Priciest US Restaurants
Priciest U.S. Restaurants
Pascale Le Draoulec, Forbes.com
At these cross-country spots, the tab is as extraordinary as the meal.
Gourmands with a reservation at New York's Tom: Tuesday Dinner can expect an intimate meal planned and prepared by the host of Bravo's Top Chef and the mind behind Manhattan's "Craft" restaurants. On opening night, last month, that included grilled stuffed squid in a squid-ink risotto made with cocoa nibs.
"I've been wanting to do a tiny place where you have your hand in everything ever since I was a young line cook," Tom Colicchio said when he unveiled the concept in October.
The restaurant will be open only two Tuesdays a month, and serve 28 diners at a time. And they'll pay up. Depending on the ingredients used, the prix-fixe menu is expected to cost $250.
Complete List: Priciest U.S. Restaurants
Priciest U.S. Restaurants
from Forbes.com
Masa, New York City
Starting at $400 a person, the 29-course Omakase menu (four to five appetizers followed by 25 distinct sushi courses) at Masa makes this the most expensive restaurant in the country. Chef-owner Masa Takayama flies most of his finned delicacies from the Tokyo fish market--first class, apparently.
For more information, visit www.masanyc.com.
Masa
from Forbes.com
Tom: Tuesday Dinner
Gourmands with a reservation here can expect an intimate meal planned and prepared by the host of Bravo's Top Chef and the mind behind Manhattan's "Craft" restaurants. On opening night, last month, that included grilled stuffed squid in a squid-ink risotto made with cocoa nibs. The restaurant will be open only two Tuesdays a month and will serve 28 diners at a time. Depending on the ingredients used, the prix-fixe menu is expected to cost $250.
For more information, visit www.tomtuesdaydinner.com/home.
from Forbes.com
L'Espalier, Boston
After 20 years of running the same fancy French restaurant, Chef/Owner Frank McLelland could rest on his laurier. Instead, he keeps reaping awards (Best Chef Northeast at the James Beard Awards this year), and next year, he moves his three-story townhouse restaurant into a big new space at the new Mandarin Oriental. He'll take his famous foie gras preparations with him. The three-course prix-fixe menu starts at $75 for dinner, but tantalizing side dishes--like Ben's wild mushroom ragoût with Café de Paris butter, will add $24 to the tab.
For more information, visit www.lespalier.com.
Courtesy of L'Espalier
from Forbes.com
French Laundry, San Francisco/Bay Area
It'll cost you $240 plus tax just for the privilege of taking a seat at a French Laundry table (service is included), but at least you get to "own" that cush chair for several hours. The nine-course tasting menu here (a vegetarian version is available) is a serious investment of time: Only dedicated food-lovers need apply.
For more information, visit
www.frenchlaundry.com.
Courtesy of The French Laundry
from Forbes.com
Alinea, Chicago
The 24-course tasting menu climbed to $195 earlier this year, but fans of Grant Achatz culinary whimsy don't seem to mind, judging from the packed reservations book. Part of what makes a meal so expensive (other than the far-flung ingredients and the kitchen's technical wizardry) are the unique serving vessels--many of which Achatz designed himself. One such piece is "the antenna" a stainless-steel skewer on a base that tilts forward so that the diner may bite off a morsel directly from the tip--no utensils or hands required.
For more information, visit
www.alinea-restaurant.com.
Courtesy of Alinea
from Forbes.com
Canlis, Seattle
This Seattle classic has been around since 1950, and remains a compelling choice for foodies seeking a quintessential Northwest dining experience. (The kitchen prides itself on sourcing top-shelf ingredients: "We'll drive dusty roads and walk hidden trails to taste, test, try again, munch, scour, sip, slurp and find our way to the best local ingredients in the Northwest," the chef team proclaims on the Web site. "All we want you to do is enjoy.") Expect to pay $75 a person without wine -- and you won't be able to resist this 90-page list.
For more information, visit www.canlis.com.
Courtesy of Canlis
from Forbes.com
Joel Robuchon At The Mansion, Las Vegas
Las Vegas may be known for its bargain buffets, but it's also home to one of the priciest restaurants in America: Robuchon at the Mansion where food lovers fork over $360 for a 16-course extravaganza that is anything but a gamble. Channeling Joel Robuchon's magic at his Vegas outpost is Claude Le Tohic who just earned three Michelin stars for his culinary sleight of hand. Consider his ethereal cream of lettuce, poured from a silver pot over sweet onion custard and garnished with a teensy bouquet of garlic flowers.
For more information, visit
www.mgmgrand.com.
Courtesy of Robuchon
from Forbes.com
Urasawa, Los Angeles
When Michelin released its first Los Angeles red guide last month, its anonymous critics deemed no restaurant in L.A. worthy of three stars. Only three restaurants were deserving of two: Spago, Melisse and this tiny sushi joint no bigger than a bento box in a Rodeo Drive shopping complex. The restaurant has good sushi bones: It used to belong to Masa Takayama before he took his knives to NYC and opened the most expensive restaurant in America. At $275, the 29-course meal at Urasawa is a relative bargain.
