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Most Overrated Restaurants 2008

 

The editors of OAD compiled this list by identifying the lowest-scoring restaurants in our survey that also have what we consider to be a high rating in the Michelin or Zagat guides. Unfortunately, if you want to do a specific comparison between our results and theirs, you are going to have to do a bit of research on your own. For those of you who are new to our guide and our 120-point rating system, here is a key that explains how it works

 

Rating

OAD Recommendation

105+

Worth Planning a Trip Around

100-104

Worth Going Out of Your Way For

95-99

Important Local Choices

90-94

Recommended Restaurants

85-89

Perfectly Acceptable

Below 85

Restaurants We Can’t Recommend

 

ALL REGIONS NEW YORK CITY UNITED STATES UNITED KINGDOM EUROPE

 

 

NEW YORK CITY

 

 

1.

 

Considered one of the most romantic dining rooms in New York City and the quintessential reservation to bag for Valentine’s Day, this restaurant leaves one wondering if the lovers who flock here are too busy fondling each other to actually taste the food. Even the décor was criticized for being “cheesy.” Recent comments say a new chef has improved the cuisine, but we have yet to see his influence have an impact on our ratings.

 

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“This establishment doesn’t even make sense for its intended purpose of nuptials central, let alone as a dining establishment.”

“I was coerced into coming here when one of my friends made a reservation for a double-date. It’s a mistake I will not make again.”

 

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2.

 

This charming restaurant close to Lincoln Center has seen better days—the consensus is that it’s been reduced to a tourist trap with a kitchen that can’t even turn out reasonable versions of classic brasserie and bistro fare. That’s a shame, because the room, especially the Howard Chandler Christy murals, is beautiful, and some people still feel it’s worth going just for the décor and the terrific atmosphere. Others like it before the opera.

 

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“My duck confit was horrible. I mean, if they can’t even get that right, why the hell is anyone going there?”

“I don’t understand why this restaurant is even on your survey.”

 

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3.

 

Once revered by local diners, this restaurant has now become the favorite of the bridge and tunnel set, not to mention those who have arrived by plane or some other mode of transportation. Besides the questionable cuisine, which is best described as “Continental,” they are notorious for not honoring reservations on a timely basis, and we have heard stories of people waiting upwards of an hour for their table.

 

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“It has turned into an expensive, modern-day Mama Leone’s with a true turn towards the tourist.”

“Food should be laced with gold for the prices they charge.”

 

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4.

 

Celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten may be spreading himself too thin with his many venues: His first New York restaurant now pales in comparison to Jean Georges, his signature restaurant at the nearby Trump Plaza, and the French bistro food that he serves up at JoJo was described as being “pedestrian.” The cramped room doesn’t help either, making it difficult not to include your neighbors in your conversation.

 

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“Once the gleam of his eye, now the bastard son at the family reunion.” “I proposed to my fiancée over dinner and the woman at the next table over accepted.”

 

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5.

 

Though he seems to start off with fairly good product, Laurent Tourondel’s restaurant is so lacking in conception and execution that the result has little to do with what he purportedly aims to offer: a quality dining experience centered on fresh fish. The headache-inducing setting—nothing short of cacophonous as people try to talk over ear-splitting music is like pouring sea salt on an open wound.

 

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“It’s more than a bit formulaic, and there’s no breathtaking inspiration here.”

“The quality of the food at all of Tourondel’s restaurants is inversely related to the number of places with the ‘BLT’ prefix.”

 

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6.

 

Though recent reviews suggest that Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s homage to the grand Italian dining experience has been steadily improving, there haven’t been enough such comments to get it out of our doghouse. Even the décor is less than impressive—the room seems straight out of a Ritz-Carlton in some nondescript city. There is a reason that that this style of dining has all but disappeared from the contemporary stage.

 

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“Ambiance is grotesque, food is ordinary and service is lacking.”

“I pity the poor investors who funded this $12-million abomination.”

 

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7.

 

Philip Johnson’s architectural masterpiece is no different from most restaurants that have a strong non-culinary draw like a beautiful view or an exceptional décor—the food rarely matches the surroundings. The reality is that the cuisine is not far removed from what you will find at numerous northern Italian restaurants in town; but what’s on the plate is a huge disappointment given the majestic surroundings.

 

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“Even the pool seemed stale and tired, and that is not to mention the food.”

“OVERPRICED and mediocre. But pretty.”

 

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8.

