Especially when Vegas is 4x the normal price.
I doubt we will ever be top 3 in upper crust fancy restaurants. I am just impressed by this city's food options in the lower and middle tiers, compared to many of the other major cities I have visited. IMO we kill it in this category. Not just talking about cheap tacos or pho either.EclipseAg said:
Random anecdote that supports Houston not being in the top 3.
I LIVE here -- and have all my life -- and can't really name the top two or three restaurants. But I certainly know The French Laundry, Le Bernadin, Bouchon, Per Se, Alinea, etc., even if I haven't eaten there.
That's more of a name recognition issue than a quality one, perhaps. But still ... it's tough to be considered one of the best if you don't have two or three restaurants and chefs that are well-known. You can't build a national reputation on hole-in-the-wall pho or taco places.
Participating in Michelin will hopefully give Houston a higher profile nationally.
That's been my point really. I mean, it's nice to have lots of options to get your extremely pricey cuisine made to look like a modern art masterpiece like below (which is mostly what all Michelin star restaurants do), but for the vast, vast majority of people, those experiences are a few times to 0 times a year. Rating a city's food scene should be most highly weighted by the food in the $$-$$$ range that most people eat on a regular basis.texagbeliever said:
I would wager Houston is the #1 restaurant scene city for any households with a combined income < $200k.
You can find that pricey unique experience for an anniversary or celebration but most of the time you are looking for good bang for your buck food.
steve00 said:
I think this is very possible, but it depends on the market showing it can sustain restaurants of this level. The 1 stars need to stay close to fully booked for the next year to convince investors to open more high end places.
The ones with tasting menus and regular menus need to get a high percentage of tasting menus with wine pairings booked to suggest that a 2 star level of investment makes sense.
It isn't a great sign that I could make a 7pm reservation this Friday at several of them.
steve00 said:
The existence of fine dining restaurants in a city does not equal the absence of good, low cost restaurants.
The cities known for fine dining are also well known for inexpensive, iconic foods that are specific to them.
NY Style Slice
Chicago Deep Dish
Mission Burrito
Italian Beef Sandwich
Chicago Style Hot Dog
Pastrami on Rye
JCA1 said:steve00 said:
I think this is very possible, but it depends on the market showing it can sustain restaurants of this level. The 1 stars need to stay close to fully booked for the next year to convince investors to open more high end places.
The ones with tasting menus and regular menus need to get a high percentage of tasting menus with wine pairings booked to suggest that a 2 star level of investment makes sense.
It isn't a great sign that I could make a 7pm reservation this Friday at several of them.
What Houston has working against it for extremely high end dining is it's not a tourist destination like NYC, Bay Area, Chicago, etc. Not having a steady stream of tourists to help fill out the reservation book makes it a lot tougher.
I'm curious about this here.Stat Monitor Repairman said:
Was talking to a chef one time that trained on the east coast.
Said the reason that gulf coast struggles is due to the difference in food purveyors.
The top quality ingredients is available on the east coast and it isn't being sent to places like Houston.
There's something to that. Even the cable TV food shows that feature ever greasy spoon on the East Coast and Upper Midwest didn't come to Houston until we marketed "Most Diverse Food Scene" TM.BQRyno said:
I think the case could easily be made that Houston doesn't have any crme de la crme restaurants BECAUSE we haven't had Michelin ratings until now. The best chefs can open a restaurant anywhere. Might as well do it where they can get the recognition. I would not be shocked to see the top tier restaurants get even better or a new class of restaurants show up.