The 25 Best Restaurants in America

There aren't many opportunities in life to say, "This is the best there is," but Playboy's restaurant poll comes close. In 1980, we first polled the nation's food critics, columnists and editors to identify the absolute best restaurants in America; that list, revised in 1984, stands as the grandfather of such rankings. The chefs and owners, an individualistic bunch, are said to regard them as the definitive selections in the restaurant industry. It is the only national ranking of American restaurants based on an extensive survey of the most distinguished American food commentators—people who monitor both the latest trends and the finest enduring classics to determine the direction that American gastronomy is taking in 1987.

Secret ballots were sent to more than 120 experts around the country, who were asked to vote for and rank what they believed were the best restaurants in the United States, without regard to cost or location. Our critics were also asked to vote for a separate list of those restaurants within their own locality to help form our Regional Favorites list. Those who candidly felt that they had not eaten around the country enough abstained from voting for the top-25 list.

As is apparent from the results, it is about as easy to remain on Playboy's list as it is to survive the cut on the Chicago Bears' defense. While there is an encouraging number of veterans, many old-timers from our first two lists have been dropped (albeit sometimes by only one vote), while an interesting number of rookies—including one open little more than a year—have been hoisted to a solid position. To make PLAYBOY'S list at all, of course, is an extraordinary achievement, and in many cases there is a difference of only one weighted vote separating two restaurants, especially those ranked 11 through 25.

We are delighted to see the reappearance of numerous restaurants demonstrating the staying power of classic cuisine and service; three—Lutèce, The Four Seasons and Commander's Palace—have maintained their pre-eminent positions for more than a quarter of a century. Then there are newcomers such as Le Bernardin, Aurora and Stars that have joined the select ranks within a year or two of their opening.

What strikes us most about all these restaurants is that each has such a distinct personality behind it. In some cases, it is the chef (and often owner), such as Le Bee-Fin's Georges Perrier or Routh Street Cafe's Stephan Pyles; other instances, it is the restaurateur whose dedication to both the kitchen and the dining room shows in every detail, from the superb cuisine to the professionalism of the staff. Restaurateurs such as Joe Baum at Aurora, Paul Kovi and Tom Margittai at The Four Seasons, Piero Selvaggio at Valentino and Alice Waters at Chez Panisse sum up all that is meant by savoir-faire and impeccable taste. Only ten years ago, the best restaurants in America might have looked like clones of one another—deluxe decor, heavy draperies, French cuisine and snooty captains. Today, our top restaurants are as different from one another as is imaginable, even when the cuisine or locale might dictate similarity. Thus, deluxe French restaurants such as Le Francais and Jean-Louis at the Watergate bear little comparison in food and decor, except in their devotion to manifesting their owners'—Jean Banchet and Jean-Louis Palladin, respectively—personal style and imagination. The elegant ambience and Creole cuisine of New Orleans' Commander's Palace is a 180-degree turn from the down-home-luncheonette atmosphere and spicy Cajun cooking at that city's K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. And the Texas panache that characterizes the food at Dallas' Routh Street Cafe contrasts with the refined new American cuisine served at New York's An American Place and the snappy California cookery at Los Angeles' Spago.

Much attention these days is owed such young American chefs as Bradley Ogden (Campton Place), Barry Wine (The Quilted Giraffe) and Anne Rosenzweig (Arcadia), who have captivated both critics and public with their imaginative transformation of American traditions and ingredients. In many ways, this has led to a streamlining and simplifying of a French cuisine that—some feel—too long depended on classic clichés and overly elaborate dishes to dazzle the palate. The more sensible lessons of a tony nouvelle cuisine have been absorbed while its more extravagant aberrations have all but disappeared from good restaurants, so that tastes are now purer, ingredients are better and menus tend to respect a contemporary concern about too rich a diet.

While there are only two real Italian restaurants—Felidia and Valentino—on our list, the influence of authentic Italian food on other restaurants has been significant; pasta will readily appear on the menus of Aurora, Chez Panisse and Chinois on Main, and the use of ingredients virgin olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes is becoming as much a part of American as it is of Mediterranean gastronomy.

No Oriental restaurants, we're sorry to see, made our past two polls, mainly because, as our critics told us, Chinese, Japanese and Thai restaurants lack consistency from year to year.

As we noted last time, the clout of the superstar chef has increased tremendously; exalted cooks such as Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman and Paul Prudhomme merely have to add a new dish to their menu for it to be published in newspapers within days and adapted by other cooks within weeks.

Menus change; not all the dishes mentioned here may be offered when you go. But whatever happens in the years to come, Playboy will be sure to monitor the excitement. For now, in 1987, these are the very best America has to offer. Our congratulations to them all.

1. Lutèce

249 East 50th street, New York, New York

(212-752-2225)

For Lutèce to take the top spot on Playboy's list for the third time in a row is achievement enough, but for it to do so in the face of such intense competition from a new generation of exciting chefs is truly extraordinary. Chef-owner André Soltner, a man wholly dedicated to the highest principles of French classicism, offers a cuisine that is both simple and wondrous. He always tries to do the least possible to an ingredient to bring out its essential taste, whether it's quail in a sauce périgourdine, baby chicken cooked in Riesling or a tangerine soufflé. Soltner's food is never fussy, never too rich, always light on the stomach and, although his basic menu seems conservative, the ever-changing specials—such as a mousse of cod, zucchini blossoms (from his own garden) or the most perfect blueberries of the season warmed in puff pastry—are exquisitely prepared. Such is the range of Lutèce's kitchen that you may go there for years and not get the same dish twice. The newly renovated premises of Lutèce are equal parts deluxe formality and breezy familiarity, from the richly appointed dining rooms upstairs to the airy garden room downstairs. Reservations are still tough to get—plan on calling a month in advance—but persist and you'll be amply rewarded.