 

Money seems to have corrupted the artistic process at this 200-seat restaurant that would have had beautiful views over Columbus Circle save for one thing: They blocked the windows with kitchen equipment! The food was criticized on nearly every level, and one long-term fan asked, “What in the name of Jesus, Mary and Joseph happened to Gray Kunz?” Fortunately, they are closing the doors in the middle of June.

 

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“Awful service (plates arriving before silverware); arguments between staff on who was responsible.”

“The people at the next table walked out in protest, and we would have followed if we hadn’t had a tight schedule.”

 

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9.

 

While Alfred Portale’s classic New York restaurant has been around for more than two decades, consistently racking up high ratings in other guides, it never seemed to be a favorite among the destination dining community. That’s a shame, because Portale’s menus are interesting to read, but the execution in the kitchen is less than exacting, and the plating style—ingredients are typically vertically stacked—harkens from yesteryear.

 

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“Like CATS—they had a long run, but the show needs to close.”

“Long in the tooth. Tall food ain’t in anymore.”

 

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10.

 

Time has stood still at Charlie Palmer’s restaurant, where the cuisine, which once was considered to be at the cutting edge of modern American cooking, dates from a generation (at least) ago. Fortunately for Palmer, this doesn’t seem to bother the clientele, most of whom appear to be over 50 years old and who still enjoy the exceptional ambiance—it’s set in a beautiful East Side townhouse—and the gracious service.

 

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“Back in the day, the tasting menu was great. But the last time I was there, the ideas seemed ‘back in the day.’”

“It’s a good place to take your in-laws for a swanky dinner.”

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

 

 

1.

 

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Given the quality of the product he serves—the fish is flown in from Italy daily—and his rich, luxurious sauces, it’s the “poor service” and “insane pricing” that propels Paul Bartolotta’s restaurant to the top of this list. With diners commenting on “mushy pasta served with shrimp still in its shells” and $70 turbot that the “Captain tore apart tableside,” it seems this is a restaurant that can’t get out of its own way.

 

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“Service at the level of the Olive Garden, cuisine a notch higher.”

“Picture big theatrics as the fish are paraded out on big silver platters.”

 

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2.

 

San Francisco, California

 

Despite the so-so performance, 20 percent of our panel rated this restaurant as “Must Go.” Unfortunately, another 40 percent rated it as “Acceptable or Lower,” propelling it onto this list. Most of the complaining revolved around cooking that was described as “formulaic,” with numerous people complaining that Mina’s “three-way” culinary concept (you choose an ingredient and he prepares it three different ways) gets tiring.

 

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“The gimmick of building each course around a single ingredient prepared in three different ways left us feeling bewildered rather than titillated. This barrage of ingredients and preparations kept us from being able to focus on any single thing.”

 

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3.

 

Los Angeles, California

 

In reading the comments we collected about this restaurant that was once the rage among local diners, we were torn as to which did a better job of describing its current state of decline—“a shadow of its former self” or “a shell of what it once was.” These days, the crème de la crème of the L.A. foodie scene is nowhere to be seen, replaced in large part by families, complete with kids running riot around the place.

 

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4.

 

Wellesley, Massachusetts

 

Maybe, back in 1998 when this restaurant first opened and this style of cuisine was novel, it was worth making the trip from downtown Boston out to the suburbs to sample Ming Tsai’s Asian fusion cuisine. But now that such cuisine is available most anywhere, we had a hard time finding experienced diners who could still recommend the place. Some do say, though, that the food is markedly better when Ming is in the kitchen.

 

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“Would be justly and utterly unknown if not for chef/owner with TV show.”

“Bad food, terrible service and overpriced. We drove over an hour to be disappointed.”

 

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5.

 

Santa Rosa, California

 

With a beautiful setting that overlooks a vineyard—especially lovely in nice weather, when you can dine on the outdoor patio—it’s a pity that this restaurant underperforms so badly. Given that the options for fine dining in Sonoma County are already paltry compared to next-door neighbor Napa, it’s a shame they can’t figure out how to serve better food, especially in view of Ash’s reputation as a chef.

 

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“The place has no discernable cuisine of its own.”

“Service was not up to what I expected, and the sommelier was not that familiar with his own wine list. “

 

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6.

 

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

It is the quintessential celebrity-chef trick: lure diners into your establishment by making them think they will be getting food that has something to do with the cuisine that made you famous, then deliver nothing more than an ordinary dining experience. There is possibly no better example of this than Mix in Las Vegas, where the celebrity chef is none other than Alain Ducasse. The extravagant cost makes it all worse.

