opentable.com Philadelphia

[jmbrightman]

1. Buddakan

Old City Asian $$$

2. Morimoto

Center City Japanese $$$$

3. Zanzibar Blue

Center City International $$$

4. Capital Grille - Philadelphia

Center City American $$$$

5. Alma De Cuba

Center City Cuban $$$

6. Tangerine

Old City Mediterranean $$$$

7. Pod

University City Asian $$$

8. Cuba Libre

Old City Cuban $$$

9. Ruth's Chris - Philadelphia

Center City Steak $$$$

10. Striped Bass

Center City Seafood $$$$

These are the opentable top 10 most reserved. Half of the restaurants here are Starr Group restaurants. There seems to be a resentment toward "chain" or "concept" restuarants on this site, yet they are booked to the gills. why? personally, I love Morimoto. I would not return to Ruth Chris (I didn't like the sizzling platter of grease that spattered all over my clothes), liked capital grille (but can't afford it out of my own pocket).

Edited March 10, 2005 by jmbrightman (log)

[Capaneus]

1. Buddakan

Old City Asian $$$ Reserve

2. Morimoto

Center City Japanese $$$$ Reserve

3. Zanzibar Blue

Center City International $$$

4. Capital Grille - Philadelphia

Center City American $$$$ 

5. Alma De Cuba

Center City Cuban $$$

6. Tangerine

Old City Mediterranean $$$$

7. Pod

University City Asian $$$ 

8. Cuba Libre

Old City Cuban $$$ Reserve

9. Ruth's Chris - Philadelphia

Center City Steak $$$$

10. Striped Bass

Center City Seafood $$$$

These are the opentable top 10 most reserved.  Half of the restaurants here are Starr Group restaurants.  There seems to be a resentment toward "chain" or "concept" restuarants on this site, yet they are booked to the gills.  why?

←

Well, you're not going to see Django, Matyson or Marigold on opentable.com, are you?

Aside from that, the very fact of their success is what annoys some - because it is often undeserved, and is syphoning dining dollars away from worthier kitchens.

Or to put it another way: all you can argue from the website numbers is popularity. Which means McDonald's trumps them all.

[philadining]

There seems to be a resentment toward "chain" or "concept" restuarants on this site, yet they are booked to the gills.  why?

←

I'm not sure you can ever correlate crowds with quality, there seem to always be lines at the Olive Garden, and heck, the McDonald's drive-through. But you have a point, most of those places you listed have been open for some time, and the fact that they're crowded means somebody must like them.... From the crowds at the valets, (and that half of the freaking good parking spaces in Center city seem to have become valet spaces...) I suspect that many in the crowd are suburban folks in for a hot night in the big city. I'm not dissing the suburbanites, heck, I am one, but they're going to tend to go to the known quantities, the places that have gotten lots of press, the place that people are buzzing about.

People have different priorities when they go out for dinner, and sometimes, an "event" is in order. Nothing wrong with that. But I'd be reluctant to presume that the busiest, or most profitable, or most exclusive restaurants are necessarily serving the best food.

[jmbrightman]

1. Buddakan

Old City Asian $$$ Reserve

2. Morimoto

Center City Japanese $$$$ Reserve

3. Zanzibar Blue

Center City International $$$

4. Capital Grille - Philadelphia

Center City American $$$$ 

5. Alma De Cuba

Center City Cuban $$$

6. Tangerine

Old City Mediterranean $$$$

7. Pod

University City Asian $$$ 

8. Cuba Libre

Old City Cuban $$$ Reserve

9. Ruth's Chris - Philadelphia

Center City Steak $$$$

10. Striped Bass

Center City Seafood $$$$

These are the opentable top 10 most reserved.  Half of the restaurants here are Starr Group restaurants.  There seems to be a resentment toward "chain" or "concept" restuarants on this site, yet they are booked to the gills.   why?

←

Well, you're not going to see Django, Matyson or Marigold on opentable.com, are you?