2. The Four Seasons

99 East 52nd Street, New York, New York

(212-754-9494)

Since its opening in 1959, The Four Seasons has been the very model of the modern New York restaurant, from the urbanity of architect Philip Johnson's masculine design to the influential menus that have helped define what is meant by the new American cuisine. The professionalism of the staff—which is overseen by owners Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi—is finely attuned to every whim of a very demanding clientele. Its stirring feel of spaciousness, in both the handsome Grill Room and the shimmering Pool Room, and its appointments—including two-story windows behind a scrim of beaded-metal draperies, a glassed-in wine cache and some monumental paintings by Picasso, Frank Stella and James Rosenquist—make The Four Seasons the ideal rendezvous for such New York power brokers as Donald Trump, S. I. Newhouse and David Rockefeller. Seppi Renggli's austere cooking style combines a passion for freshness with a desire for lightness—the beautifully roasted squab breast with figs, lobster risotto, perch in a marrow-and-red–wine sauce—and he is the pioneer of the low-calorie, low-sodium spa cuisine designed for customers who eat at The Four Seasons five times a week.

3. Le Bernardin

155 West 51st Street, New York, New York

(212-489-1515)

Few restaurants have ever opened to more instant critical and popular praise than Le Bernardin, a stunning dining room built at a cost of $6,000,000. Within weeks of its opening last year, it garnered an unprecedented four stars from The New York Times, and when Playboy sent out ballots, votes tumbled in from critics all across the country, many of whom had dashed to New York to see what all the fuss was about. The reason for the excitement is the brilliance of the cuisine prepared by chef-owner Gilbert Le Coze, whose Le Bernardin in Paris is considered one of France's great seafood restaurants. You'll be amazed by the quality of the fish here as well as by the refinement of the decor, with its 19th Century seascapes, blue-gray walls and teakwood ceiling. Even the most blasé gourmets are bowled over by such dishes as tuna carpaccio, black bass with coriander and basil, monkfish with savoy cabbage and halibut in a warm vinaigrette—reveries to be finished off with fruit sorbets or a selection of caramel desserts. Le Bernardin will run you $55 before you order wine or tip the waiters, but you won't regret a penny of it.

4.Le.Cirque

58 East 65th Street, New York, New York

(212-194-9292)

The pre-eminence of Le Cirque ("the circus") as New York's high-society restaurant may for some obscure the fact that it also serves some of the best food anywhere. Classic but imaginative French cuisine with a few Italian pastas perfectly reflects the heritage of owner Sirio Maccioni, an urbane Tuscan who orchestrates his fashionable clientele (continued on page 154)Critics' Choice(continued from page 121) and suave staff with the control of Arturo Toscanini and the eye of Dan Marino. The bright, swanky decor is a fit setting for a restaurant whose 100 seats are filled daily with clients such as Richard Nixon and Woody Allen. And when anyone wonders why the tables must be set so close together at Le Cirque, Maccioni shrugs and asks, "Would you rather sit far away from or right next to Sophia Loren?" Put yourself in his hands and the kitchen will send forth little bites of fried sole with a sauce dijonnaise, fresh sautéed foie gras with endive, perhaps a little fettuccini with white truffles, then a heady bouillabaisse, perfectly succulent baby lamb accompanied by a grand cru Bordeaux from an astounding wine list and an array of desserts that understandably includes Le Cirque's famous crème brûlée. Polish off the chocolate truffles and petits fours with a glass of sauterne, and you will come to know the true meaning of pampered luxury.

5. Chez Panisse—1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California (415-548-5525). The impact of Chez Panisse and its owner, Alice Waters, on American gastronomy can hardly be exaggerated. It was here that California cooking really burst forth with such exuberance and style that such signature items as pizzas with California goat cheese, pasta with Northwest wild mushrooms and salads made with garden-grown field greens have since become standards in restaurants from Berkeley to Boston. Yet Chez Panisse has remained true to its French Provençal and Mediterranean inspirations—good, simple home-style dishes such as ratatouille, a scallop soup, grilled squab with braised garlic cloves, squash ravioli with giblets and sage and compotes of fresh berries and fruits. Alice is still the matriarchal presence at Chez Panisse, while chef Paul Bertolli heads the latest of a long line of brilliant protégés who have included Jeremiah Tower (see Stars, number 15), Mark Miller and Joyce Goldstein—all now star chefs on their own. And despite all this, Chez Panisse is still a most unpretentious place, as befits its location in laid-back Berkeley, where the idea took root in 1972.

6. Le Français—269 South Milwaukee Avenue, Wheeling, Illinois (312-541-7470). If you are anywhere near Chicago and feel in the mood for blowing out all the stops and dining as lavishly as any nobleman of the ancien régime, make the 40-minute drive to suburban Wheeling, settle yourself behind a banquette at Le Français and try not to gape as the extravagant dishes pass before your eyes: terrines and pâtés and mousses of exceptional richness, a galette of crab with mustard sauce, lobster au gratin with sauce Nantua and basil, tenderly cooked red snapper in an herbed beurre blanc, rare squab and sweetbreads in vividly reduced pan juices, sorbets the color of purple velvet and desserts set in fragile layers of puff pastry decorated with spun sugar. Chef-owner Jean Banchet refuses to skimp on anything, so you may be sure the foie gras is of the best quality, the game perfectly aged and the raspberries at their ripest. All of this arrives via silver serving carts, is set on Villeroy-Boch china and is served by swooping waiters who seem as enthralled by the sheer profusion of it all as you will be. Le Français doesn't look like much from the outside, but you're sure to leave Wheeling knowing you have dined at one of the true temples of gastronomy in this country.

