Thursday, April 27, 2006

100 Top Hotel Restaurants

USA Today brings us this fabulous list of the Top 100 Hotel Restaurants
 
Let me assure you, these are not any of my layover hotels!
 
I'd love to hear from anyone who has sampled any of these.
 
 
Via:  Flyaway Cafe

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Inn at Little Washington is in a league of its own for service (the food is good too but it's the service that stands out). It's 70 miles or so from Northern Virginia, so after a good bottle of wine many will choose to stay. But the Inn is expensive (rooms North of $600/night). So a whole industry of bed & breakfasts has popped up just servicing Inn at Little Washington diners (spend $200/night instead and let the savings fund your dinner).

Maestro truly deserves to be in the top 10, so the editors got this one right. It's the only restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton chain that drives room nights to its host hotel.

But there are so many overrated restaurants here, and so many oversights. CityZen at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, DC is the best restaurant in the District of Columbia. It isn't even listed, though it far outshines Citronelle which is on the list and certainly beats the restaurant at the Harbor Court hotel (now an Intercontinental) in Baltimore, which somehow shows up at number 8!

Anonymous said...

I've eaten at many of these restaurants (over 30) They are all top tier restaurants.

There are some puzzlers though. For example, they put the Vegas branch of Michael Mina above the flagship, SF branch, where chef Michael actually is most of the time... I've eaten several times at both, and the SF location is far better.

Also putting the Federalist at near the end of the list while Prime is 56 positions ahead of it is a bit ludicrous. Prime is a good to great steakhouse, but the Federalist is so much more than that.

I think that the Las Vegas Tourism Board's ad dollars had a little influence on this list.

The good news is that there really is good food to be had in Vegas now, but no way can you say it dominates the hotel restaurant food scene as purported by this list.

Fly Girl said...

Gary: Nice to have info about the DC area choices. I have a couple of special events, and those good be some good choices for me.

Anonymous: I, too, though LV restaurants weighted in a little heavy on the list. Maybe it's because they've been known for their cheap buffets for too long.

Anonymous said...

The one hotel restaurant they picked for Seattle is a lovely place but it is in one of the most posh hotels in Seattle. There are plenty of other hotel restaurants in the Seattle area that would have broader appeal. It seems a trifle narrow.

Fly Girl said...

I think that "posh" may have been their standard.

Anonymous said...

Which is a shame because posh doesn't always mean good.
The DragonFish restaurant at the Paramount Hotel in Seattle is a fine example of great food without having to apply for a small loan to pay the bill. I used to work near there and nearly everyone in the neighborhood would stop by for the happy hour. The sushi and Asian fusion options are fantastic.