Michelin has released its Guide for New York 2011.  At Amazon you can get it for $12.81, regular price is $18.99.

Here are the results:

THREE STARS
Daniel
Jean Georges
Le Bernardin
Masa
Per Se

TWO STARS
Alto
Chef Table at Brooklyn Fare NEW
Corton
Gilt
Gordon Ramsay at The London
Kajitsu GAINS A STAR Marea GAINS A STAR
Momofuku Ko
Picholine
Soto GAINS A STAR

ONE STAR
Adour
Aldea NEW
Annisa
Anthos (closed)
Aureole
A Voce Columbus
A Voce Madison NEW
Blue Hill
Bouley
Breslin (The) NEW
Café Boulud
Casa Mono
Convivio
Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen NEW
Del Posto
Dovetail NEW
Dressler
Eleven Madison Park
Gotham Bar and Grill
Gramercy Tavern
Jewel Bako
Kyo Ya
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
Laut NEW
Marc Forgione
Minetta Tavern
Modern (The)
Oceana
Peter Luger
Public
River Café
Rouge Tomate
Saul
Seäsonal
Shalezeh NEW
SHO
Shaun
Hergatt
Spotted Pig
Sushi Azabu
Sushi of Gari
Veritas (currently closed)
Wallsé
wd~50

The latest edition of the guide for New York includes 95 Bib Gourmand restaurants - more than any other city in the world. The Bib Gourmand category is known as the "inspectors' favorites," and delivers everyday excellence at a reasonable price. There were 21 new Bib Gourmand selections in the 2011 guide. The MICHELIN Guide New York City 2011 also features a broad range of quality restaurants under $25. There are 17 new under-$25 restaurants in the 2011 edition, and 127 in total.

Fifty-seven New York City restaurants earned one or more stars in the MICHELIN Guide New York City 2011. MICHELIN stars are the highest honor the guide can bestow. Having a star means that not only is a restaurant among the best in its city, but also in the world. It is a mark of consistent excellence across all categories and it is based solely on the quality of the food.

Only 86 restaurants in the world currently hold three stars. Of them, five are in New York City. In the MICHELIN Guide New York City 2011, five restaurants earned three stars, 10 restaurants earned two stars and 42 restaurants earned a single star. Ten new NYC restaurants earned stars over the past year. While "starred" restaurants have made the MICHELIN guide famous around the world, they account for just 10 percent of the total selection.

Inclusion in the MICHELIN guide is a sign of excellence no matter what the star tally or category. In fact, 715 restaurants were selected for inclusion this year. Among them, MICHELIN inspectors included 55 different types of cuisine. The MICHELIN Guide New York City 2011 also added 29 restaurants to its new "Small Plates" category. Restaurants in this category offer a unique menu, ambience and service.

I was walking by the address of one of my favorite restaurants that sadly closed (Bandol) last night and found that finally a new place has opened in the space.  It's called Carpe Diem and it looks great!  They don't seem to have a website yet.  It's at 181 East 78th Street, between Lex and Third on the North side of the street closer to Third Ave.

The menu is more Italian. I will miss the wonderful French bistro classics that they had at Bandol, but am always happy to try something new too.  I will report back after I've had a chance to try it.

A new concept in burgers has come onto the midtown New York scene with the opening of 4food at the northwest corner of Madison Ave. and 40th Street.  How can there possibly be a new concept for a burger you wonder, well how about a hole in the middle!  All of the patties have holes in the middle to facilitate even cooking.  The patties available are: beef, breakfast pork, egg, lamb, pork, salmon, turkey and vegi... so it's really more than just your basic burger joint.

I am a huge fan of Greek style yogurt, preferable Fage nonfat plain.  I love the thick texture and that it's not slimy like many regular U.S. yogurts tend to be.  So I've been seeing Siggi's Icelandic style yogurt around lately and decided to try it. 

It is similar to Greek style - it is strained so it gets a thick texture.  All varieties are non-fat and the flavored ones are sweetened only with agave syrup and the fruit.  I have never been a fan of fruit yogurts because I find them too sweet and the texture to be gross, well thank goodness for Siggi's!  The blueberry flavor I tried was WONDERFUL.  It's not over-sweet at all, has a nice tang and subtle blueberry flavor.  A six ounce potion has 120 calories, 16 grams of protein and 10 grams of sugar.  I'm looking forward to trying the other flavors!

The Standard Grill at Andre Balazs' Standard Hotel in NYC's meatpacking district was one of the hottest restaurant openings of 2009.  Things have calmed down a bit, but one certainly still needs to plan in advance for a dinner reservation or even weekend brunch.

The outside and front section of the restaurant have a fresh, bright bistro look with bentwood chairs and medium tone wood.


The dining room in back has a darker, kind of '50s steakhouse look with leather banquettes and casual linen dish cloth tablecloths.  Somehow it works though, in a retro chic way.