7. SPAGO—1114 Horn Avenue, West Hollywood, California (213-652-4025). It's a good bet that if Spago started serving nothing but burritos and Cobb salads, it would still be one of the hottest restaurants in L.A., for on any given night you are likely to see Joan Collins, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand or Tom Cruise meandering about the wide-open spaces of Wolfgang Puck's decibel-busting restaurant above Sunset Strip. One cannot even begin to count the number of drop-dead-beautiful starlets and just-plain-drop-dead agents who fill the rest of the seats. But, in fact, Spago has made its reputation not on its decor, its atmosphere or its celebrity clientele but on the terrific food from the open grill and the pizza oven. And Puck has kept up the level of his cuisine, which on our last visit included pizza with sweet peppers and prosciutto, sautéed Pacific oysters with a spicy salsa, crabcakes with lime butter and winter greens, chervil-and-black-pepper noodles with smoked duck and wilted greens, red snapper with pecan butter, Sonoma baby lamb with herb butter, a macadamia-coconut tart and a blueberry-buttermilk tart. Spago has gone way beyond being trendy: It is part of the new Hollywood establishment and is still a bellwether of great cooking on the West Coast.

8. Campton Place—340 Stockton Street, San Francisco, California (415-781-5155). As elegant as Campton Place is, its fame does not rest on its owner's reputation, for the restaurant is the dining room of the deluxe Campton Place Hotel off San Francisco's Union Square. No, the restaurant owes its national reputation to the talents of chef Bradley Ogden, a 33-year-old native of Michigan who has never set foot in France but whose culinary skills would be the envy of any sous-chef in Paris or Lyons. Ogden is one smart cookie, and he shows it in dishes of simple, unerring taste—even at breakfast and lunch, which may include scrambled eggs with prawns and crème fraîche, chicken with biscuits or a spinach soufflé with Sonoma-jack sauce. At dinner, Ogden goes into high gear with delicacies such as sautéed morels on buttery brioche toast, barbecued prawns with vegetable slaw, baked lobster with ginger-tomato sauce and knockout desserts such as blueberry shortcake and nectarine crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream. Ogden clearly works out of a long American tradition but gives it a twist of refinement that makes Campton Place a stellar act and one a lot of chefs are trying to follow.

9. Jean-Louis at Water-Gate—2650 Virginia Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. (202-298-4488). Here's another restaurant that shows how far hotel dining rooms have come in this country. Jean-Louis is located in the lower depths of the Watergate Hotel and has a sexy intimacy about it that attracts as many lovers as it does lobbyists. Indeed, for some reason, there always seems to be a couple at the next table discussing their torrid love affair in whispers. This only adds to the intrigue of the place, and chef Jean-Louis Palladin would be the first to admit that he loves nothing better than to stage a surprise. He'll do that by offering the kinds of dishes you won't find anywhere else: Palladin once served a meal in which every dish had truffles in it (even the dessert was a truffle ice cream). On other occasions, he may serve a jellied consommé of crawfish, a lobster mousse with osietra caviar, cepe mushrooms stewed with squab breasts or shrimp sautéed with a sauce of green and red peppers. Menus change all the time, and Jean-Louis is at his happiest when you let him compose a menu for you (which may cost up to $100 per person). The wine list, incidentally, is as enticing as the food.

10. Commander's Palace—1403 Washington Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana (504-899-8221). Commander's Palace is everything you'd want a New Orleans restaurant to be, with the possible exception being the fact that it is not situated in the French Quarter. Instead, it is in the residential Garden District in a multiroomed 19th Century mansion, wherein you'll find the heart and soul of Creole hospitality in the Brennans, longtime owners who have made Commander's the New Orleans mecca for all serious epicures. The decor has a swaggering antiquity about it, and there's no better place to enjoy a café brûlot than on the leafy brick patio here. And if the private dining rooms' walls could talk, you'd get a quick course in Louisiana politics—such is the popularity of Commander's among the local political bigwigs. Chef Emeril Lagasse's new haute Creole cuisine is creative without straying far from cherished tradition, so you may begin with a delicious old-fashioned turtle soup or a spicy shrimp rémoulade or a rich gumbo, then try the shrimp-and-andouille soufflé or the hickory-grilled redfish with a basil-tomato sauce glazed over with pepper cheese. The bread-pudding souffle is sensational, and the raspberry Grand Marnier mousse cake could, on its own, bring you back here again and again. Add to this a wine list of real depth and service of genteel charm, and you've pretty much realized your dream of what a New Orleans restaurant should look, smell and taste like.

11. The Quilted Giraffe—955 Second Avenue, New York, New York (212-753-5355). Barry and Susan Wine never wanted to open a restaurant in the first place, but since his suburban law practice wasn't very exciting and he'd already invested in a restaurant in New Paltz, New York, Barry shifted his attention to fine cuisine. Now, ten years later, The Quilted Giraffe, removed to Manhattan, has become one of the most inventive dining rooms in the country. Although Barry's ideas sometimes get the better of him—like the time he served a poached pear with basil sauce—he is a masterful cook who turns out a magical confit of duck with a winsome side dish of creamed corn and tomato. Other fine dishes include sweetbreads in crushed pecans, shrimp and mango with broiled tomatoes, chicken aioli with fried sweet potatoes and pecan crisp with vanilla ice cream. Wine will never overcook a fish or overelaborate a dish, and his Grand Dessert of several sweets is irresistible (though it will add ten bucks to your bill). The dining room is warm and comfortable, the wine list excellent (but very pricy) and the staff one of the best-trained.

12. Le Bec-Fin—1523 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (215-567-1000). Imagine a dining room in one of the great chateaux of France—with Scalamandre damask on the walls, paintings of Louis XIV and Catherine the Great, silverware from Christofle and a private room done in a trompe l'oeil ceiling motif of clouds—and you'll have a good idea of Le Bee-Fin's new premises. Owner Georges Perrier spared no expense to bring the quality of his decor into line with the quality of his cuisine, which is on an unabashedly Lucullan level. Perrier doesn't kid around—every dish is carefully prepared to dazzle your eyes, nose and palate, from the first taste of sweetbreads salad to the last bite of chocolate ganache cake with mint sauce. In between, he offers at least three other courses on his $66 menu, all of them equally awesome in design and richness: ravioli stuffed with truffles, swordfish with a confiture of onions, a jambonneau of chicken with a sauce sabayon, a filet mignon of veal with morels and cream, several peak-condition cheeses and a tiered pastry cart groaning under nearly three dozen items, from floating island to apricot-mousse cake. Lunch, at $20, is a great bargain, but you owe it to yourself to have dinner here to appreciate how seriously Perrier takes his profession and his cuisine.

13. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen—416 Chartres Street, New Orleans, Louisiana (504-942-7538). If you've never heard of Paul Prudhomme, then you've spent the past three years eating out in Siberia. Prudhomme, the gargantuan, effusive and inspired chef/teacher from the Cajun country of Louisiana, revolutionized cooking in this country by waking up the taste buds with his fiery dishes, such as blackened redfish, and Cajun martinis laced with jalapeño peppers. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen is where it all started almost eight years ago, first as a little breakfast-and-lunch shop serving po'-boy sandwiches, now as a common man's café of Cajun cookery and as much of a tourist attraction in New Orleans as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The tiny restaurant still has Formica tables, paper napkins and diner-class silverware, but the waitresses could charm an alligator out of the bayou. The multilevel flavors of the food will blow you away—chicken-and-andouille gumbo, rabbit tenderloin with mustard sauce, stuffed eggplant with shrimp butter cream, shrimp etouffée, deep-fried soft-shell crabs with sauce Choron and, of course, the now-famous blackened fish. Prudhomme's bread pudding with lemon sauce and sweet-potatopecan pie will send you reeling. No one leaves K-Paul's disappointed (or hungry), and you get a star on your check if you clean your plate.

14. Routh Street Cafe—3005 Routh Street, Dallas, Texas (214-871-7161). It's a delight to see a Texas dining room again represented on our list, and with good reason: The Routh Street Cafe, owned by John Dayton and chef Stephan Pyles, is the foremost kitchen in a burgeoning movement to upgrade the image of Texas cooking from chili and nachos to something of a higher quality. Some examples: tenderloin of wild boar with sweet-potato pancakes and a tamarind-ancho-chili sauce, smoked pheasant in emerald Riesling vinaigrette and catfish that will make you rethink your attitude toward that critter. Pyles, who once studied music, loves to get his seasonings in harmony and may use several chilies together with several sweet peppers to achieve unique flavors. His concepts are never odd and are always based on the best local game, meats, seafood and produce, so you'll feast on axis venison, Gulf shrimp, Texas beef and some impressive cabernets and chardonnays from wineries near Lubbock and Fort Davis. The premises have a streamlined two-level design of peach-pink and gray, and this is clearly where the young professionals of Dallas are dining these days.

15. Stars—150 Redwood Alley, San Francisco, California (415-861-7827). Would-be architect Jeremiah Tower got his first cooking job at Chez Panisse (see above) when he improved a soup by adding cream and salt to it. Since then, he's honed his own genius for coaxing the best flavors out of ingredients and for refusing to disguise what is best about fresh fish or pungent herbs. Consequently, his peers credit him with one of the sharpest palates in cooking today. Tower is now the owner of Stars, a truly stellar restaurant very much in the San Francisco–grill tradition and very much the kind of comfortable brasserie where people enjoy eating. Stars' kitchen is right out in the open, and the entire place has a bright conviviality that makes this as perfect a spot for a full-scale dinner as for dessert and cognac after a night at the nearby opera. Tower's cooking concentrates on the intensity of tastes—a paillard of yellowtail with ginger, cilantro and black beans, a spicy lentil soup with a red-bell-pepper cream, a braised-veal-and-lamb ragout with wild rice and some first-rate California-style pizzas and French fries. Finish with a paragon of a blueberry pie or some lusciously rich ice cream, and you'll have a lasting memory of the kind of food you wish you could eat every night.

16. Michael's—1147 Third Street, Santa Monica, California (213-451-0843). Even after eight years, Michael's is still the most serenely beautiful restaurant in the Los Angeles area. With its pale-peach walls, its superb collection of graphics by top contemporary artists and its peaceful garden patio set with canvas umbrellas over roomy tables, Michael's has established a new concept of dining out in L.A. Even more impressive after a decade is the clarity of owner Michael McCarty's culinary vision, which is to serve only the most refined and delicate French cuisine—a mousse of foie gras with apples and calvados, a salad of chicory, hot goat cheese and walnut vinaigrette, grilled chicken with tarragon butter, veal steak with caramelized lemon and desserts that know few equals in a city of great sweets. If Michael's had opened only yesterday, its food would seem like a breath of fresh air amid the loopy shenanigans going on in L.A. kitchens these days. The fact that McCarty has stayed his course through the follies of recent years is to his enormous credit, and Michael's, as a result, has clearly emerged as a California classic of style, grace and unerring taste.

17. Aurora—60 East 49th Street, New York, New York (212-692-9292). The owner of Aurora, Joe Baum Company, set out to capture an upscale-executive market and, from the day it opened a little more than a year ago, has succeeded by providing a sedate, restrained dining room (decorated by graphics designer Milton Glaser) of rich woods, stippled, painted borders, leather-upholstered chairs and a savvy U-shaped bar where you can grab a quick lunch. Joe Baum knew that his clientele would also want the kind of imaginative but sensible food served at The Four Seasons (see number two), which he once ran. So he hired an esteemed French chef named Gerard Pangaud to develop a menu of beautifully wrought light dishes such as smoked sea bass with water-cress salad, a terrine of wild mushrooms and foie gras, roasted pigeon with sweet garlic, lobster poached with ginger, lime and sauterne and just about the most delectable chocolate-mousse cake you'll ever encounter. Nor will you want to miss the papillon of apricot, pastry and caramel ice cream. The wine list is small, carefully selected and fairly priced, and the staff, after some early faux pas, is now as impeccable in its ministrations as in its dress. Aurora has emerged as one of those dining rooms that define New York's unique temperament in the Eighties.

