Sushi rolls over chow mein in New York (AFP) Updated: 2005-10-18 16:18
Japanese has firmly supplanted Chinese as the most popular Asian cuisine in
New York, according to the annual Zagat survey, which hailed the best year for
the city's restaurant industry since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Sushi rules in the
Big Apple. Japanese has firmly supplanted Chinese as the most popular
Asian cuisine in New York, according to the annual Zagat survey, which
hailed the best year for the city's restaurant industry since the
September 11, 2001 attacks. [AFP/file] | The
populist, best-selling survey, released Monday, faces a major ratings challenge
of its own this year with the Michelin guide, the French bible to gastronomic
dining, putting out its first-ever red edition of New York eateries next month.
Five of the 10 Top Food restaurants in the 2006 Zagat were French, led in the
number one spot by Eric Ripert's seafood spot, "Le Bernadin".
And five of the top 20 were Japanese, including "Masa" which is the most
expensive restaurant in the United States with a raw fish 'prix fixe' menu that
starts at 350 dollars per person -- excluding drinks or tip.
An average meal price of 38 dollars across the 2,000 restaurants reviewed by
Zagat makes New York the most costly restaurant city in the United States, with
the average bill in the 20 most expensive eateries standing at 113 dollars per
head -- a sharp increase of 25 percent from last year.
After several years in the doldrums, the restaurant industry overall appeard
to be making a strong comeback, with Zagat reporting 247 noteworthy openings
compared to only 83 closings.
"That's the largest differential in years and the strongest showing since
before the September 11 attack," said the survey's co-founder Tim Zagat.
The 2006 guide underlined the dominance of Japanese food over other major
Asian cuisines, with 22 Japanese restaurants rated higher than the top-ranked
Chinese.
"Japanese food has been going up like a rocket, while Chinese, which was
overwhelmingly the most prominent Asian cuisine in the States in 1990, has
stalled in the past 15 years," Zagat said.
"It's not just in New York but every city we cover ... Japanese easily
exceeds Chinese," he said.
On the challenge presented by the arrival on the market of the Michelin guide
in November, Zagat was cautiously diplomatic.
"I'm not spending any time thinking about Michelin until they arrive and then
I'll see what it is they are doing," he said.
"I think that competition is always good. Michelin is a great guide. But it
has a totally different approach from ours. We have 30,000 reviewers, they have
about five," he added.
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