Who doesn’t “love” list, especially restaurant lists
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been there done #98 Bresca - total disaster.
not sure how serving it one story higher would help . . .
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One “key” US restaurant missing from the list is Ubuntu
Some interesting choices there.
Glad they included wd-50. That was a fun experience (and probably one of the most expensive meals we’ve had).
Kalaya went downhill / is a shadow of its former self for those of us who went to the old location. They’re part of a restaurant group now, far more expensive, and the food isn’t as good.
We were also not that impressed with Zahav. Maybe they were having a bad day, but everything was extremely salty (which says a lot coming from this bunch heah), and we didn’t feel great after another meal there.
Shake Shack? Huh.
It’s about key restaurants in the US with an impact/influence and Shake Shack was influencing by how Danny Meyer build an “elevated” national fast food chain which is now used as a blue print by many other organizations
Just kinda stood out among all the hoity-toity $$$$ gourmet temples is all 
I think there are a number of reasonable priced places on the list like Tartine, Rustic Canyon, Bestia, Koji BBQ, Gjelina, Pizzeria Bianco, Animal, Mission Chinese, Zuni Cafe etc.
I’ve not checked every single restaurant’s price point, but yes, I saw there are a few that aren’t just 1%ers.
#65 Cote: I’ve only been to the Miami location, but it was great, and a much more interesting/less palate-fatigued experience than most steakhouses are for me. It doesn’t look like they offer the lunch special though, which would make it a lot more expensive. A lot of the appeal for me was being able to have a few bites of truly excellent steak without having another half pound of it after those bites.
They also had a Midori cocktail I loved, which I think is the first time that’s happened.
[#64 Emeril’s. I haven’t been in like 30 years. It was fine then! I liked the then-new Nola better.]
#32 Commander’s Palace. Arnaud’s is my favorite of the old line New Orleans restaurants, but that isn’t shade on Commander’s so much as that I didn’t have a car when I lived in New Orleans, and public transportation there is anemic. Arnaud’s was a single bus ride away, Commander’s wasn’t. But the two meals I had on-site were fantastic, and there used to be a store called Foodie’s that sold prepared meals from various restaurants, so I had their gumbo and turtle soup pretty often.
#15 Husk. We got married at Husk. Well, we had a couple incredible meals at the original Husk in Charleston, and a flight of whiskeys and the best country ham of my life (aged 24 months and sliced like prosciutto) at their bar (and their burger, which was a 3:1 blend of ground beef and bacon if I remember right—very good for me, too smoky for my wife), and then when we were planning our wedding in Nashville, we settled on Husk Nashville as the venue for both the ceremony and the reception. It was nice, and felt appropriate, that the best food of the trip was at our wedding: country ham and pimento cheese, but also this “squash casserole” that was incredibly thin slices of yellow squash bound together with some combination of buttermilk and agar. (I asked if I could get the recipe, but just got a list of ingredients.) I had more than a bit of the bourbon punch, which is probably why I don’t have clear memories of my main, a pork dish with pickled blueberries. (I think it’s the dish he develops on Mind of the Chef, I think that’s why I ordered it.) Also, there are aged hams hanging from the rafters in the event space, so our wedding smelled like aged pork, which I’m very cool with.
#5 Le Bernardin. Such an amazing meal, and probably the most expensive I’ve had? Well, not counting the wedding. This is one of the only times that my expectations were incredibly high and yet were still exceeded. The only thing I can compare it to in that respect is seeing Bowie live. I’m not sure we could’ve made a wrong move on the menu. Every dish was perfectly executed, and even freebies like this frozen meringue thing filled with strawberry things were incredible. I could point to any dish from that meal and say, if this is all I’d gotten at Le Bernardin, it’d have been the best dish of the trip (but yeah, the famous tuna with foie was the best of the best, and I still think about it a couple years later).
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There are probably a lot more missing than one 
Still, given the conceit of the header, it’s somewhat thoughtful for the NYC sub-group, though also repetitive and wasteful of spots that could have been occupied by better choices there or elsewhere – too much sushi / high end omakase, Major Food Group 3 times? (one of Carbone or Torrisi, and The Grill is superfluous), Atomix vs Atoboy (they already had Jungsik at the high end, Atoboy was the breakout), Momofuku 3 times? (Ko was spectacular at its outset, Noodle Bar started many trends, Ssam Bar is superfluous), Per Se is unnecessary when TFL is on the list (an almost identical menu except not as good in food or experience).
(Sort of related, I ate at Addison soon after EMP, and it was a far superior meal, though without the showmanship.)
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I guess the way they run the selection (250 people in the restaurant industry, each has to name their top 10 restaurants) doesn’t lead to a broad “selection” without much overlaps
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I love reading these lists.
I haven’t been to many of the restaurants listed, only Spago, Balthazar, Shake Shack, Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Noodle Bar, I think.
Out of those, I would go out of my way for Spago or a Balthazar sticky bun.
I have been to a couple Vongerichten restos that have gone out of business, but never made it to any that are on this list.
I wish I had visited Animal and Daniel when I had the chance.
I have not been to Carbone yet. The Carbone Marinara and Carbone Tomato Basil are currently my favourite jarred pasta sauces ,fwiw.
There’s always room for survey bias, and they didn’t say how the process was conducted. Did they give them a set of regional restaurants to choose from? (In which case who picked that set?) Did they name their own 10 out of all the restaurants possible? (Unlikely, to end up with coherent results.) And so on.
“ranked by a jury of 250 chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, ingredient purveyors, well-traveled diners, and more”
But, as you said, it’s a List.
