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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica's 10 Most Expensive Restaurants
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/americas-10-most-expensive-restaurants-212300995.htmlDetermining which restaurants in the nation offer the steepest prices is a tricky task. Most of the restaurants on this list serve the rarest, most premium, and freshest ingredients available, from kitchens run by chefs with expert levels of craftsmanship and artistry, in dining rooms with an exceptional quality of service provided by the front of house staff. But regardless of the justifications, the fact remains that the restaurants on this list are outrageously pricey.
To arrive at the top 25 we compiled a list of restaurants commonly known for being outrageously expensive (such as Masa, which is known for its $450 per person omakase menu). We started by first pulling data from The Daily Meal's 101 Best Restaurants in America for 2012, and then expanded the research to include a more comprehensive spectrum of fine dining restaurants across the country. From there we gathered data compiled by Bundle.com (a site that tracks average customer spending at restaurants) and Zagat's price ratings - finally, once the list was narrowed down to 50 restaurants, we contacted each one and asked a series of questions, such as their average party size, the percentage of diners that choose the tasting menu (where applicable), and what the average bill totals. From there, we ranked the top 25.
Of course, there are exceptions to consider. Some restaurants are known for offering a particularly expensive tasting menu based on seasonal ingredients. For instance, Spiaggia in Chicago offers a truffle tasting menu each December that costs $295 per person. However, during the rest of the year their tasting menu costs $90 a head (not pricey enough to land a spot on this list).
Furthermore, while it's important to consider how much a meal at these restaurants costs per person, when you're dealing with restaurants of this caliber, which offer diners an experience that transcends what's served on the plate, it's even more important to account for what the total bill costs on average. Most of the restaurants on this list have wines, sakes, and spirits on their menus that could double the price of the meal if you're in a particularly celebratory mood. That being said, the overwhelming majority of the restaurants on this list won't reserve tables for just one person, and many cap the allowed party size at two or four guests. Therefore the rankings reflect the "average check total" for each restaurant - which includes a complete meal (of whatever number of courses) plus one bottle of wine and tax and tip for the average party size (as indicated by each restaurant).
(More at link, with details of each restaurant. Here are the top 10 with the average check for each one.)
#10 Victoria & Albert's, Lake Buena Vista, Fla. $552
#9 Guy Savoy, Las Vegas $556
#8 Moto, Chicago $570
#7 Joël Robuchon, Las Vegas $640
#6 Alinea, Chicago $693
#5 Meadowood, St. Helena, Calif. $750
#4 French Laundry, Yountville, Calif. $800
#3 Per Se, New York City $851
#2 Urasawa, Beverly Hills, Calif. $1,111
#1 Masa, New York City $1,269
Of these, I'm seriously considering eating at Victoria & Albert's the next time I visit Disney World. The most expensive meal I've ever had was at Blue, at the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman. Price for 2 plus tip with non-alcoholic drinks was a bit over $350, as I recall.
Anybody ever eaten at any of the Top Ten?
TroglodyteScholar
(5,477 posts)It'll just be another turd in the morning.
Initech
(100,129 posts)Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)My friend and I enjoyed the heck out of dining there for the 3 hours the meal took.
TroglodyteScholar
(5,477 posts)Initech
(100,129 posts)$1262????????
Skittles
(153,261 posts)obamanut2012
(26,180 posts)I really enjoyed it. Do the Chef's Table if you can.
I've always wanted to eat at French Laundry or Per Se. A lot.
Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)A friend of mine tried to convince me to go to the French Laundry, but I balked at the price. I wasn't as much of a foodie then.
I may have to reconsider if I find myself out that way again!
quinnox
(20,600 posts)for a meal. What a rip off, and I hate places that have a too fancy and snobby atmosphere about them.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)ErikJ
(6,335 posts)I wonder how much just to eat the crumbs they drop?
mysuzuki2
(3,521 posts)any restaurant where they don't ask "do you want fries with that?" is upscale in my world.
salin
(48,955 posts)Can't imagine ever do so. While I no longer live on the financial edge, I spent far too many years with no financial margin. The cost of these meals would eat up my old safety net (which took years to build) to be able to deal with unexpected big repair costs on the old car, to be enough to absorb an unexpected doctor's visit and subsequent prescription.
