An Alternative to the Sucky Michelin GuideAs the Gobbler made plain this morning, the Michelin guide — and in particular, its distribution of top honors — sucks. There’s an alternative take on a New York’s elite restaurants: Gayot. Like Michelin, this online handbook got its start in France; its founder, André Gayot, coined the term “nouvelle cuisine.” And while it’s not comprehensive, covering only the top 40 restaurants in the country, Gayot pairs their four-star-and-under ratings with detailed, well-written reviews — not fragments of diners’ opinions, like Zagat, or in-flight magazine copy, like Michelin. Six New York restaurants made the most recent round of selections; that Eleven Madison Park and the Modern wound up on this shortest of lists — coupled with the guide’s clear bias toward French food, Masa being NYC’s only non-French pick — speaks to Gayot’s distinct sensibility. And that has to count for something.
Top Forty Restaurants in the U.S.[Gayot]
Earlier: The Case Against the Michelin Guide
