The French Laundry named best restaurant in the US: The Daily Meal
The French Laundry, American chef maestro Thomas Keller’s flagship restaurant in Napa Valley, California, has been named the best restaurant in the US by influential food site The Daily Meal.
From the editors who also compiled a list of the top 101 restaurants in Europe and the top 101 airport restaurants around the world, comes their latest ranking which gives top nods to Keller’s establishment in Yountville, widely described as the gold standard in American fine dining.
Rounding out the The Daily Meal’s top five restaurants are Gramercy Tavern, Le Bernardin – which was No. 1 last year -- Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and Eleven Madison Park –- all in New York City.
After drawing up an initial list of 303 restaurants across the US, the list was further winnowed down to 101 with the help of 174 judges and reader input, based on criteria such as location, type of cuisine, price, buzz, atmosphere, and the type of meal experience offered.
Geographically, editors admit that New York dominates the top 20 list, being an irrefutable foodie town. Other states that are well represented in the list include California and Chicago.
American and contemporary cuisine also dominated the list, in addition to French, Asian and Italian fare.
The ranking also made space for 34 first-timers to the list, while 46 of the dining establishments have been on the list all three years.
The Daily Meal released their version of the best restaurants in the US in the same week that the James Beard Foundation Awards – known as the Oscars of the food world in the US – released the semi-finalists in categories such as Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant.
The James Beard winners will be announced in May.
Here are the top 10 restaurants in the US, according to The Daily Meal:
1. The French Laundry, Yountville, California
2. Gramercy Tavern, New York
3. Le Bernardin, New York
4. Momofuku Ssäm Bar, New York
5. Eleven Madison Park, New York
6. Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, New York
7. ABC Kitchen, New York
8. Babbo, New York
9. Girl & the Goat, Chicago
10. Cochon, New Orleans, Louisiana
