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Yelp's top 100 Restaurant List
- Thread starter daw840
- Start date
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freshlylickedcat
Banned
I wonder how much money these restaurants had to pay to get on this list. Yelp is super shady.
GhostWriter24
Member
Fuck these lists, there's a little Italian place in central NJ called "San Remo" that'd likely be top 10 on this list if it paid them. Most incredible cuisine I've ever tasted.
FunkyMunkey
Banned
Yelp is a bullshit rating system with plenty of paid-off ratings and so forth.
Devolution
Member
Not surprised.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
cajun restaurant from hawaii on list
no cajun restaurants from louisiana on list
no cajun restaurants from louisiana on list
jadedm17
Member
Pretty sure thats everywhere and everything nowadays. shrug
drunkendonuts
Member
nice, i love joe's falafel. used to hit them up a lot when i lived and worked in studio city. glad they made it to the top 10.
Aquamarine
Member
Yelp's Top 100 Most-Paid-for-Yelp-Marketing List
Ken Masters
Banned
Everything is in CA, sure
FUBAR McDangles
Member
Not a single restaurant in Minnesota is on the list?
Disappointing. Not that I know a restaurant that should be on there though.
Disappointing. Not that I know a restaurant that should be on there though.
Rawr Its Ry
Member
Pretty sure that poke place on the big island is like a tourist trap
Oahu got that poke game on lock.
Oahu got that poke game on lock.
abstract alien
Member
Guess I know where I'm going tomorrow.
terrisus
Member
I eat at #3 at least once a month. (Smug)
)))
The real thing to (Smug) and
))) about is the fact that you can get Google Fiber.Also, I don't believe I've ever been to any of the places on that list.
Must be one hell of a food truck.
(Hipster voting bloc too stronk)
Nothing in Utah boo
Would love to knock this list out, haven't been to one on that list, surprised french laundry is not on there, and le bournaden
If you mean Le Bernardin, it's on there at 45.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I don't think you can meaningfully compare a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon place (which could easily give you an amazing meal, some of the best of a particular dish you've ever had, be a place you go often, your favourite hangout, etc) with a tasting menu mega-course wine pairing ultra-elite two month reservation waiting list place and everything in between. They don't offer the same sort of experiences at all.
Actually just browsing the "top rated" in a city is totally useless. You have to break it down by price bracket or whatever to actually get any real comparability.
Like, in my city, one of the consistently highest rated places is basically a shawarma place. And it's amazing. Every time I go there there's a line snaking out through the building, the garlic sauce is heavenly, chicken is always moist and great, the potato wedges amazing, tons of sides, reasonable prices, etc. I can't say a bad word about it. ... but I normally get my food there to go because I don't really want to watch the TV playing ads for local middle eastern real estate agents, or sit next to a fridge with a humming broken ballast filled with yogurt drinks or order a second course. The chairs and table are fine, but it's the standard fast food restaurant plastic stuff. And, like, that's fine. If you're just popping in for some fast food, that's no problem.
But then there are restaurants I go to where I wear a suit jacket, where the lights are down low, where I order a few courses, where I'll get a cocktail or whatever. Where the ingredients used are different, where the food is prepared under the supervision of a chef rather than a line cook. My service expectations are completely different. The atmosphere is different. The types of food are different.
Nothing wrong with a hearty meal, not being a snob here, it's all good. And certainly I can't afford to do the latter for every meal. I love home-cooked style meals. I love cheap, enormous portions. I love get overfilled on some dirt cheap pho and spilling broth everywhere. I love getting greasy pizza, especially when I've had a few beers... but it's not the same thing at all. So I'm not really sure why there would be a "need" to rank them together.
Actually just browsing the "top rated" in a city is totally useless. You have to break it down by price bracket or whatever to actually get any real comparability.
Like, in my city, one of the consistently highest rated places is basically a shawarma place. And it's amazing. Every time I go there there's a line snaking out through the building, the garlic sauce is heavenly, chicken is always moist and great, the potato wedges amazing, tons of sides, reasonable prices, etc. I can't say a bad word about it. ... but I normally get my food there to go because I don't really want to watch the TV playing ads for local middle eastern real estate agents, or sit next to a fridge with a humming broken ballast filled with yogurt drinks or order a second course. The chairs and table are fine, but it's the standard fast food restaurant plastic stuff. And, like, that's fine. If you're just popping in for some fast food, that's no problem.