18. An American Place—969 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York (212-517-7660). So celebrated was chef Lawrence Forgione's reputation when he worked at Brooklyn's River Café that every critic who had voted for that restaurant in our 1984 poll pulled his vote on hearing that he had resigned as its chef that year. Fortunately, Forgione soon opened his own restaurant, An American Place, where he has established himself as one of this country's most important chefs of the decade. Here, in a small room with spare but appealing decor, Forgione began streamlining his once-elaborate cooking concepts and devoted himself to a thorough investigation of the true strengths of American cookery. His reinterpretations of classic dishes—such as planked salmon, barbecued chicken with creamy potato salad, grilled Key West shrimp and even devil's-food cake and apple pandowdy—have earned him the mantle of his late beloved mentor, James Beard. Meanwhile, his new dishes—such as duck sausage with spoon-bread griddle-cakes and corn salsa, sirloin steak with a dark-beer sauce and terrine of three smoked fish with their own caviars—show ample evidence of his inventiveness. Anyone who wishes to know what the inevitable direction of American cooking will be should book a table at An American Place without delay.

19. Felidia—243 East 58th Street, New York, New York (212-758-1479). Felidia has moved up our list and stakes its claim to being the best Italian restaurant this side of the Atlantic. From the moment you enter the bustling dining room, with its dark woods, exposed brick and airy skylight, you have a real sense that this is not the place to order lasagna or veal parmigiana. The wine list has extraordinary depth to support a kitchen of extraordinary range. The only sensible thing to do is to throw yourself into the arms of owners Lidia and Felix Bastianich and ask them to feed you. You will thereupon be rewarded with such enchanting dishes as polenta with wild mushrooms, pasutice pasta with lobster, a raviolilike pasta called krafi, filled with veal, lemon zest, cheese and rum, grilled mackerel marinated with garlic and olive oil and feathery-light crepes for dessert. Even a simple dish of tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil will thrill you because of the quality of the ingredients, and you could easily make a meal of such first courses as Felidia's own air-cured prosciutto and some figs or a mélange of cold seafood. Lidia, who is nothing if not maternal, wants you to feel good after a meal, not stuffed, so her sauces are far from the heavy, pasty cover-ups served in most Italian restaurants in this country. Trust her as you would your Italian aunt. And if you don't have an Italian aunt, trust us.

20. Le Pavillon—1050 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. (202-833-3846). If cooking is, indeed, an art, then Yannick Cam is an artist. Cam's Le Pavilion can make even the most demanding gastronome swoon over such dishes as a soup of wild mussels and white corn, a gratin of turbot, potato and leek, beet-filled ravioli with osietra caviar, roasted lamb with white asparagus and an array of ethereal desserts. Cam seems driven to be better and better, and he sets standards for Le Pavilion that would be unnerving for any other chef to meet. The second-story dining room is itself an exercise in subtlety and sophistication, from the romantic lighting to the Lalique-crystal display table and the salmon colorings that flatter every woman in the room—none more so than Cam's beautiful wife, Janet, who directs the dining room with a grace and perfectionism you'd be hard put to find even in France. The wine list is long, offering a variety of choices to accompany the exquisite cuisine.

21. L'ermitage—730 North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (213-652-5840). Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay chef Michel Blanchet of L'Ermitage is that if you close your eyes, you'll be able to identify every ingredient in every dish he serves you. So strong is Blanchet's sense of taste and texture that he is determined not to sully the full flavor of crawfish or rabbit or apples with any sauce or reduction that might mask the essence of the main ingredients. This means a marvelous fidelity to classic technique that is too often disappearing in the new Los Angeles eateries. Blanchet's cassolette of snails au gratin, médaillons of veal with apples and calvados, salmon in cabernet sauvignon, cream-of-turnip soup, apple tart and chocolate charlotte are textbook examples of the power and glory of classic training. New owners have recently refreshed the look of L'Ermitage, but the place still bespeaks a luxury that makes a visit here cause for celebration. If you need a break from caviar pizzas and waiters dressed like Talking Heads, L'Ermitage is a soothing change of pace.

22. Arcadia—21 East 62nd Street, New York, New York (212-223-2900). Anne Rosenzweig, co-owner of Arcadia with Ken Aretsky, has proved that female chefs are as much a part of the dynamics of the new American cooking as are men. Having earned the respect of her peers, Rosenzweig has also won the hearts and minds of critics and the public, who flock to this tiny dining room—with its bucolic Paul Davis murals and French windows—night and day. Reservations, therefore, have become the toughest tickets in town. The restaurant's small size allows Rosenzweig to offer a seasonal menu reflective of what she finds best in the market. Consequently, you may feast on buckwheat pasta with goat cheese, a salad of roast quail with fresh-fig chutney, grilled tuna with red-pepper marmalade, corn-cakes with crème fraîche and caviars or Rosenzweig's signature dish—a dazzling lobster club sandwich. Also to her credit are the chocolate bread pudding, the pear-and-pecan crisp or any of the other winsome desserts. You could ask for a longer wine list, and the service staff can occasionally be snooty, but you'll have wonderful food here and get an idea of what a personal cooking style is all about.

23. Jams—154 East 79th Street, New York, New York (212-772-6800). The owners of Jams—Jonathan Waxman and Melvin Master, whose initials give the restaurant its name—have given New Yorkers their first real taste of California cuisine: grilled and sautéed fish, meat and poultry, ingenious combinations of peppers and baby vegetables in pastas and salads and rich, devil-may-care desserts, all served up with a casual but informed attitude. Since Jams opened in 1984, others have tried to copy its formula, but none has enjoyed the success of this very original restaurant. Here, in two stark, brightly lit dining rooms with a downstairs open kitchen, you'll be treated to such specialties as tiny shrimp on cabbage with blanched bacon and diced tomato, deep-fried rabbit on a bed of pasta, swordfish with blood oranges, the best French fries you'll ever eat and scrumptious desserts such as lemon tart and chocolate-truffle terrine with praline sauce. Some critics cluck that Waxman doesn't spend much time in the kitchen these days (he and Master own two other restaurants), but few question his ingenuity or Master's ability to keep things humming night after night.