The tables in the back room come appointed with Peugeot pepper mills and little wooden bowls of fleur de sel. (bonus points for this!)  The menu is reasonably priced but portions tend to be on the smaller size.  Here is a link to the lunch menu, most items range from $10 to $20.  The roasted beet salad ($10) features baby arugula, panko crusted goat cheese and pickled red onion.  It was quite tasty although the red onion in rather short supply.  A tasting portion of the Jamon Iberico ($14) was fine, the meat quite flavorful and a bit fatty, but that's jamon for you.  It came with 2 green olives.  The main course of pan roasted sea scallops ($16) came with frisee, shaved endive, grapefruit and black olives.  The scallops were perfect - nicely browned, cooked correctly and super tasty!  The accompaniment was mostly frisee which was surprising since it's not even mentioned on the menu as being in the dish.  There were just a few slices of fennel and very few black olives.  None the less it's a good dish.  The size is what many would consider an appetizer size, which is probably why the price is so reasonable.

The wine list offers a good degree of diversity and prices.  Bottles range from $34 to $5000+. France is favored on the wine list, but there are tons of other offerings too - Spain, Italy, Australia, CA, Oregon, etc.  

If dessert had been in order, I would have tried the strawberry rhubarb crumble served with buttermilk ice cream.  I'm a sucker for rhubarb!  The dessert menu also offers some other interesting things like baked alaska and blueberry galette.  Here is the dessert menu.

Unlike many very popular restaurants, they do take reservations via Open Table which makes it a lot easier to get a reservation!  

Having grown up in New England I have to say I was never much of a crabcake girl.  New Englanders are all about Maine lobster!  The crabcakes that I knew of were these dreadful breaded, fried things that seemed to have equal parts shredded crab to breadcrumbs and tasted hardly like crab at all!

Well, as in most things, an education is necessary.  I've now had the opportunity to sample several authentic Chesapeake Bay crabcakes - - in Baltimore, Alexandria, Washington DC, even as far north as Philadelphia.  And now I've just tried Bubba's in Virginia Beach.  Bubba's is on an inlet just at the beginning of the Bay. (3323 Shore Drive, 23451)



It is a modest looking place, and certainly not fancy inside but wow, do they have good crabcakes!  The crabcake dinner for $20.95 includes two huge crabcakes loaded with jumbo lump crab and virtually zero filler.  They are broiled (you can also get them fried, but what sane person would do that?) and come with cole slaw that you can actually get without mayo (BRILLIANT) and you can get a side of broccoli to make it a reasonably healthy meal.  I was quite hungry but the crabcakes are so large I couldn't come close to eating both of them!


(sorry, I don't have a pictures of Bubba's crabcakes but these look similar)

Here is the full dinner menu.  Other fish offerings are fresh catch like tuna and mahi mahi, lobster tails and scallops. And of course, Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs (when in season).

The food hall in the basement of The Plaza is now open, officially known as "The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English".  It features a rather astounding variety of offerings: bakery, wine bar, grill, cheese & charcuterie, sushi bar & ocean grill, pizza, dumpling bar and market area!  The menu was designed by Todd English of Olives fame.

The space has an elegant look with dark woods, white marble and mosaic tiled floors.  It is supposed to evoke the feeling of European food hall.




Take a look at the menu here.  Among the offerings are golden potato pizza (shown below), butternut squash ravioli, salad nicoise, prime rib sliders and whole grilled branzino.



Prices range from $4 for a piece of sashimi to $125 for a large seafood platter from the raw bar.  Most items are pretty reasonably priced between $7 and $24.

Any pizza lover has probably been to Grimaldi's, tucked under the Brooklyn Bridge just over the river from lower Manhattan.  It's kind of a pizza pilgrimage.
 


Even though the place is kind of dumpy, it's just fun!  So I was sad to hear in the news today that it may have to close this location due to being behind on rent and city taxes, and not getting a rent renewal. Here's a link to the article at the Wall Street Journal.

It's 93 degrees in NYC today, and it feels even hotter with the humidity.  A nice frozen treat would hit the spot.

Here's where to get primo gelato in NYC and Philadelphia!

Il Laboratorio del Gelato (95 Orchard Street between Broome and Delancey, NYC) Amazing list of flavors including all the classics as well as some crazy ones like Wasabi, Basil and Tarragon Pink Pepper!



Ciao Bella (4 locations in NYC)  This brand is also sold in grocery stores, but they don't sell them the best flavors, you have to go to a scoop shop to get the best, like my favorite, cinnamon.  Other flavors include Matcha Green Tea, Asian Ginger, Italian Caramel.



Capogiro (4 locations in Philadelphia)  Unique flavors daily like Fior de Latte, Canella, Mexican Coffee, Sea Salt...  You can also order online, $60 + shipping for 6 pints shipped on dry ice.

My last Restaurant Week dinner for Summer '10 was at Fishtail by David Burke.  It's a lovely spot in an Upper East Side townhouse.  The upstairs dining room feels like they've set up tables in a space that used to some lucky person's living room.  It's really quite beautiful.