Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Zagat's Vancouver


Sam Salmon

Recommended Posts

I suspect someone is having a laugh @ my expense. :raz:

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

"who needs a wine list when you can get pissed on dessert" Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares 2005

MY BLOG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by canucklehead (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...