101 Best Restaurants in America Slideshow

Credit: © Chez Panisse ©Aya Brackett

Comments

by Anonymous, Aug 05, 2011 @ 6:16 PM

I've eaten lunch and dinner menus at CP. Not impressed. Fussy, fussy food.

by Anonymous, Feb 24, 2011 @ 6:34 AM

When talking about the top 101 restaurants in America, doesn't that pertain to NOW? While Chez Panisse certainly deserves its place in America's Gastronomic Hall of Fame, when comparing it to the dining scene of today, it is all of those things that you say: tired, irrelevant, and pretentious. Blue Hill is a shining example of what Chez Panisse SHOULD have grown into. The resources available to better the stated mission of the restaurant have grown exponentially since its opening. Where is the evolution of the restaurant? The deification of this dinosaur is what is holding California cuisine firmly in the 90s.

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#7 Chez Panisse, Berkeley, Calif.

Chez Panisse is, of course, where it all started, four decades ago this year. Before Chez Panisse, practically nobody in America served only fresh local foods and wrote menus according to the season, if not the day. Practically nobody cared like Alice Waters and her associates did. It has become fashionable to criticize this culinary icon as (take your pick) tired, irrelevant, pretentious — but the truth is that the food is still superb, both in the one-menu-a-night downstairs restaurant and the lively, diversified upstairs Café. A must.

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