New York Times 3 & 4-Star Restaurants

The new New York Times restaurant critic has asked his readers to suggest restaurants to review. To that end, I offer the following table of “important” restaurants and their past Times review dates.

I’ve limited the list to restaurants that: 1) Have now, or have ever had, a Michelin star; or, 2) Have now, or have ever had, three or four NYT stars, since 1981.

These criteria aren’t perfect. My list omits many essential restaurants that have never had top ratings, and it includes a few ridiculous ones that no one considers essential any more. Still, it is a reasonably objective way of identifying restaurants that have been “important,” by some reckoning or another, while keeping the list within manageable scope.

After the restaurant name, the next two columns show the maximum (i.e., the most it has ever had) and the current number of Michelin stars for the restaurant. The same is shown for the New York Times rating, both maximum and current, along with the name of the critic and the date of the most recent review. Click on the date to read the review itself. The initials “DB” in the “Curr.” column indicates that the most current NYT review is just a “Dining Brief” (i.e., it has never had a starred review).

The column labeled “Obs.” indicates if the last New York Times review is obsolete, by virtue of an intervening event, usually a change of chef, but sometimes a remodeling job. The mere fact that the review might be wrong does not make it obsolete.

The column labeled “Rev.” is my subjective recommendation of whether the restaurant ought to be considered for a re-review (or in a few cases, reviewed for the first time). In some cases, I put a ‘?’ if I am not sure. I tried to be realistic about this: there are some Sifton ratings that I personally disagree with, but I realize that Wells is highly unlikely to revisit them anytime soon. On the other hand, most reviews that are over a decade old have a “Y” in this column, for no other reason than their age.

Let the debates begin!!!