For more information, call 310-247-8939.
www.chuckeats.com
from Forbes.com
Inn at Little Washington, Washington D.C.
Patrick McConnell, chef/owner of this famous restaurant and country inn says he often feels like "the producer, director, set designer and lead player in a wonderfully fractured nightly performance. calamities happen, but somehow the show still opens every night." You'll pay Broadway ticket prices for all that excitement -- much of it on the plate, by the way. The seven-course prix fixe menu varies from $148, $158 to $168 on different nights of the week.
For more information, visit theinnatlittlewashington.com.
from Forbes.com
Antoine's, New Orleans
A meal at this 160-year-old restaurant, the French Quarter grand dame of dining, is as much about time travel as it is about any culinary journey. Don't miss the Oysters Rockefeller ($13), which were invented here. For a city full of foodies, restaurant prices have remained low and, even at tourist-happy Antoine's, only one entrée has crept into over-$40 territory: the grilled lamb chops. Though they come with mint jelly, regulars say the side boat of Bearnaise is worth the extra $5.25.
For more information, visit www.antoines.com.
AP Photo/Sandy Colton
According to the most recent Zagat Survey of America's Top Restaurants, Las Vegas ranks as the most costly U.S. city in which to dine out, with an average tab of $44.44. New York City ($40.78) is next in line, followed by Miami ($38.86) and San Francisco ($38.70).
Complete List: Priciest U.S. Restaurants
Succulent Spots
To compile a list of the country's top tables, we selected what are commonly thought to be the 10 most expensive restaurants in 10 "foodie" cities across the U.S. We narrowed our selection by calculating what the minimum "price of admission" would be to dine at each. That is, how much it would cost to dine there if you were to order the least expensive item on the menu. Those with the highest tabs made the list.
Obviously, most people don't go to a fancy restaurant and order the least expensive item on the menu, so guest tabs would most likely be much higher than our math suggests. Some restaurants, like Masa and San Francisco's French Laundry, have set, prix-fixe menus. They were included if their prix-fixe was higher than the guest check average would be at a la carte restaurants in their region -- and league.
What we found is that many of the country's most expensive restaurants are also some of the oldest, such as Antoine's in New Orleans, which first opened its doors an astonishing 160 years ago. And, many on our list turn out fine French cuisine, as in the case of L'Espalier in Boston.
Complete List: Priciest U.S. Restaurants
But old -- and French -- don't necessarily combine to mean stuffy. In fact, some 20 years after chef Frank McClelland took over L'Espalier in an 1880 Back Bay townhouse, his French cuisine with a New England twist, remains as fresh and innovative as ever. In May 2007, McClelland was named Best Chef Northeast at the James Beard Awards.
People seem to like their luxury laid-back these days, so it's no surprise that only three restaurants on the list require jackets -- Joel Robuchon at the Mansion in Las Vegas, the French Laundry and the French Room at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. At least two of them, Masa and Los Angeles' Urasawa, recommend more comfortable clothing, as meals can stretch on for hours.
Antoine's, which serves French Creole cuisine in the heart of the French Quarter, has stopped requiring a jacket and tie in its 15 lavish dining rooms. (That makes eating the alligator soup a lot easier.) As legendary as this place is, only one entrée has crept into the $40-and-up territory, and the signature Oysters Rockefeller, which as invented there, is still only $13.
Tom Fitzmorris, who has been hosting a daily three-hour radio show all about food in New Orleans for 20 years, says as food obsessed as the culture is, restaurants there remain surprisingly inexpensive compared with other parts of the country.
Complete List: Priciest U.S. Restaurants
Part of it is that many ingredients in French-Creole cuisine -- rice, beans and andouille sausage -- are inherently affordable. And much of the seafood is readily and locally available. But Fitzmorris says entree prices are starting to climb as more and more local ingredients like shrimp and soft-shelled crabs get shipped to other parts of the country (particularly the Northeast), driving up prices locally.
But diners appear ready to pay premium prices for worthy ingredients. In the aforementioned Zagat Survey, 59% of diners polled said they'd happily pay more for a meal that was, in fact, sustainable and/or organic.
At the Inn at Little Washington, which continues to serve the most expensive meal in the Washington, D.C., area, chef/proprietor Patrick O'Connell prides himself on his cuisine de terroir, or regional cooking. Using local ingredients whenever possible is virtuous, and sometimes pricey.
A meal at the cozy inn can start at $148 midweek and jump to $168 on a Saturday. Of course, a meal can easily be five times that should you decide to sleep at the stunning Inn after your meal.
The ability to roll right into a sumptuously dressed bed right after a decadent dinner? No price tag on that.
Complete List: Priciest U.S. Restaurants