 

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“With mediocre food and abominable service, this is a complete waste of time for serious food connoisseurs.”

“The sommelier told me he couldn’t get the restaurant to stock proper stemware.”

 

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7.

 

Chicago, Illinois

 

Given that the restaurant’s signature dish—a Plexiglas staircase with a different type of flavored caviar on each step—is all style over substance, we weren’t surprised that Rick Tramonto’s restaurant was a contender for most overrated restaurant in the U.S. Besides the cuisine, the service took a beating too, with one person describing the overall experience as “essentially silly, with obsequiousness taken to new levels.”

 

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“All show, high prices and no taste excitement.”

“It’s a good choice if you need to show off to someone who doesn’t know better.”

 

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8.

 

Santa Monica, California

 

What can you say about a restaurant that elicits comments like: “I eat there regularly and I have never had a meal that wowed me”; or “The classic L.A. success story more about the warm reception and kissing up to VIPs than the food”; not to mention “Why is this even on the survey the food isn’t even a tenth as good as it used to be?” Wine lovers should note that some think it’s worth going “if only for the terrific wine list.”

 

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“Has really, really gone downhill. Tattered linens, very bad glassware and indifferent service match the marginal menu.”

“Possibly the most overrated restaurant in the U.S.”

 

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9.

 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

The story of what happened to Susanna Foo’s midtown Philadelphia restaurant is a typical one in the restaurant business—a chef opens an establishment with an original concept and rides the wave of success for as many decades as he or she can without making any substantial changes to the cuisine. The result is that what was once considered a groundbreaking concept by foodies is now considered stale and tired.

 

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“A pretentious version of P.F. Chang.”

“Each of the recent times I have dined there, the food is less and less inspired.”

 

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10.

 

Chicago, Illinois

 

Many diners considered this restaurant a “Must Go” back in the day when Thai was still seen as an exotic cuisine. But as restaurants serving sophisticated Thai food became more common, Arun’s lost its cachet, and diners now know that the same quality food is available elsewhere at prices that are a fraction of what you pay here. It’s still a favorite with those who like to wear a sports coat while eating a bowl of Pad Thai.

 

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“Perhaps at one time Arun’s acted as the leading edge of Thai food, but that time is long past.”

“Bland coconut flavors predominate. Small, expensive portions of food that is vaguely Thai.”

 

 

 

UNITED KINGDOM

 

 

1.

 

Cartmel, Cumbria

 

Mind you, our panel normally likes experimental food, and a number of restaurants that claim it as their specialty were recommended by our surveyors. Unfortunately, Simon Rogan’s restaurant in Cumbria isn’t one of them, compiling one of the lowest ratings in the entire survey. From our vantage point, Rogan’s decision to serve a 20-course tasting menu—of food that people don’t particularly like—seems to be driving the results.

 

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“The chef is stuck up his own arse believing he’s much better than he is.”

“Combinations were generally poor, and the quality of some of the ingredients was questionable.”

 

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2.

 

Belgravia, London

 

This is a shocking result given David Thompson’s reputation as an expert in Thai cookery. Criticism ranged from “sloppy cooking” and “slow service” to a complaint by one panelist that “the staff tried to coerce me into ordering more food than I actually wanted!” One person who has sampled Thompson’s cooking on two different continents told us, “He couldn’t cook when he was in Sydney and he doesn’t cook any better here.”

 

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“Flavors are out of balance, making the food nearly unrecognizable.”

“While the chef seems to know a lot about old Thai recipes, his kitchen seems remarkably unable to cook them well.”

 

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3.

 

Belgravia, London

 

Few restaurants raised the ire of our panel as much as this attempt from the owners of Veeraswamy to create an “Indian Hakkasan,” with food that was described as “poorly conceived and poorly cooked,” service considered “too pushy,” a room that was criticized for being “too noisy,” and prices that were called “simply too expensive compared to the other contemporary Indian choices out there.”

 

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“It was an irritation rather than a privilege to eat there.”

“One must be gullible or anorexic or both to enjoy this place. Absolute rubbish.”

 

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4.

 

Mayfair, London

 

London restaurants serving modern Indian cuisine produced more overrated restaurants than did those of any other category. Benares was an exemplar for the types of problems one runs into at these restaurants, attracting comments like, “Did they have to Westernize the cuisine to the point of removing the flavor from the food?” and “It’s very fashionable if you’re the type who thinks that footballers and their wives make a restaurant trendy.”

