TripAdvisor Ranking Snubs OC Eateries

It was a bad day today for pricey top restaurants in Orange County and Los Angeles as a new list of the nation’s best 25 eateries failed to include any in Southern California.

Bouley, the expensive, famed culinary icon of French dining in New York, was rated the number one restaurant in the United States, according to the just-released list from TripAdvisor.com.

The website that rates restaurants, hotels, airlines and tourist attractions based on user reviews found New York to be the center of fine dining in the nation, with five of the restaurants on the top-25 list being in the “Big Apple.”

Le Bernardin, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park and Per Se were the other award winners from New York.

Award-winning major Los Angeles and Orange County restaurants thought by some local critics to be on a par with New York eateries failed to show up on TripAdvisor’s list. Famed local restaurants top-rated by another user-generated review company, Zagat, include Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, Providence in Hollywood and Melisse in Santa Monica. But they were all ignored by TripAdvisor, even though diners can easily spend hundreds of dollars per person for a night out at any of the three. TripAdvisor also ignored the Montage Lobby Lounge and award winning restaurants in Laguna Beach, Fountain Valley and Lake Forest.

Here is TripAdvisor’s list of the best restaurants in Orange County.

While Southern California was snubbed, Northern California was well represented with four winners, including pioneering Chez Panisse in Berkeley, The French Laundry in Yountville and Restaurant Gary Danko and Kokkari Estiatorio, both in San Francisco.

Even Minneapolis, Chicago, Hawaii, Orlando and Houston were represented on the list, with Charleston, South Carolina, having two restaurants in the nation’s top 25.

City News Service; Photo: pixabay.com