But then there are restaurants I go to where I wear a suit jacket, where the lights are down low, where I order a few courses, where I'll get a cocktail or whatever. Where the ingredients used are different, where the food is prepared under the supervision of a chef rather than a line cook. My service expectations are completely different. The atmosphere is different. The types of food are different.
Nothing wrong with a hearty meal, not being a snob here, it's all good. And certainly I can't afford to do the latter for every meal. I love home-cooked style meals. I love cheap, enormous portions. I love get overfilled on some dirt cheap pho and spilling broth everywhere. I love getting greasy pizza, especially when I've had a few beers... but it's not the same thing at all. So I'm not really sure why there would be a "need" to rank them together.
While this list is undoubtedly shady as fuck, the best restaurant for a cuisine could easily be far from the origin of the cuisine.
Pfft, snob. But yeah, without a type of dining or budget specified these things are kind of useless.
Nope, was way off meant L'Atlier de Joel Robuchon
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Urban areas tend to do better because of high immigration rates causing cultural traditions to be exposed to each other; access to broader talent pool of chefs and cooks (and more training opportunities for new ones); it's more economically viable to run a restaurant (most restaurants fail everywhere, you need all the help you can get). Availability of local ingredients due to great growing conditions probably helps a little too.
I think Yelp phoned it in and just took the highest rated places on their site.
There's no nuance or finesse to this list whatsoever.
freshlylickedcat
Banned
Very thoughtfully said.
Having all these various types of eateries lumped into one list is neither helpful nor informative.
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
Re: the Seattle bakeries on the list: I'm always bummed that Honoré doesn't have the customer base that Nouveau and Besalu do. His product is the absolute best; Nouveau is big and pretty, but nothing to write home about, and while Besalu's croissant is indeed quite good, the owners are hateful, awful assholes.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
It's possible but unlikely.
Not really. Cajun local moves to Hawaii. opens restaurant. People move all over the world.
Edit: It will not be the norm of course, but it is hardly unlikely.
freshlylickedcat
Banned
It's a gigantic state with diverse regions, geography, and peoples.
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
It would have to by the best cajun cook in Louisiana. That also ignores the fact that Cajun cooking relies heavily on seafood from the Gulf/SE Louisiana. Good look getting fresh LA Crawfish in Hawaii. Or Gulf Oysters. Or any number of Fish from that region that aren't indigenous to the pacific.
It would have to be the best restaurant, not necessarily the best food or cook. And it looks like it is just done by the rating on the site anyway.
If you have decided that Cajun cooking can only be done with that one type of crayfish, I'll take the fake Cajun that is available where I live. Weird way to view it. I always thought a cuisine was a style of cooking and collection of ingredients, not sourcing an ingredient from one place only if very similar things exist elsewhere. It's just kind of a very purist take on a cuisine. If a restaurant in LA made a dish with no seafood, or used a different type of oyster, it's not Cajun food?
Just strikes me as weird.
The real thing to (Smug) and
Also, I don't believe I've ever been to any of the places on that list.
You really had to twist that fucking knife didn't you?
I live in Overland Park, KS, one of the few areas that pissed off Google with the negotiations and have no fucking GOD DAMNED TIME LINE FOR FIBER.
grrrrrr
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!
Member
It's not about the specific ingredients (although I'd argue they help) but it's about fresh ingredients. If you want to open a Cajun restaurant in Hawaii, your only two options are likely to import them from China or Louisiana. You're already a step behind the places in Louisiana, where a lot of times the crawfish you eat were still alive living in a river somewhere the same day you consume them.
MagicWithEarvin
Member
As a Seattle native, Paseo at #2 makes me happy. Definitely a great place for sandwiches if you're in town.
Schattenjäger
Gabriel Knight
Waffles & Dinges
Ummm I don't think so
Ummm I don't think so
speculawyer
Member
California Uber Alles.
You just said it was, but okay. I'm saying you can use a different type of crayfish or oyster or make a Cajun dish that has no local only ingredient in it. But you do obviously know more than me about Cajun food, so I will bow out.
I'm a New Orleans raised cajun, and looking at the photos online.. I can't believe it would win over an actual louisiana based establishment. That french bread looks all wrong and raw red onions on a poboy???
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