24. Chinois on Main—2709 Main Street, Santa Monica, California (213-392-9025). It isn't surprising that not one but two of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants should appear on our list, for there's little question that Puck has more creative juices and spunky energies than any five other chefs in California; he has kept right on the edge of new ideas since his days at the late, lamented Ma Maison. Unlike Spago, which is basically an affair of American and Mediterranean lustiness, Chinois is an honorable marriage of the culinary traditions of East and West. Therefore, you may begin with some Japanese-style tuna sashimi or stir-fried chicken in lettuce bundles, then move on to roasted-leg-of-lamb salad or marinated grilled salmon atop black and gold noodles and wind down with an upside-down peach cake. The decor (done by Puck's wife, Barbara Lazaroff) similarly mingles Oriental and Occidental elements, including a gold Buddha over the bar, jade-green tables and enormous crane cloisonné sculptures. Chinois is designed to be fun and a little kitschy, and after one bite of Cantonese roast duck with plum-wine sauce, you'll happily settle into the restaurant's other main attraction: the celebrity watch.

25. Valentino—3115 Pico Boulevard, Santa Monica, California (213-829-4313). It would be easy enough to convince you of the greatness of Valentino simply by listing the components of a typical meal here: a soft focaccia bread, sausages, zucchini flowers and smoked scamorza cheese, carpaccios of calamari with pesto, scallops with red peppercorns, rabbit salad, duck salad with a sweet-and-sour pickle, ravioli with artichokes, tagliolini with pepper, risotto with corn, polenta with shiitake mushrooms and quail, lamb in little purses of radicchio, dates, mascarpone cheese and chocolate, a semifreddo of roasted nuts and several fruit sherbets. This is Italian food California style, and every course has something superlative in it. The exuberant owner, Piero Selvaggio, recently redecorated the restaurant to resemble a country estate in Tuscany rather than a dining room in Santa Monica, but the enthralling menu is always changing. Piero aches to show you a good time, and no one who cares about food can afford to miss Valentino. The wine list is one of the best in the West.

Critics' Choice for the Best in '87

1 Lutèce

New York City

2 The Four Seasons

New York City

3 Le Bernardin

New York City

4 Le Cirque

New York City

5 Chez Panisse

Berkeley

6 Le Francais

Wheeling, Illinois

7 Spago

Los Angeles

8 Campton Place

San Francisco

9 Jean-Louis

Washington, D.C.

10 Commander's Palace

New Orleans

11 The Quilted Giraffe

New York City

12 Le Bec-Fin

Philadelphia

13 K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen

New Orleans

14 Routh Street Cafe

Dallas

15 Stars

San Francisco

16 Michael's

Los Angeles

17 Aurora

New York City

18 An American Place

New York City

19 Felidia

New York City

20 Le Pavillon

Washington, D.C.

21 L'ermitage

Los Angeles

22 Arcadia

New York City

23 Jams

New York City

24 Chinois on Main

Los Angeles

25 Valentino

Los Angeles

"Few restaurants have ever opened to more instant critical and popular praise than Le Bernardin."

America's 25 Greatest Restaurants 1984

for your reference, here are the rankings from our list three years ago

1. Lutèce, New York, New York

2. The Four Seasons, New York, New York

3. Le François, Wheeling, Illinois

4. Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California

5. Le Cirque, New York, New York

6. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, New Orleans, Louisiana

7. The Quilted Giraffe, New York, New York

8. Le Perroquet, Chicago, Illinois

9. La Côte Basque, Now York, New York

10. Commander's Palace, New Orleans, Louisiana

11. L'Ermitage, Los Angeles, California

12. The Coach House, New York, New York

13. La Grenouille, New York, New York

14. Le Bee-Fin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

15. Michael's, Santa Monica, California

16. Le Lion d'Or, Washington, D.C.

17. Ma Maison, Los Angeles, California

18. Rex—II Ristorante, Los Angeles, California

19. Spago, Los Angeles, California

20. Valentino, Santa Monica, California

21. Ernie's, San Francisco, California

22. Il Nido, New York, New York

23. Felidia, New York, New York

24. Jean-Louis, Washington, D.C.

25. Parioli Romanissimo, New York, New York

Regional Favorites

Some of the restaurants on this list missed making our top 25 by just a few points. Some represent the regional critics' choices of the best in their locales. Others are new, exciting prospects to watch in years to come.

Arizona

Vincent Guerithault on Camel-back, Phoenix (602-224-0225)

Janos, Tucson (602-884-9426)

California

Gustav Anders, La Jolla (619-459-4499)

Fog City Diner, San Francisco (415-982-2000)

Fournou's Ovens, San Francisco (115-989-1910)

Masa's, San Francisco (415-989-7154)

Mustards Grill, Napa (707-944-2424)

Primi, West Los Angeles (213-475-9235)

Square One, San Francisco (415-788-1110)

Trumps, Los Angeles (213-855-1480)

Colorado

The Rattlesnake Club, Denver (303-573-8900)

Connecticut

L'Americain, Hartford (203-522-6500)

Fine Bouche, Centerbrook (203-767-1277)

Restaurant Jean-Louis, Greenwich (203-622-8450)

District of Columbia

Le Lion d'Or (202-296-7972)

Florida

Bern's Steak House, Tampa (813-251-2421)

Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant, Miami (305-673-0365)

Georgia

Capriccio, Atlanta (404-237-0347)

Carsley's, Atlanta (404-261-6384)

45 South, Savannah (912-354-0444)

Hawaii

La Mer, Oahu (808-923-2311)

Illinois

Ambria, Chicago (312-472-5959)

Carlos', Highland Park (312-432-0770)

Jackie's, Chicago (312-880-0003)

Les Nomades, Chicago (312-649-9010)

Spiaggia, Chicago (312-280-2750)

Kentucky

Casa Grisanti, Louisville (502-584-4377)

Louisiana

Galatoire's, New Orleans (504-525-2021)