 

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“You can’t help but think that the entire experience missed the point of Indian cookery.”

“Whilst service was polite and efficient, it couldn’t save Benares from feeling like a tourist haunt.”

 

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5.

 

Soho, London

 

This surprisingly poor showing from Richard Corrigan featured one panelist telling us of a “disappointing meal with multiple errors in food and service, wine poured at the wrong time, dishes that were overseasoned and tasteless, and a collapsed soufflé for dessert.” On the positive side, a number of people like the romantic dining room, which caused one person to say, “It’s worth getting a mistress just to take her there for a long lunch.”

 

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“Dining with a group of foodies, we were unanimously disappointed. Service was awful—long waits with no attention, mix-ups, etc.”

“Food was slightly gimmicky and showed no real innovation.”

 

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6.

 

Padstow, Cornwall

 

If we were to create some type of statistic that measured a chef’s fame in relation to their low OAD survey rating, Rick Stein’s Cornwall-based restaurant might get the highest score. Comments ranged from “overpriced, tacky and touristy” to “steep prices for the style of food and service on offer.” Even booking a table came under scrutiny, with complaints about the “quite rude telephone reservationists.”

 

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“They use superb raw materials, but they need to be dissuaded from cooking them.”

“High prices for food of the same standard as what you get at a lot of good pubs.”

 

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7.

 

Bray-on-Thames, Berkshire

 

With our panelists describing the cuisine as “caught in a time warp” and “old-fashioned, oversauced and pretentious,” it’s hard to believe that the second generation of the Roux family is in charge of the kitchen at this lovely restaurant on the banks of the Thames. Besides the tired cuisine, the restaurant features a wine list that is “so horrifically overpriced” that “only winners at nearby Ascot can afford to buy a decent bottle.”

 

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“The party was over long ago, but someone left the lights on.”

“What a waste of a beautiful setting.”

 

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8.

 

Belgravia, London

 

This less than compelling entry from the Gordon Ramsay empire, featuring Marcus Wareing behind the stoves, attracted comments like “ingredients of middling quality prepared with little refinement” and “the savory courses were oversalted to the state of inedibleness.” The high prices and an excruciatingly expensive wine list help to make what is already a bad situation even worse.

 

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“Dull, with execution at a level no better than mediocre.”

“Safe for a business lunch but not a gastro-encounter.”

 

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9.

 

Covent Garden, London

 

This restaurant dates from the 1700s and lives up to its reputation as the most touristy restaurant in London. Described as a “Victorian Disneyland” with a “décor that is cluttered and ironic in that typical old-British way,” Rules even led one person to say, “As a Londoner I’m ashamed of the place.” Its saving grace is the game it sources from its own estate in Scotland during the season. But throughout the rest of the year . . .

 

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“Strictly for American tourists and sixty-something Englishmen who grew up in a culture that hated food.”

“Overpriced, unattractive and filled with hapless tourists. Service is downright nasty.”

 

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10.

 

Wandsworth, London

 

The high level of popularity (there is at least one other guide that lists it as the most popular restaurant in London), makes Bruce Poole’s French restaurant a contender for the most overrated in the city. The location south of the river makes it an even more tenuous choice for diners traveling from central London, with one regular customer saying, “If I didn’t live around the corner, I wouldn’t travel to eat there.”

 

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“Three visits to Chez Bruce revealed a level of inconsistency that is hard to explain.”

“I’m not entirely sure what all the fuss is about the place.”

 

 

 

EUROPE

 

 

1.

 

Paris, France

 

Though his restaurant has a long history of being praised by the food press, we never managed to have a good meal at Jacques Le Divellec’s restaurant. So when we saw that our panel was similarly lukewarm toward the restaurantplace, it gave us comfort (actually a refund would have been better). But when you think about it, it’s a bit puzzling—how can you screw things up so badly when you start out with ingredients of such high quality?

 

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“Another place where I’m wondering how they justify the prices for food that’s of this quality.”

“Just a shadow of what it once was.”

 

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2.

 

Vienne, France

 

Fernand Point must be turning over in his grave after reading comments from our panel like, “The only redeeming part of our visit was some Époisses and a good bottle of Château Grillet.” Indeed, we have been eyewitness to the comedy of errors that seems to plague the restaurant, having once watched a captain doing such a poor job cutting open a poulet en vessie that the liquid inside the pouch shot all over the carpet.

