Oishii, L'Espalier and Aujourd'hui Receive Top Three Food Ratings No. 9 Park, Hamersley's Bistro, Blue Ginger, Mistral, Icarus and Oleana Join the Top Ranks
BOSTON, Massachusetts -- Zagat Survey, the world's leading provider of consumer survey-based dining, travel and leisure information, today released its 2005/06 Boston Restaurant guide. This year's guide includes nearly 1000 restaurants in the Metropolitan Area, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and reveals a great deal about the changing tastes, habits and preferences of Boston area diners.
When it comes to 'Top Food' rankings Oishii, L'Espalier and Aujourd'hui maintain their hold on the top three positions, but the rest of the top ten have changed dramatically. Only Hamersley's Bistro and Il Capriccio remain in the ranks, while establishments such as Icarus, Oleana and Mistral catapulted the competition to reach the top tier. Oishii's ranking as No. 1 for Food reflects a trend of Japanese restaurants replacing French in top food rankings in city after city down the East Coast. As far as dining habits are concerned, Bostonians, at 2.7 times per week, eat out less frequently than their counterparts in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles but are, at 18.9% of the bill, more generous when it comes to leaving a tip.
"Massachusetts may be best known to outsiders for its seafood, but if the Zagat Survey shows one thing, it's that Bostonians enjoy a wide range of fine dining -- from Japanese to Mediterranean, French to Italian and just about everything in between," said Tim Zagat, co-founder and CEO of the Zagat Survey. "When it comes to diversity and creativity, Boston has come to be one of the best places to eat in America."
This year's Zagat Survey was based on 5,650 surveyors' analysis of nearly 800,000 meals in local area restaurants. The breakout of respondents by sex was 53% female, 47% male, and by age, 23% in their 20's; 27% -- 30's; 19% -- 40's; 20% -- 50's; and 11% -- 60's or above.
Among the other findings in the Survey, 64% of Boston diners say they spend more going out to dinner now than they did two years ago. And while the cost of an average meal increased about 2.5% in the past year, Boston dining costs still remain well below those of other cities in the U.S. and around the world. While the average meal in Boston costs $28.88, it's more than twice that in Tokyo, London and Paris, over 30% higher in New York, about 15% higher in San Francisco and Washington D.C. and nearly 10% more in Chicago. Only Seattle, Atlanta and New Orleans are less expensive.
Given the changes in the 'Top Food' category, it's noteworthy that Bostonian's 'Most Popular' restaurants remained largely the same with seven of the top ten being repeats from the last Zagat Survey including, in order of rank, Legal Sea Foods, Blue Ginger, No. 9 Park, L'Espalier and Hamersley's Bistro.
As for their choice of national cuisines, Bostonians prefer Italian (25%), compared to just 14% for American and French, and 11% for Japanese; however, it's Mexican food they'd like to see more of in the city.
When it comes to rating the overall dining scene Bostonians rate their city's culinary creativity and diversity as very good but say hospitality and table availability could use improvement.
The debate about whether smoking should be permitted in restaurants seems to be over with 97% of diners registering "no" and 64% saying they would eat out less often if that were the case.
Finally, on the downside, 76% of the respondents cited Service as the single most serious irritant when dining out. Prices, Noise, Food, Parking and Crowding cumulatively were only cited by 23% of the surveyors.
In related news, Boston area hotels, nightspots and attractions will be available for the first time ever on the "new" Zagat.com. The upgraded site -- www.zagat.com -- now contains over 30,000 listings and includes ratings and reviews of nightspots, hotels and attractions in addition to the most extensive list of restaurants available. The website also includes several new features designed to make accessing and organizing Zagat Survey's content even easier.
