New York Restaurants Rated

Sun., Dec. 6, 1998

The 18,320 New York City diners participating in the 1999 Zagat restaurant survey rated Le Bernardin, the French seafood palace, the best for food. But Danny Meyer’s Union Square Cafe remained the overall favorite for the third year in a row.

Meyer’s other restaurant, Gramercy Tavern, moved into third place in popularity.

The 20th annual edition of the survey also noted “major openings” throughout the year, including Union Pacific, Cena, City Hall, EQ, Babbo, Cafe Boulud, Mercer Kitchen and Michael Jordan’s Steak House, “which hit the floor running even if the start of Jordan’s NBA season was put on hold.”

The survey tallies nine New York City restaurants with the cost of meals averaging $70 or more, led by Lespinasse ($77), Les Celebrites ($76) and Jean Georges ($75). The average for the 20 most expensive spots was $68.56.

That’s $10 more than the next most-expensive city, San Francisco ($58.20), and $40 more than the cheapest, Kansas City ($27).

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