Hello world, well it’s been a great year for food, and I have thankfully and fortunately been able to eat at some of the city’s best restaurants. (Sorry McDonald’s, you didn’t make the cut this year despite all of your mcnugget goodness and crunchy fries). The Zagat’s food guide has recently created their 2010 ratings, and I have been very interested in their opinions of various restaurants. Therefore, I thought it would be time to review my gourmet adventures in a numerical way. The Zagat guide rates their restaurants in three important ways: food, décor, and service.
Now, we all know that only one of those numbers matter. I’m talking, of course, about food! No offense to fans of service and décor: I can take it or leave it when it comes to either of these aspects, as long as the food is top-notch. However, I strive to be as official as possible, so the following list contains all three ratings of restaurants that I have reviewed since I started writing this blog (ratings updated for 2013!): (All of these restaurant ratings are out of a maximum of 30 points, and they rarely get beyond 27 or 28).

And the winners are!

The following list is in the order of Restaurant name, reason for food award, food décor service.

• Dinosaur BBQ
  (One of the top two barbecue restaurants in New York City; I’ve never had a bad meal here!): 23 19 19

• Runner up: Blue Smoke (try their excellent varieties of ribs and outstanding mac and cheese) 23 19 21
• Sandro’s (scrumptious Roman cuisine and one of my favorite restaurants of any kind): 26 16 21
• Union Square Café (A bit touristy, but it is one of the most popular restaurants in the city, creates an excellently charred hamburger and don’t forget their succulent fried calamari): 27 23 26
• Rare Bar and Grill
  (This restaurant ranks among the top 10 for hamburgers in my opinion and their T-Bone burger is particularly noteworthy,): 22 18 18

• Socarrat Paella Bar (I am proud to be one of the first bloggers to
  write about this outstanding Spanish restaurant
  Their paella is one of the top two in the city, you can expect long waits so get there early and enjoy!): 23 18 18

• Flex Mussels (A fabulous restaurant offering big mussels with 23 different sauces, by the way, if you don’t like mussels maybe this is not the right restaurant for you): 23 18 20
• Sparks (Many say this is the best steakhouse in Manhattan, I liked it and think it is
  one of my top five
  but far from the best): 26 21 24

• Lucali’s (This was my
  first review!
  It is one of the top two pizza establishments and also makes great calzones): 27 19 20

Conclusion:

As I said, it’s been a great year for food! However, I have started eating more “create your own salads” at cafes and restaurants, which balances out my diet after all of these restaurant adventures. (I actually enjoy these salads now, but I may never be a health food critic.) I want to thank all of my great readers for this opportunity, see you at the awards next year!
Daniel