Listen up, New Yorkers. Forget Manhattan versus Brooklyn for a second. We need to get past that and band together against a common enemy! You see, Zagat released this year’s Las Vegas rankings and then decided — because why not? — to compare the food scores of 23 restaurants that just happen to have outposts in both New York and that artificial bastion of “sin” (and by sin, we of course mean Celine Dion concerts and slot machines) in the middle of the desert. Who won? Vegas. By quite a bit. But, like, really?
Well, of course not. Yes, their Mesa Grill has a better food ranking; their Nobu has a better food ranking; their Palm has a better food ranking, etc. But we’re guessing that the tourists who frequent these restaurants in Vegas just aren’t as critical as discerning New Yorkers. “Ooooh look,” some woman from Topeka or Milwaukee or wherever will say in the middle of some casino at three o’clock in the afternoon, “that’s Mesa Grill! Bobby Flay is the chef there! I like when he does that Throwdown show.” And she’ll get all giddy, and she and her husband will walk in and be blown away by the blue-corn pancakes with barbecued duck. And then she’ll write in to Zagat and talk about how “mind-blowing” that appetizer is. Here in New York, it’s all, “Oh, that’s pretty good.”
Plus, okay, sure, Vegas, maybe your SushiSamba really does have better taquitos than New York’s, but you also don’t have Le Bernardin. Or Daniel. Or Ssam Bar. Though you do have Guy Savoy and Joë Robuchon, and those are seriously awesome. (Even if the tasting menu at Robuchon does cost $385 per person. Jeez, Vegas.)
Look, just don’t let this go to your head, is all we’re sayin’.
Besides, New Yorkers can always take comfort in the knowledge that Charlie Sheen’s coke-fueled bender at the Plaza was way more nutso than the pretty mundane-sounding one he just had in Vegas.