Restaurant	Michelin		New York Times				Obs.	Rev.
	Max.	Curr.	Max.	Curr.	Critic	Date
Adour Alain Ducasse	**	*	***	***	Bruni	4-16-08	Y	Y
Ai Fiori	*	*	***	***	Sifton	4-23-11
Aldea	*	*	**	**	Bruni	4-7-09		?
Annisa	*	*	**	**	Sifton	6-23-10		?
Aquavit	–	–	***	**	Sifton	7-21-10
Atera	–	–	***	***	Wells	7-18-12	Y
Aureole	*	*	***	*	Sifton	11-11-09	Y
A Voce Columbus	*	*	**	**	Sifton	11-25-09		?
A Voce Madison	*	*	***	***	Bruni	5-10-06	Y	?
Babbo	*	–	***	***	Bruni	6-9-05
Bernardin, Le	***	***	****	****	Wells	5/23/05
BLT Fish	*	–	***	***	Bruni	4-20-05	Y	Y
Blue Hill	*	*	***	***	Bruni	8-2-06
Blue Hill at Stone Barns	–	–	***	***	Bruni	7/28/04		Y
Bouley	**	*	***	***	Bruni	3-25-09
Breslin, The	*	*	*	*	Sifton	1-12-10		Y
Brooklyn Fare	***	***	***	***	Sifton	4-27-11
Brushstroke	*	*	**	**	Sifton	7-13-11
Brushstroke (Ichimura)			***	***	Wells	9-26-12
Café Boulud	*	*	***	***	Bruni	8-15-07	Y
Casa Mono	*	*	**	**	Burros	1-28-04		Y
Cirque, Le	–	–	****	**	Wells	9/19/12
Colicchio & Sons	–	–	***	***	Sifton	3/17/10		?
Corton	**	**	***	***	Bruni	12-10-08
Craft	*	–	***	***	Sifton	9-7-11
Daniel	***	***	****	****	Bruni	1/21/09
Danji	*	*	*	*	Sifton	8/17/11
Danny Brown	*	*	–	–	NEVER	NEVER		Y
Del Posto	**	*	****	****	Sifton	9/29/10
Dévi	*	–	**	**	Bruni	11/17/04	Y
Dovetail	*	*	***	***	Bruni	2/20/08
Dressler	*	*	**	**	Bruni	6/7/07
Eleven Madison Park	***	***	****	****	Bruni	8/12/09
Esca	–	–	***	***	Bruni	4/18/07
Felidia	–	–	***	***	Bruni	8/30/06
Four Seasons, The	–	–	***	**	Bruni	4/4/07
Gilt	**	**	**	**	Bruni	2/8/06	Y	Y
Gotham Bar & Grill	*	*	***	***	Sifton	5/17/11
Gordon Ramsay	**	**	**	**	Bruni	1/31/07	Y	Y
Gramercy Tavern	*	*	***	***	Bruni	6/6/07
Grenouille, La	–	–	****	***	Sifton	12/23/09
Il Buco A&V	–	–	***	***	Wells	3/14/12
Insieme	*	–	**	**	Bruni	6/20/07	Y
Jean Georges	***	***	****	****	Bruni	4/19/06
Jewel Bako	*	*	*	*	Bruni	6/21/06
JoJo	*	–	***	***	Grimes	4/17/02		Y
Junoon	*	*	**	**	Sifton	3/30/11
Kajitsu	**	**	–	DB	Moskin	9/2/09		Y
Kyo Ya	*	*	***	***	Wells	4/11/12
Kurumazushi	*	–	***	***	Reichl	10/6/95		Y
Joël Robuchon	**	**	***	***	Bruni	10/4/06
Laut	*	*	–	DB	Moskin	7/29/09		Y
Marc Forgione	*	*	**	**	Sifton	10/6/10
Marea	**	**	***	***	Sifton	10/21/09
Masa	***	***	****	***	Sifton	6/15/11
Minetta Tavern	*	*	***	***	Bruni	5/20/09
Modern, The (Bar Rm.)	–	–	***	***	Bruni	1/10/07		Y
Modern, The (Dine. Rm.)	*	*	**	**	Bruni	5/4/05		Y
Molyvos	–	–	***	**	Asimov	7/17/02
Momofuku Ko	**	**	***	***	Bruni	5/7/08
Momofuku Ssäm Bar	–	–	***	***	Bruni	12/3/08		?
Nobu	*	–	***	***	Reichl	9/8/95		Y
Nobu 57	–	–	***	***	Bruni	9/28/05		Y
Nobu, Next Door	–	–	***	***	Reichl	12/23/98		Y
NoMad, The			***	***	Wells	6/20/12
Oceana	*	*	***	**	Sifton	11/18/09
Palm & Palm Too	–	–	***	*	Sifton	7/27/11
Patroon	–	–	***	**	Asimov	7/10/02
Perry St.	*	–	***	***	Bruni	9/7/05	Y	Y
Périgord, Le	–	–	***	**	Grimes	10/11/00	Y	Y
Per Se	***	***	****	****	Sifton	10/12/11
Peter Luger	*	*	***	**	Bruni	9/19/07
Picholine	**	*	***	***	Bruni	11/8/06
Public	*	*	**	**	Grimes	12/17/03		?
River Café	*	*	***	**	Grimes	2/13/02	Y	Y
Rosanjin	*	*	**	**	Bruni	3/28/07		?
Rouge Tomate	*	*	*	*	Bruni	1/7/09		?
Sammy’s Roumanian	–	–	***	***	Sheraton	5/21/82		?
Saul	*	*	**	**	Wells	10/7/09
Scalini Fedeli	*	–	*	*	Grimes	10/13/99
Scarpetta	–	–	***	***	Bruni	7/30/08		Y
Seäsonal	*	*	**	**	Asimov	2/25/09
Shalezeh	*	–	–	–	NEVER	NEVER		Y
SHO Shaun Hergatt	**	**	**	**	Sifton	4/21/10		Y
Soto	**	**	**	**	Bruni	9/5/07		Y
Spice Market	–	–	***	*	Bruni	6/24/09
Spotted Pig, The	*	*	*	*	Bruni	1/25/06		Y
Sugiyama	–	–	***	***	Reichl	3/17/99		Y
Sushi Azabu	*	*	*	*	Bruni	10/29/08
Sushi of Gari	*	*	**	**	Bruni(1)	3/2/05		?
Sushi Yasuda	–	–	***	***	Asimov	11/16/11
Tamarind Tribeca	*	*	**	**	Sifton	8/4/10
Tori Shin	*	*	–	–	NEVER	NEVER		Y
Tulsi	*	*	*	*	Sifton	3/30/11		?
Union Square Cafe	–	–	***	**	Bruni	8/5/09
Veritas	*	*	***	***	Sifton	3/16/11
Wallsé	*	*	**	**	Hesser	5/5/04
WD~50	*	*	***	***	Bruni	3/5/08

Note 1: Frank Bruni actually reviewed Gari, the west side branch of Sushi of Gari. The latter does not appear to have ever been reviewed in The Times, but the two are quite similar.

Comments

[changeup]

This is great stuff. I forced myself to pick the top 5 from your list, and came up with:

Gilt
Jojo
Kajitsu
Modern Dining Room
Nobu/Next Door

Is the Breslin Rev="Y" a typo? Seems no reason for it that I can think of. I wouldn't have checked Scarpetta with a "Y" either.

I would put a "Y" next to Picholine myself. It's a pretty important restaurant given it's location and history, and I would love to know how it's holding up.

[Marc Shepherd]

If a restaurant has been reviewed within the past 8 years, I didn’t put a ‘Y’ in the “Rev.” column unless I know something has changed, or unless I felt pretty strongly that the rating is wrong.

In that vein, I suggested the Spotted Pig and the Breslin (both severely under-rated), and Scarpetta (the opposite; it is basically a chain now).

Picholine’s three-spot is just five years old. By current NYT standards (tending toward a decade or more between re-reviews), Wells is unlikely to go there unless there has been a pretty severe decline (which could be, but I haven’t heard that).

I probably have too many Y’s. There are 30 of them. Even assuming Wells agreed with my choices, it would probably take him several years to hit them all, given that new restaurants make up the bulk of the reviews.