Le Ruth's, Gretna (504-362-4914)

Vernick's, Abbeville (318-893-8008)

Maryland

The Conservatory, Baltimore (301-727-7101)

Obricky's Crab House, Baltimore (301-732-6399)

Massachusetts

Chanticleer, Nantucket (617-257-6231)

Chillingsworth, Brewster (617-896-3640)

L'Espalier, Boston (617-262-3023) Restaurant Jasper, Boston (617-523-1126)

Restaurant Le Marquis de Lafayette, Boston (617-451-2600)

Michigan

Chez Raphael, Novi (313-348-5556)

Elizabeth's, Northville (313-348-0575)

Justine, Midland (517-496-3012)

Tapawingo, Ellsworth (616-588-7971)

Minnesota

Primavera, Minneapolis (612-339-8000)

Missouri

Café Allegro, Kansas City (816-561-3663)

Fio's La Fourchette, St. Louis (314-863-6866)

Jess & Jim's Steakhouse, Kansas City (816-942-9909)

Richard Perry Restaurant, St. Louis (314-771-4100)

Tony's, St. Louis (314-231-7007)

Nevada

La Pamplemousse, Las Vegas (702-733-2066)

The Summit, Lake Tahoe (702-588-6611)

New Jersey

Chez Catherine, Westfield (201-232-1680)

The Knife & Fork Inn, Atlantic City (609-344-1133)

New York

Arizona 206, New York (212-838-0440)

La Caravelle, New York (212-586-4252)

Chanterelle, New York (212-966-6960)

The Coach House, New York (212-777-0303)

La Côte Basque, New York (212-688-6525)

The Gotham Bar and Grill, New York (212-620-4020)

Hubert's, New York (212-673-3711)

Maxime's, Granite Springs (914-248-7200)

Palio, New York (212-245-4850)

Le Périgord, New York (212-755-6244)

La Tulipe, New York (212-691-8860)

Ohio

Barricelli Inn, Cleveland (216-791-6500)

The French Connection, Cleveland (216-696-5600)

Maisonette, Cincinnati (513-721-2260)

Sammy's, Cleveland (216-523-5560)

Z Contemporary Cuisine, Shaker Heights (216-991-1580)

Oregon

Jake's Famous Crawfish, Portland (503-226-1419)

Pennsylvania

Déjà-Vu, Philadelphia (215-546-1190)

DiLullo Centro, Philadelphia (215-546-2000)

The Garden, Philadelphia (215-546-4455)

La Normande, Pittsburgh (412-621-0744)

Rhode Island

Al Forno, Providence (401-273-9760)

Tennessee

Chez Philippe, Memphis (901-529-4188)

Texas

Brennan's of Houston (713-522-9711)

Cafe Annie, Houston (713-780-1522)

La Fogata, San Antonio (512-340-1384)

The Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas (214-526-2121)

Sonny Bryan's, Dallas (214-357-7120)

Tony's, Houston (713-622-6778)

Utah

Cafe Mariposa at Silver Lake, Deer Valley (801-649-1005)

Liaison Restaurant, Salt Lake City (801-583-8144)

Virginia

The Inn at Little Washington, Washington (703-675-3800)

The Trellis, Williamsburg (804-229-8610)

Washington

Le Gourmand, Seattle (206-784-3463)

Ray's Boathouse, Seattle (206-789-3770)

Wisconsin

Grenadier's Restaurant, Milwaukee (414-276-0747)

Choice Critics

Molly Abraham, resiauianl critic, Detroit Free Press; anihur. Restaurants of Detroit.

Antonia Allegra, food editor, San Diego Tribune.

Colman Andrews, rcstauranl columnist, Los Angeles Times; author, Catalan Cuisine.

Anonymous restaurant critics,Texas Monthly.

Iris Bailin, restaurant critic. Northern Ohio LIVE,

Robert Lawrence Balzer, food and beverage editor. Travel-Holiday.

Ariane and Michael Batterberry, authors and food consultants; (bunders. The International Review of Food & Wine.

Charles Bernstein, editor, Nation's Restaurant News; author. Great Restaurant Innovators.

Sally Bernstein, restaurant critic. The Houston Post.

Alexandra Mayes Birnbaum, editor in chief, Good Food magazine.

Anthony Dias Blue, author, American Wine; WCBS-Radio, New York, New York, restaurant critic.

Paul Bocuse, cookbook author; owner of Paul Boruse Restaurant, Lyons. France.

Gene Bourg, restaurant columnist, The Times-Picayune/The States-Item.

Patricia Brooks, author. Best Restaurants Southern New England; lvsiauranl critic, The New York Times'' Connecticut section.

Ellen Brown, author. Cooking with the New American Chefs.

Patricia Brown, food writer/consultant.

Pat Bruno, restaurant critic, Chicago Sun-Times.

Anne Byrn, food editor/restaurant critic. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Teresa Byrne-Dodge, restaurant critic, Sunday magazine oi'The Houston Post.

Paul A. Camp, restaurant critic, Chicago Tribune.

Michael Carlton, restaurant critic/travel editor. The Denver Post.

Dora I Chenoweth, restaurant reviewer, The Columbus Dispatch.

Maria Cianci, food editor, Restaurant Business magazine.

Craig Claiborne, food editor, The New York I Dues.

Alison Cook, restaurant writer, Texas Monthly.

Betty Cook, restaurant critic, The Dallas Morning News.

Lucy Cooper, restaurant critic, The Miami Herald.

Elaine Corn, food editor. The Sacramento Bee.

Ann Criswell, fond editor. Houston Chronicle.

Bill Cutler, editor. Knife & Fork: The Insider's Guide to Atlanta Restaurantss; resiauraui critic, Georgia Trend magazine.

Constance Daniell, food writer and columnist, Milwaukee journal.

Jane De Mouy, lood and wine editor, Baltimore magazine.

John Dorsey, former restaurant reviewer, Baltimore Sun magazine.

