprawling international family of guides on everything from dating to dumping. Just before the financial collapse really got nasty, they tried to sell the whole enterprise for $200 million, and are rumored to have turned down offers as high as $100 million. Today, the Post finds the Zagats in deep weeds, largely due to competitors like Yelp, which now boasts more than 7 million U.S. visitors per month with reviews on all sorts of things, including Zagat! By comparison, Zagat's website, which requires a $25 annual fee, averaged just 270,000 unique visitors last month. The company laid off 16 people, and the Zagats have given up trying to sell it. As one Yelper opines, "If Zagat was the bomb, [Yelp] wouldn't exist, so thanks for sucking so bad, Zagat. I almost was forced to go to Chinese food in Chinatown due to an out-of-town colleague who had armed himself with Zagat and biblical notions of self importance... In the end, I won and we ended up at a real restaurant that didn't have to pay for a review." Well, not exactly.

Brooklyn gets its new burgundy bible today as Zagat releases its 2009 guide to the borough. Prospect Heights' Garden Café was ranked No.1 for both food and service, and DUMBO's River Café, where the trees suffered so much this summer, was named No. 1 for decor. Meanwhile Il Passatore, the rustic Italian place in Williamsburg, rose to the top of the best new restaurant category. Carroll Gardens' Black Mountain was deemed the No. 1 Wine Bar, and Stonehome in Fort Greene ranked best in the nightlife category for its romantic ambiance, big wine selection and tasty vittles. All in all, the exhaustive guide covers 241 of Brooklyn’s finest restaurants, 144 nightspots, 367 shops, and 231 gourmet stores and attractions, like the Central Library in Prospect Heights, which has 1.5 million volumes spanning 64 languages, a newish outdoor plaza and, let's not forget, free admission.

    

Starting in January, some of New York's top restaurants and chefs will take turns offering menus inspired by 19th century banquets, as part of Zagat's "NYC Vintage Dinner Series." Each chef will host a one-day-only event where, according to Tim Zagat, guests can enjoy an "unforgettable dining experience with dishes that have largely disappeared in the last 100 years." The series was unveiled at a press conference at Le Bernardin this morning.

In a recent Zagat survey, 10,000 frequent fliers ranked LaGuardia the worst out of America's 27 biggest airports, the Daily News reports. JFK didn't fare much better either, coming in fourth from the bottom of the list. Zagat Buzz has more on the survey, which declared Tampa the best airport in the land. Speaking to the News on her way through LaGuardia, 40-year-old Jennifer Thayer of Colorado Springs griped that the airport "seems like it's out of the 1960s. There's not a whole lot of choices." Never mind how a place without choices resembles the swinging sixties; what bothers Thayer is that "they don't have those massage people." Not true! Tomorrow, Lather Spa is giving out free massages in Delta’s Crown Room Club. But too little, too late for Thayer; she's already back in Colorado, where they say the airports smell of sandalwood and ambrosia.

Just as the current economic conflagration is blazing brighter than ever, two major restaurant guides have appeared in as many days this week, telling you all the best places to dine in style until the money runs out. Yesterday saw the release of the prestigious Michelin NYC guide, and today we have the more democratic Zagat restaurant guide, compiled using reviews from 38,128 local surveyors who ate out over 6.6 million meals this past year, covering 2,073 eateries across the five boroughs. Some of this year's standouts include Asiate (best decor), Union Square Cafe (most popular), Per Se (best food) and Momofuku Ko (best newcomer).