I do periodically splurge - but nothing like this. Don't know that I could rationalize it even if my salary was 10 times what it is now. Would rather be able to donate the cost at the #1 priced meal (x 2 because one assumes one isn't dining alone) to a slew of food banks.
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)I don't know if you can get a bad meal in Paris or Rome. Really. I had a fabulous meal on a tray in a cafeteria in Bologna. I had the freshest food I've ever had in Spain, little towns and big cities. Sicily has terrific pizza everywhere I went and in the mountains the restaurants just make their own wines in a vineyard in the back!
Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)I've been there three times and the food was wonderful everywhere, especially when one manages to avoid the "tourist" restaurants!
CTyankee
(63,926 posts)It's so much fun to wander around and find something good. I find the hotel staff to be very helpful (altho I was skeptical at first). I always got a good rec from them. They always knew a "little place around the corner" that turned out to be fabulous!
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)It says "Italian" right on the front of the place so it must be good.
I can't recall ever spending more than 200 bucks for two people on dinner but my wife and I have come close to that a few times for special occasions. We live in Orlando so I might have to look at that Victoria and Albert's...maybe for our 30th anniversary in a couple years...wait I think Bern's steak house in Tampa got us over 200 but we had our daughter with us so not sure if it would have been under 200 without hers.
We've eaten at the Emeril LaGasse place at Universal and that was fantastic but thankfully not as expensive as those on the list up there.
BTW, we have to scrimp and save for these special occasions but it's worth it to us. We like trying new and different food.. Well, before she went on the Medifast we did lol...
ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)Moto and Alinea... very very nice...and they should be for the price. Both came in close to $700.
sP
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)as much as food when you go to a place like those. I've eaten at some top shelf restaurants - especially at trade shows in Vegas - but none of these. Most expensive meal I've been a part of was a group at Craft Steak in the MGM Grand - at the Consumer Electronics Show a few years back. About $1,600 including wine and tip for six people. I've had better steak at Murray's in Minneapolis for half the cost (of the steak by itself).
Best meal I've ever had in my life was at Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger. With drinks, wine and tip about $235 - albeit in 2001.
OmahaBlueDog
(10,000 posts)The deal was we could put down $40 to our expense accounts and had to come out of pocket for the rest. I'm guessing with drinks, we averaged about $100-$115 per person. I really enjoyed it, but I'm not running back.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)OmahaBlueDog
(10,000 posts)Do you want I should bring wine in a jug, or is a box OK?
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)Napa Valley wine in a box would be too trite.
REP
(21,691 posts)TBF
(32,118 posts)I think the most I've spent in a restaurant would be the View on the top of the Marriott Marquis in NY - but that included drinks as well. I've been to many (mostly for business) that would cost up to $250 for 2 when you have appetizers, dinner, desert and drinks. Da Marco's is probably my favorite Italian here in Houston and that's pricey but it also depends upon how hard you hit the wine.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)dessert = my aunt's cobblers and pies, made from berries and fruits planted by my grandparents. better than any dessert i've ever had in a restaurant.
why would i ever spend that kind of money on snob food?
longship
(40,416 posts)I eat food. Food is an essential, not a luxury. Do you want good food? Then cook some.
Tonight I has two huge bowls of beef barley soup which I cooked myself last month and froze the leftovers. Delish! Washed it down with homemade apple wine. Perfect.
There are many who cannot afford luxury food. There are many more who cannot afford any food.
a la izquierda
(11,802 posts)I'd pay a million dollars (if I had it) to eat a meal at my grandma's table (she died and was an awful cook), but that's the only crazy money I'm spending on food. My other grandmother is an amazing chef, and I learned how to cook from her. I'd rather lounge at home than eat at some overpriced, tiny-plated place.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)spinbaby
(15,092 posts)We had dinner there for our 25th anniversary ten years ago. Very romantic and worth every penny. Maybe we'll so it again for our 50th.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather spend $1200 on than a meal in a restaurant. If I had $1200 to spend any way I wanted to right now, I would do one of these things:
1. make a $1200 donation to Planned Parenthood
2. donate $1200 to candidates
3. buy each child in an elementary school a book
4. buy $1200 worth of food and donate it to a food bank
5. pay for several activists to spend the weekend in Wisconsin working on the Walker recall
fishwax
(29,149 posts)Not sure I'll ever get the chance, but maybe someday.
