Best Restaurants of 2019
IN MONTREAL, Ichigo ichie remains one of the best Isakaya in Montreal.
In 2019, one food item I particularly liked in Montreal was the fried chicken at Roch le Coq. I hope Roch Le Coq maintains the standard of their fried chicken as high as it has been on my last visit there (October 2019).
Also tried: There were some few new openings in Montreal, of which I found Le Boulevardier , Provisions Bar à Vin and Le Flamant quite enjoyable (by our local dining standards).
Last but not least, I found the sunday brunch at the Queen Elizabeth’s hotel (my review here), to be one great value brunch.
IN NEW YORK, Red Hook Tavern is a remarkable bistrot deserving of its popularity.
Gallagher’s Steakhouse offered the best rib eye I ever had in New York city, World’s capital of the North American steak, which makes it even more remarkable.
I also retried Peter Luger in 2019 and they still have one of the best North American porterhouse steaks money can buy.
Roberta’s Pizza is widely known to have some of the best pizza in the USA, and all I can say is that it is not hard to believe that hype.
The Burger at Emily is a tasty treat not to be missed while you are in NYC and Sorbillo NYC turned out to be my preferred Neapolitan pizza in the Big Apple.
Other restaurants that I tried in NYC in 2019: the new restaurant of Chef Alfred Portale (the Chef who turned Gotham Bar & Grill into a legendary dining destination) , called Portale in Chelsea (that was a hit), Kochi (reviewed here – the Chef used to work at 3 star Michelin Per Se before. They were in their initial weeks, when I went there, so give them some time to blossom, as, for now, some food items were superb, indeed, but others were too ordinary and stood as reminders that a bit of fine-tuning would be necessary, which is normal as it is a very young venture). Last, but not least, I did also visit Jeju Noodle bar — my critic here — from another Korean Chef who used to work at Per Se. Jeju takes the instant noodle that we all know, they use a home made version of that as opposed to the commercial version that we all know, and elevates it as a gourmet dish. And it is doing it extremely well. Some may frown (as in …why am I being served an elevated version of instant noodles?), but doing business is not about emotions (well, buddy, there are elevated versions of burgers and SPAM canned cooked pork, there are elevated versions of pizza, etc. So why not instant noodles?? ) but about what works, and Jeju gambled and won (it is a very popular restaurant). Jeju has, of course, other offerings aside from their high-end noodles.
Best dishes, food items of 2019
The sea eel nigiri (as well as the cooked items) at Sushi Amane, NYC
The rib eye steak at Gallagher’s Steakhouse, NYC
Biggest dining disappointments of 2019
-Oiji has been a revelation to plenty of food critics in NYC, but their enthusiasm did not square with what I did experience at this restaurant. My meal at Oiji was a disappointment as argued here.
-Minetta Tavern’s Black Label Burger enjoys an enviable reputation but I am afraid I have got to question that.
-Quality Meats works hard to position its steak as one of NYC’s best, but my rib eye steak did not live up to its billing.
-Fuku’s Vada Pav was one of the most hyped-up food items in 2019 in NYC, but an epic failure when I went to try it.
To wrap up this blog’s past year highlights, I will share with you the top 10 reviews that you have perused the most all along the year of 2019: The review on Peter Luger was the most popular among you (read by 15% of all of you ), the closest second was the one on Docks Oyster House – Atlantic City (10.58% of you all), then L’Arpege – Paris (read by 10.44% of you all), Dons de La Nature – Tokyo (10.28% of you all), Torishin – New York City (9.56% of you all), Restaurant Damas – Montreal (8.29 % ), Ishikawa – Tokyo (8.23 % ), Hong Fan Tian – Montreal (7.4 % ) , the review of Le Dôme Café – Paris (5.7% ), the one on Nice (5.28 % ) and the rest is scattered across various restaurant reviews. For the first time in 5 years, the review about the steakhouses in Montreal is NOT in the top 10 of the posts that you have read the most (it used to be #1 year after year).