Stanley Dry, associate editor, Food &f Wine.

Lois Dwan, restaurant writer; former restaurant critic, Los Angeles Times.

Barbara Ensrud, author, Pocket Guide to Wine.

Florence Fabricant, author, Florence Fabrieaut's Pleasures of the Fable.

Donna Ferrari, tabletop, food and wine editor, Brides magazine.

Fred Ferretti, fond writer. Gourmet.

Tom Fitzmorris, editor. The New Orleans Menu magazine; author, Encyclopedia of New Orleans Restaurants.

Malcolm S. Forbes, publisher, Forbes magazine.

Charles Forman, editor, Restaurant Insights.

Pierre Franey, food writer, The New York Times; author. The 60-Minute Gourmet.

Jacqueline Friedrich, food, wine and travel writer.

Ruth Gardner, food editor, File magazine.

Marion Gorman, editor, Gastronome; food author.

Diane Gould, restaurant critic, Denver magazine and Daily Camera.

Emanuel Greenberg, wine, food, spirits writer, Playboy.

Madeline Greenberg, contributing writer, Chocolatier.

Bert Greene, food columnist; cookbook author.

Gael Greene, restaurant critic, New York magazine.

Joshua Greene, editor, Wine & Spirit magazine.

D. Gustibus, former dining critic, Houstonian magazine.

Phyllis Hanes, food editor, Christian Science Monitor.

Zack Hanle, New York editor, Bon Appétit.

Marilyn Hansen, editor. Country Accents.

Judith Hill, editor in chief. Cook's Magazine.

Polly Hurst, former restaurant critic, Philadelphia magazine.

Jeremy Iggers, restaurant critic, Minneapolis Star and Tribune.

Schuyler Ingle, author of an upcoming book on the cuisine of the Pacific Northwest.

Jay Jacobs, contributing editor, Gourmet.

Leslie James, restaurant critic, The San Diego Union.

J. Marry Jardene, restaurant reviewer, Houston City Magazine.

Elin Jeffords, restaurant critic, The Arizona Republic.

Barbara Kafka, food columnist, Vogue; author, Food for Friends.

Rob Kasper, "The Happy Eater" columnist, Baltimore Sun.

Allen and Carlo Kelson, dining critics, Chicago magazine.

Elliot S. Krone, restaurant editor, Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Carole Lalli, senior editor, Simon & Schuster.

Jenifer Harvey Lang, author, The Best: Tastings from Ketchup to Caviar.

Bob Lape, restaurant critic, Crain's New York Business.

Michel LeBorgne, executive chef, New England Culinary Institute.

Robert Levey, restaurant critic, The Boston Globe.

Larry Lipson, restaurant critic, Los Angeles Daily Neil's.

Liz Logan, senior editor/restaurant critic, D Magazine.

Karen MacNeil, former food and wine editor, USA Today.

Tom Martin, restaurant critic, Memphis magazine.

Peter D. Meltzer, co-author, Passport to New York Restaurants.

Ferdinand E. Metz, president. The Culinary Institute of America.

Stephen G. Michaelides, editor, Restaurant Hospitality.

Bryan Miller, food critic, The New York Times.

Donna Morgan, food editor, The Salt Lake Tribune.

Jane Moulton, food and wine editor, The Plain Dealer.

Barbara Gibbs Ostmann, food editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; co-editor. Food Editors' Favorites Cookbook.

Jacques Pepin, cookbook author.

Bea Pixa, restaurant critic. San Francisco Examiner.

Joe Pollack, restaurant writer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Steven Raichlen, restaurant critic, Boston magazine; author, Taste of the Mountains Cooking School Cookbook.

Ruth Reichl, restaurant editor, Los Angeles Times.

William Rice, co-author, Where to Eat in America; food and wine columnist, Chicago Tribune.

Phyllis C. Richman, executive food editor, The Washington Post; syndicated columnist, "Rich-man's Table."

Dannye Romine, restaurant reviewer, The Charlotte Observer.

Marilyn McDevitt Rubin, food editor, The Pittsburgh Press.

Susan Sarao, associate food and equipment editor. Ladies Home Journal.

David Sarasohn, restaurant critic, The Oregonian.

Gus Sounders, restaurant critic and featured food writer, The Boston Herald; host. The Yankee Kitchen.

Richard Sax, author, From the Farmer's Market.

Arthur Schwartz, food editor, New York Daily News.

Deborah Scoblionkov, food and wine critic, Atlantic City Magazine and Inside magazine.

Richard T. Scott, president and publisher, Fodor's Travel Guides.

Donna Salle Segal, food editor. The Indianapolis Star.

Stan Sesser, restaurant critic, San Francisco Chronicle.

Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher, The Wine Spectator.

Patricia Sharpe, senior editor, Texas Monthly.

Merrill Shindler, restaurant critic, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

Art Siemering, restaurant critic. The Kansas City Star.

Sandra Silfven, restaurant critic and wine columnist, The Detroit News.

Camille Stagg, food writer; author, The Cook's Advisor.

Harvey Steiman, managing editor, The Wine Spectator; host, The KCBS Kitchen.

Stendahl, pseudonym for the food and wine critic, WNCN Radio, New York, New York.

Corrine Streich, editorial director, Corner Table Magazine.

Elaine Tait, food critic, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Robert Tolf, restaurant critic, Florida Trend and Fort Lauderdaie News/Sun-Sentinel; author, Florida Restaurant Guide.

Patricia Unterman, restaurant critic, San Francisco Chronicle.

Roger Verge, cookbook author; owner, Le Moulin de Mougins.

James Villas, food and wine editor. Town & Country; author, James Villas' Town & Country Cookbook.

James Ward, restaurant critic, WLS-TV, Chicago.

Donna Warner, editor, food and design, Metropolitan Home.

Jan Weimer, senior editor, food, Bon Appetit.

Patricia Weitzel, food editor, Cleveland magazine.

Burt Wolf, syndicated-TV food commentator.

Roger Yaseen, American president, Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.