Aside from that, the very fact of their success is what annoys some - because it is often undeserved, and is syphoning dining dollars away from worthier kitchens.

Or to put it another way: all you can argue from the website numbers is popularity. Which means McDonald's trumps them all.

←

I don't know what it takes for a restaurant to sign up with opentable. I am an eater, not an owner. other small restaurants are represented. Vetri, my favorite of all time, is there. why not the others?

Edited March 10, 2005 by jmbrightman (log)

[katbert]

1.

These are the opentable top 10 most reserved.  Half of the restaurants here are Starr Group restaurants.  There seems to be a resentment toward "chain" or "concept" restuarants on this site, yet they are booked to the gills.  why?

←

Well, you're not going to see Django, Matyson or Marigold on opentable.com, are you?

Aside from that, the very fact of their success is what annoys some - because it is often undeserved, and is syphoning dining dollars away from worthier kitchens.

←

I don't know what it takes for a restaurant to sign up with opentable. I am an eater, not an owner. other small restaurants are represented. Vetri, my favorite of all time, is there. why not the others?

←

I'd suggest that Vetri's price point is quite a bit higher than most of the other small restaurants and also that some owners like their written/call in reservation system and don't want to bother adding in another source of reservations. Most people on egullet probably use & like computers a lot, some restaurant management probably does also, but less than this particular self selecting population. I don't mind that the smaller restaurants I like aren't on opentable or totally on the radar of the crowds b/c it means I can still get in without major planning; I'm happy for Django's sustained success but would be happier if I could get weekend reservations without a month's notice.

[Capaneus]

I don't know what it takes for a restaurant to sign up with opentable. I am an eater, not an owner.  other small restaurants are represented.  Vetri, my favorite of all time, is there.  why not the others?

My point was just that opentable is not a representative sample because many of the best small, independent restaurants don't use it. You could look at these BYOs as being for all practical purposes fully booked. The incentive for them to pay opentable.com is minimal.

Another point worth making is that, while you used the rate of usage to establish a hierarchy, the fact is that a restaurant that *never* has an open table will show up very, very low on that scale. To rank high on opentable.com requires that you start out with a large number of open tables. If you don't have those, usage cannot go up. I'm not implying that these places *aren't* popular - there are other considerations, such as price and size. But invoking the website as a comprehensive measure of popularity is unsound.

As to the difference between Vetri and them... pricepoint, I would think. An open top is worth much more to Vetri than to less expensive places, so it is worth paying whatever the commission might be to fill it. Just a guess, mind you.

[MarketStEl]

My point was just that opentable is not a representative sample because many of the best small, independent restaurants don't use it. You could look at these BYOs as being for all practical purposes fully booked. The incentive for them to pay opentable.com is minimal.

Another point worth making is that, while you used the rate of usage to establish a hierarchy, the fact is that a restaurant that *never* has an open table will show up very, very low on that scale. To rank high on opentable.com requires that you start out with a large number of open tables. If you don't have those, usage cannot go up. I'm not implying that these places *aren't* popular - there are other considerations, such as price and size. But  invoking the website as a comprehensive measure of popularity is unsound.

As to the difference between Vetri and them... pricepoint, I would think. An open top is worth much more to Vetri than to less expensive places, so it is worth paying whatever the commission might be to fill it. Just a guess, mind you.

←

Capaneus' first two points are probably worth repeating here.

Most of those really hot BYOs where you have to book your table three months ahead of time are also small restaurants. If you don't have a lot of tables to fill, you can in all likelihood fill them through word of mouth if your place is at all good.

Stephen Starr doesn't do small restaurants. Most of his places are fairly large establishments, which would make it worth his company's while to list them on opentable.com. Some of them, like the Old City Continental and El Vez, draw enough traffic from the bar-hoppers and neighborhood strollers that they won't show up on the opentable Top Ten, yet (if El Vez is any guide) they're probably no less popular than the ones that do.