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Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
Dear Ed,
Over the last 27 years, Zagat Survey has provided a trusted forum for the organized word of mouth of more than 250,000 surveyors worldwide. Zagat’s success is based entirely on the trust and loyalty of our valued customers, surveyors and the public at-large. So maintaining the integrity of our content has always been our number one priority.
And let me be perfectly clear, Nina and I have never voted in any of our surveys since day one.
Having said that, let me take a moment to explain to you and your readers how the list of Top NYC Newcomers was determined.
This past year, 31,604 surveyors were asked to rate the restaurants they visited on a 0-3 scale (0=fair-poor, 1=good, 2=very good, 3=excellent) in three different categories - Food, Décor, and Service. The ratings are then averaged and multiplied by 10 and rounded to the nearest whole number (i.e., a 2.54722 becomes a 25). Thus, this year’s list, based entirely on our surveyors’ Food ratings, produced the following list of Top Newcomers:
Telepan 25.4722
The Orchard 25.0617
Ureña 24.5070
A Voce 23.5416
Morimoto 23.4710
Country 23.3576
Del Posto 23.1836
Cookshop 23.1619
Buddakan 23.0000
Bouchon Bakery 22.5899
And by the way, Nina and I have made the trip down to Del Posto many more times than we have visited Telepan, though we have enjoyed them both very much.
Tim Zagat
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
Smalera said "I "really" can't "imagine" using "Zagat" for any "useful information" these days."
How about address, telephone number, hours and credit cards?
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
WOW!!!! stop the presses!!! zagat's is actually being defended!!! say it ain't so?? actually, it's more like defending the integrity of tim & nina, which, in this case, seems to be justified. although it's nice to see ELE show some emotion, this may not have been the right battle. as much as i find zagat's to be a waste of time & comprised by amateurs making innane judgements, i doubt if it's necessary for tim or nina to skew the results, the "reviewers" do a good job all by theirselves.it's difficult to deny such a brilliant concept such as "zagat's", which has become a profitable franchise, regardless of how useless. it's all part of the grand design of dumbing down everything in our society, so it should not be such a surprise at how successful its become.
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
Im sorry Ed, I cant agree...Im suprised by what seems to be an ad hominem attack...not characteristic of your laid back, friendly style...It is a bit heavy handed to accuse the Zagats in an almost conspiratorial way...Yes we know many food critics may not be the most savory characters [ no pun intended !], but i would hardly think the Zagats would base a restaurants rating on its proximity...
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
Ed, while I love your blog I was disappointed to see your comment on the Tim Zagat and Telepan.
I briefly worked at Zagat in 2000, and in fact reported directly to Tim and Nina. I can say many disparaging things about Zagat but I'll tell you this: Tim takes those ratings as serious as a heart attack.
I'm confident that Telepan ended up the #1 newcomer just as Tim describes in his post above: a simple mathematical averaging of the ratings submitted.
In the future, rather than accusing Tim of falsifying information, why not ask him for an interview and hit him with a lot of hard questions? I'm sure the resulting post would be much more interesting to your readers.
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
I "really" can't "imagine" using "Zagat" for any "useful information" these days.
There are so many other "good" guides for "food" on the "internet" that Zagat seems like a "relic" of "outdated" reviews and meaningless "ratings."
For those of us who like to read "coherent sentences" uncluttered with "cliched superlatives" or "total inaccuracies" it's much easier to turn to sites like Chowhound, Gayot, New York Magazine, Village Voice, and the dozens of individual food bloggers, all of which usually provide much better information than that archaic little book.
Tim Zagat Likes Close to Home Cooking
I realize that Zagat is influential in the Food industry, but now with few exceptions, it is a publishing empire, intent upon selling books and web subscriptions.
As bona fide food critics, forget it. Yes, they are critical-- but their credentials are based largely on years of amassing surveys and printing collective wisdom of the masses, punctuated with some pithy words of wisdom from staff. Once you get outside of New York, their hands-on influence is even less, even though travelers (and locals) buy their books.
I always found it peculiar that the Zagat publication standards are not uniform city to city. In some cities, a score of 28 is rare, in others (not NY,SF, LA) they are several. What gives.
Zagat is a Gallup Pollster, not a food critic. Yes, he has made money, but then so has the Nielsen ratings-- but what do they really know about quality.
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Dear Ed,
Over the last 27 years, Zagat Survey has provided a trusted forum for the organized word of mouth of more than 250,000 surveyors worldwide. Zagat’s success is based entirely on the trust and loyalty of our valued customers, surveyors and the public at-large. So maintaining the integrity of our content has always been our number one priority.
And let me be perfectly clear, Nina and I have never voted in any of our surveys since day one.
Having said that, let me take a moment to explain to you and your readers how the list of Top NYC Newcomers was determined.
This past year, 31,604 surveyors were asked to rate the restaurants they visited on a 0-3 scale (0=fair-poor, 1=good, 2=very good, 3=excellent) in three different categories - Food, Décor, and Service. The ratings are then averaged and multiplied by 10 and rounded to the nearest whole number (i.e., a 2.54722 becomes a 25). Thus, this year’s list, based entirely on our surveyors’ Food ratings, produced the following list of Top Newcomers:
Telepan 25.4722
The Orchard 25.0617
Ureña 24.5070
A Voce 23.5416
Morimoto 23.4710
Country 23.3576
Del Posto 23.1836
Cookshop 23.1619
Buddakan 23.0000
Bouchon Bakery 22.5899
And by the way, Nina and I have made the trip down to Del Posto many more times than we have visited Telepan, though we have enjoyed them both very much.
Tim Zagat