This is for Her Dotness--V&A rated #2 in US! About This Page:

[GingerJ]

Here's the Disney blog entry: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...y-tripadvisor/

So now we know Her Dotness and His Drewness have great taste...but we really already knew that, because they chose each other!

[Her Dotness]

Awwwwwww, shucky-doggone. :::::: shuffles cyberbooties, blushing ::::::::

That's just about the sweetest compliment ever!

[chezp]

Having had a look at the list, I can say I've only been to V&As out of everything on the list. I'm not surprised it's top 10, as it was an amazing experience.

[Her Dotness]

As highly rated as Thomas Keller's two restaurants, Per Se and French Laundry, typically are, I was a wee bit surprised to see that V&A beat out both. Keller's success is impressive since he has no culinary school training but worked his way through the ranks to eminence.

What I think means more about these rankings is that they're those of patrons and not merely professional reviewers. Sure, professional opinions can be informative, but I want to know where regular people think the food fabulous.

Hmmmmm. Alinea isn't impossibly far from us. Might have to stockpile pennies and trot up to the Windy City to check it out someday.

[dancingpenny]

After the NY Times review of Per Se this year, removing two stars and coming down hard on both food and service, I think Keller will have to work hard to regain status. The French Laundry has also come under attack, and the reviews don't seem to be the usual jealous backlash, but thoughtful considerations of quality. I ate at TFL years ago and it was a sublime and happy experience and I hate to think of things slipping.

[Her Dotness]

Perhaps the inevitable is occurring for both Per Se and TFL: It's got to be difficult to keep up the stellar quality for which both have been justly renowned for as long as they've been in business.

For one thing, trends are exciting for a time and then become old hat. Keller became a trend-setter a couple decades ago with highly creative combinations that playfully suggested American classic dishes such as bacon and eggs. After so many years, diners may be wanting something else as innovative.

Then, too, being twenty-some years older may be having an impact in a grueling business. Keller's bordering on senior citizen. It's reasonable, I think, for him to have become a bit weary and out of touch, unable any longer to intuit what might spark today's diner's excitement.

We all get older and less able to be as fresh and innovative as we once could.

[dancingpenny]

All very true, Dot. Add to that the fact that when TFL opened it was Keller's only restaurant and he was chef. It's very hard for a restaurant to maintain quality at a very high level without the creator/chef in residence.

[Her Dotness]

Then, too, I sometimes wonder if the NYT critic in particular isn't so far removed from even the foodie diners who frequent such places that we get a rarefied view of how badly standards have eroded.

Granted, I haven't a very sensitive palate. I can't, for instance taste a sauce and identify that unusual flavor as some atypical addition and say precisely what it is. While I know a bit more than many about the ingredients of classic sauces and reductions, I'm no Iron Chef by any means.

I just want what I eat to be visually appealing and taste great. I can be as wowed by a terrific fried egg or burger as by the shaved white truffle add-on to the wagyu beef at V&A. Perhaps erroneously, I suspect more people are like me than are as exacting as food critics.