Zagat's Vancouver

[Sam Salmon]

I suspect someone is having a laugh @ my expense.

They signed me up with this Zagat bunch and now I'm being bombarded by emails-or was until I learned how to have them blocked.

Anyway today in the mail came this chintzy little booklet that purports to rate the same old/same old in Vancouver-the format is dense-close to impenetrable.

Now I'm not the sharpest corn chip in the bag but how relevant is this sort of thing anymore anyway?

Do people still carry around little red books looking for places to eat?

[Ducky]

Well I continue to use them when travelling in the US. They're reasonably reliable and the slim format works for me.

[christabel]

yes, the american guides seem to hold some credibility, but having read and contributed to the local versions I'm a little suspicious of the populist method of review. Have you ever noticed how many crappy restaurants stay in business, because they;ve identified some peculier niche, of loyal, but out-of-their mind customers? The Zagat method does not isolate these incidences well. Similarly, a lot of really uimaginative choices get rated high, because the majority of diners eat in mainstream restaurants and will thereby receive a lot of feedback. It's a very democratic system, but if we let the majority choose our restaurants for us, I shudder to think what could happen...

[SBonner]

I'm not impressed with our local version or the London version. The slim footprint makes it appealing; but with my laptop, wifi, and e-gullet I can learn much more.

Cheers,

Stephen

[Vancouver]

The Vancouver version seems to really miss most of the good Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Singaporean, etc., etc. places. It covers all of the places you would expect to see in a hotel guide book sitting on your desk when you check-in to a downtown Vancouver hotel.

I agree - give me a laptop, wifi, and egullet!

Cheers!

[canucklehead]

Here are Zagat's top rated for Food:

29 - West

28 - Lumiere, Bishops, Vij's, Pear Tree

27 - Tojo's, Le Crocodile, Le Regalade

26 - Ciopinno's, Il Gardino, Villa Del Lupo, Diva, Rangoli, Cru, Gotham, C Restaraunt

25 - Caffe de Medici, Parkside, Bin 941/942, Five Sails, Guu, Aurora, Chartwell, Kirin, Morton's, Blue Water, Go Fish, Bistro Pastis, Chambar

Generally - if I was a tourist, I think that I would be pretty happy with most of the ratings above. I don't think the Bin's or Go Fish should be ranked quite so highly. and a savvy visitor would probably not end up at Morton's either. Otherwise - I think its mostly about tweaking the list. Any glaring omissions? (I am assuming that places like Rare One and Nu may be too new to make the list).

Nice to see the Pear Tree on the list - chronically overlooked gem in Burnaby (if only they would just lighten up).

I agree with Vancouver - the Zagat's is really misses on the mark on Chinese, Malaysian, Japanese.... but that's egullet for.

Edited July 15, 2006 by canucklehead (log)

[Vancouver]

Reading over the guide I see they took a few of my comments and used them - go figure! "Howard Johnson's decor" for Tojo's is one.

Cheers!

[bill_n_opus]

I'll typically do some research beforehand and not use the Zagat.

as for a laptop, wifi and egullet - egullet is still the one.

Converged device and EVDO in increasingly taking prominence away from the laptop and wifi.