Of course, it's easy to be dismissive of spending that much money on a meal, but I don't see it as any more inherently wasteful than any other luxury that people splurge on. People's priorities differ, is all. I'm not sure what the most expensive meal I've had was, but it wasn't in that neighborhood.
I saw a show about Alinea and was impressed with the place. The food looks too pretty to eat!
http://www.alinea-restaurant.com/index.html
jp11
(2,104 posts)Even if I had money to blow I'm not a foodie or really into/impressed with what I assume must be a super high class atmosphere of excess so just not for me.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)deaniac21
(6,747 posts)Masa was all that...
benld74
(9,911 posts)The #1 Most Expensive Masa
is listed as #100 in the 100 Best List
Me, I'd rather have quality over price
ANYDAY
RZM
(8,556 posts)Ive never been to a restaurant like these. I'd have a hard time justifying it unless I was pretty well-off.
OmahaBlueDog
(10,000 posts)..for some, it's going to Disney World
..for some it's Vegas
..for some, it's golf
..for some, it's fishing or hunting
Personally (and I love to eat out), I just can't see one place on that list I'd go out of my way to dine. I like food, but I'm not a foodie.
I love the Chart House in Portland, Oregon in part for its food, but mostly for it's stunning view that you get to enjoy during the meal.
My favorite steakhouse is Myril Arch's Cattleman's Club in Pierre, SD. There's sawdust on the floor; the salad comes in Tupperware, and it's difficult to spend $20 on a meal there -- but the steak is delicious and there's a nice view of the river (across the highway).
If you offered me one place to eat in Chicago, it'd be Lou Malnati's.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)Many of the individuals patronizing these establishments are just as content to be seen at these places, often having nothing to do with quality or value of the establishment...
It's a society thing akin to a country club or yacht club membership...
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Back in 1990, on our honeymoon, in Barbados, my wife and I spent more than $100 just for dinner. That included the bottle of wine. And it was the most we'd ever spent for dinner.
By our 5th anniversary, we'd found a very small French restaurant in Raleigh. There we broke the $200 level. Of course dinner at that restaurant (Tartines) was a 4-5 hour activity. The restaurant had maybe 15 tables, and there was no rush what so ever. Bread. Wine. Unique Appetizers. Wine. Salad. Wine. Duck. Lamb. Venison. Wine ... then Dessert. We'd stay so long that the staff would join us and we'd discuss french and US politics.
I can see paying big numbers for a dinner in where it is the evening. The meal is not rushed.
But I'm not into the "you have to pay because you came here" nonsense. At a conference I ended up in Shula's restaurant in Orlando. You get to pay for a giant steak that a full grown lion could not finish. And you're at a conference, so its not like you can take a to-go bag. Wine is way over priced, so is the meat ... and the veggies. And yet its supposed to be a great place to go. Total BS.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)and I wasn't impressed by that one either. I stayed at one of his hotels for work too and would have been just as happy at the Hampton Inn - probably happier since Shula's didn't even have high speed internet in room.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Because, after all, it'll all come out pretty much the same in the end.
RedRocco
(454 posts)that's just a bit more than our food budget for the year here. enjoy your meal
DotGone
(182 posts)I could never justify spending that on a single meal even if I were rich enough. Are those meals laced with 24K gold flakes and grounded rubies?
Retrograde
(10,175 posts)it's about 2 hours north of here, and I go to that area frequently, but I always end up at a this one little family restaurant in Sonoma we stumbled across years ago and has never disappointed. Besides, you have to reserve at French Laundry well in advance, and I'm not that organized.
If anyone wants to take me to Masa's I won't say no - provided I'm not paying!