Food and Wine

[GordonCooks]

How important is a restaurant's wine list in terms of being an integral part of the menu, achieving 3 & 4 Star ratings, and evaluating comparable restaurants.

[Marian Burros]

For a four star restaurant it is very important. It could keep a restaurant from achieving four stars.

For a three star restaurant, somewhat less. I don't think it would take a three star down to a two star.

Having said that, keep in mind that it's my opinion and I'm only doing this gig for a short time, until they find a permanent critic.

I could conceive of a Thai restaurant so good it might get three stars, but not that many wines go well with Thai food. So the list could be fairly short; all it would have to be is appropriate