It is always interesting to opine on what you have decided to be the most popular reviews, from the standpoint of the person who did write them: as an example, I can understand how the reviews on Torishin and Docks Oyster House did appeal to you as I cannot remember any review being that upfront about those two places (most online reviews about those 2 restaurants are romanticized), but there are reviews which popularity I simply do not get such as the ones on Restaurant Damas – Montreal as well as Le Dôme Café – Paris. Particularly Le Dôme Café, which is not really a dining destination. Historical, true, and very pretty in its genre, but not a dining destination. I do not see why people would read a restaurant review about a historical restaurant. A historical restaurant, you just go and visit it. That is it, Lol. You do not need to read a restaurant review about it.
What I find interesting is that, based on the write-ups that are the most popular to you, I will have to observe that some of the better restaurants that I have reviewed continue to slip under your radar (as an example, the current best rib eye steak that money can buy in New York, Gallaghers Steakhouse, had its review perused by only 0.125 % of you all, the gem that Sushi Azabu is … seems to have been of interest only for 1.37% of the readers of this blog. Not that those places would lose a sleep over that, Lol, but it remains an interesting observation …).
Last but not least, it was nice to see some of the great restaurants of the world that I have already reviewed here (the column that is on the left of this blog) featuring in the top 50 of La Liste. La Liste takes the majority of the online restaurant reviews, and then ranks restaurants based on that. Therefore if you take issue with it, you are taking issue with every single restaurant review that you happen to see online and that includes yours, too. I gather that there is no perfect restaurant ranking guide, obviously, but this is the only system that is basically taking into account the bulk of the online restaurant reviews and not doing its own ranking based on its own way of appreciating a restaurant. So, in a nutshell, it is the voice of the people, and that voice seems to have expressed plenty of love for the following restaurants that I have reviewed here – On la liste 2020, L’Ambroisie is #10. I have no doubt that L’Ambroisie is the best classic French restaurant in the world, but I was afraid that its steep prices would never allow it to enjoy such visibility. I was wrong, then. L’Arpege is #5. There too, the surprise was great as L’Arpege is not into fancy food, it uses few ingredients and it is very pricey, but apparently I mistakenly thought that would play against them. Seems like the people did see what I saw there, which is the potential of Passard to blow your mind away with some of the HIGHS you may experience while eating there. Les Prés d’Eugénie are #19 in the world, based on what did result from the majority of all online restaurant reviews and they highly deserved it as this is indeed some of the few benchmark classic French cooking in the world. Also reviewed here are L’Auberge du Vieux Puits at #20 in the world (Great for Chef Goujon, he works so hard to put his restaurant on the map of the gastronomic world and he is getting the recognition that he deserves …just add more punch to your amuse-bouches, Chef!) and at #29 in the world, Le Calandre (here, it was the savoury dishes that lacked sparks, during my meal there, but I trust that it was an isolated situation and that took nothing away from the great dining destination that this place is). The restaurant that I love the most in the world, Dal Pescatore, is at # 27 (Great! I mean this is classic food, and in this day and age, I was not expecting the people to love their classics that much, lol).
Before I go, I have to say that I was very impressed by Michelin recently, which does not happen as often as the most would expect from someone who named his web blog michelinstarfinedinings.wordpress.com, Lol. Michelin removed the 3 stars that Jiro and Sushi Saito had in Tokyo. Now, you can say whatever you want about Michelin, but they are the only restaurant review sources that refuses to sell to you a “private club” as a normal restaurant. Go on any other restaurant review sources ( crowd-sourced review forums, etc) and they talk about “private clubs” as if those ventures are opened to the public, which consequence is just to fool people.
As ever with food, know what you want: you need authenticity, then go get it where it is supposed to be found. Do not expect genuine Thai, Japanese, African or whatever kind of food oceans and continents away from where it originates. Doing so would be utterly foolish. And remember: when you read a review about a restaurant, look at the date the review was published! A restaurant was probably great years ago, but a total disaster years later. I know many restaurants that went from hero to zero within 2,3 months. So it is not hard to imagine what a restaurant can morph into across the years…! Set your expectations accordingly. A big part of enjoying the good things in life is … to be positive, indeed, but to …stay genuinely realistic, too. Wish you all plenty of great food in 2020!
An anonymous Montrealer's Michelin Star dinners 