Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Well the chef is French with Asian influences and this dish came out of left field!!

If the critic sticks to the food, service and decor-this is fine. But Bruni and others do not. They have attacked the people behind the establishments.

Bruni is as guilty of sexism as the rest of the 4 star chefs are guilty of discrimination for not employing non-whites or women in their wait staff. (Jean-George Vongerichten withstanding)

Anything to do with the food industry has a lot of bias against women.

I believe that if a food critic can criticize, the subject can rebuttal. Fair is fair here. All critics have that "power". This is the compromise. They too have to eat it when they themselves are critiqued.

Alan Richman makes Bruni seem very tame and liberal.

Actually, the service expectations commiserates with the type of restaurant and is also subjective. I am not getting that attentive service at my favorite rib joint, that I will get at Le Bernardin, who's service is more of a more noticable orchestrated performance.

If you want to know what flawless service is like on a perfect day...Go to Jean Georges and eat there. Wow! They had ESP. Actually they are just very discreet with their attentiveness. They watch from a distance and can see when glasses get half empty and ALL diners at a table are finished.

If your guests feel good when they are leaving, You have done a great job....BRAVO to al those extremely hard working individuals who have made me feel fabulous!

:)

I Just wanted to tell you how much I love your website, the critic system is having its revolution and it's healthy to see that kind of counter power emerge.
I read the article in the WSJ about the bloggers getting comped by some restauranteurs, in this article the Zagat people were saying that they are able to find out about those restaurants who ask their employees to vote for them. But to be totally fair don't you think they should do the same the other way too? let me explain, imagine some one wanting to harm a restauranteur because he's a direct competitor or he screwed his wife, or for any other reason. The guy asks a bunch of his friends to put bad reviews on Citysearch or to vote against him in the Zagat just to harm the guy, don't you think it can happen too?
My point is that it's time to demonstrate the unfairness of those kind of guides who just put up a computer system that uses and compiles the reviews they get on line and throw up a rating without doing their job to go and check the fairness by themselves. We all know the Zagat is filled with incoherences and still be (partially) responsibles for undeserved successes and failures.

Keep up with the good job !

me3dia,

yes, i read it. in fact, let's revisit verbatim what the WSJ said about Batali:

"For Mario Batali, the tipping point was an article on Eater about a dispute between him and one of his restaurant's landlords. In response, he wrote an article for the site titled, "Why I Hate Food Bloggers," in which he decried blogs as bastions of "untruths, lies and malicious and personally driven dreck."

My whole point was that ppl are quick to bag on bloggers, case in point Batali. Really, I doubt Batali hates bloggers. Did I read his post on Eater when it first came out? Yes. I even commented on that post on Eater.

To answer your question. Yes. I read the WSJ article. Yes. I read Batali's post on Eater. What is it that you wanted to address about that?

Mat Shaffer broke the Zagat story in the Boston Herald and was nominated for, but did not win, a Beard Award for it. I think the Boston survey has since sharpened its pencils. Ruth Tobias is now the local editor, and she is a peach.

Chowhound, IMHO as they like to write, varies widely from market to market - much like the dining audience.

That's quite a story about zagat, zapatista. Serious Eats should gather all the questionable Zagat dealings in a single post. We would of course call the Zagats and ask for a comment on each of them.

loulou, beg to differ. What Bruni does is an accepted, longstanding part of journalistic tradition - he tells you whether he thinks a place it worth it. Him getting attacked for that is a bit like judges being sued for, say, the prison sentences they administer with discretion to the criminals that appear before them. Bruni's job is to critique, both good and bad. The restauranteur's job is put out a good eatery, not critique back at established critics who give them mediocre reviews in good faith.