 

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“Stuffy service and ordinary food that often contains some type of flaw.”

“It’s a shame that such a historic restaurant can’t serve better food.”

 

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3.

 

Paris, France

 

Michel Troisgros’ cuisine acidulée doesn’t seem to have survived the TGV ride to Paris, and what comes across as “interesting and delicately balanced” in his signature restaurant in Roanne was described as “fusion cuisine at its worst” when prepared in Paris. We note that Wednesday is the only day of the week that Troisgros is actually in the kitchen, showing the depths a cuisine can plunge to when the chef isn’t always in the house.

 

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“I expected something more from the cheap version of Michel Troisgros.”

“Save your money for the original.”

 

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4.

 

San Sebastian, Spain

 

Nearly 40 percent of our panel said they couldn’t recommend this restaurant. Pedro Subijana’s menu features both modern and traditional cuisine, but the modern dishes were described as being “so ill conceived they should be aborted.” Another person complained of a wine cellar that yielded “multiple bottles of wines that had suffered heat damage,” and a “sommelier who was very resistant to replacing the wines.”

 

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“I had one of my worst meals ever at this restaurant.”

“From a depth-of-flavor, pure-pleasure perspective, this was one of the lesser meals of my San Sebastián trip.”

 

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5.

 

Paris, France

 

In all the years we have been traveling to France, we can’t recall a single instance of someone of French extraction ever telling us they ate had eaten at the restaurant. We wonder if it’s the “snooty service, stodgy and over-priced food and a wine list that has been picked over” that is keeping them away, or a “dining room that is overflowing with British and American tourists” that does the trick.

 

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“Here you can find everything that is wrong with the French dining experience.”

“Completely left behind the times.”

 

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6.

 

Crissier, Switzerland

 

Philippe Rochat hasn’t managed to capture the imagination of our panel the way his predecessor did;, with one panelist calling him “a nasty clown who is pretentious and self-satisfied,” with “recipes that are boring and cooking that is irregular.” Even those who were inclined to like Freddy Girardet’s successor took him to task, saying “It was not what I expected, with food that was ordinary and service that was slightly above average.”

 

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“Every dish was doused with a cloying and overly reduced veal demiglace.”

“The food was so heavy I felt that they were trying to force-feed me before sending me off for winter hibernation.”

 

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7.

 

Strassbourg, France

 

Sometimes restaurants and styles of cuisine hang around longer than they should, and some cite say that Emile Jung’s restaurant in Strasbourg is as a good example of this phenomenon. The room is still grand and the service still attentive (especially the charming Madame Jung), but the cuisine is “a bit tired” and “obviously not as good as it once was.” As one of our panel asked after having a meal there, “Perhaps it was great 20 years ago?”

 

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“Ate there twice, and it was two strikes and you are out. Just blah!”

“Sad indeed. Is there a particular phrase that is used to describe chefs who have lost their touch?”

 

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8.

 

Valance, France

 

Given how few women have reached the threshold of being considered world-class chefs, it pains us to see two female chefs on our list of most overrated restaurants in Europe. We wish this weren’t the case, but our panel has mixed feelings about Anne-Sophie Pic’s cuisine, with one person claiming her restaurant “is the most overrated in France,” while another said that it is “capable of being very good, but it can also be inconsistent.”

 

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“There were very high highs and very low lows in the same meal.”

“A meal that never satisfied.”

 

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9.

 

Paris, France

 

Though one of our competitors gives this restaurant its highest rating, this is yet one more highly rated Parisian restaurant that our panel showed indifference toward, with more than 50 percent of those who rated it saying it was acceptable or worse. Comments ranged from “We had the most mediocre meal I can remember” to “I had the tasting menu and only a couple of the dishes were worthy of praise.”

 

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“Over the years, the cuisine here shifted from refined versions of southwestern French cooking to something indescribable.”

“Inconsistency as well as overly stuffy service was the general thought of our table.”

 

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10.

 

Vonnas, France

 

Long a favorite among destination diners, this restaurant seems to have stumbled during the transition to the fifth generation of the Blanc family. Besides the cuisine, which was described as “living on what was were—hopefully the— memories of a very good restaurant,” the “kitsch ambiance” has been given the Disney treatment; don’t be surprised if and you feel like you’re dining at a theme park called “Georges Blanc World.”

 

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“Rather a relic, based on my two meals here. Even the famous Bresse chicken was ordinary.”

“One stunning dish, several totally unmemorable ones. I felt like I was in a factory.”