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Zagat.com Adds Expanded Coverage in Four Cities: Welcome Dallas, Houston, Miami and Seattle!
October 29, 2013
Whether you’re traveling to
Dallas
,
Houston
,
Miami
or
Seattle
for business or pleasure
—
or you’re a resident simply exploring your own backyard
—
Zagat can now help you find the perfect place for any occasion. Discover notable places through trusted ratings & reviews, curated lists, and all-new blog and video coverage from Zagat's editors.
City coverage will now be complete with:
Full media content including blog posts, video and lists
Brand new nightlife reviews, as well as restaurant ratings & reviews
Local insights via city-specific Zagat Twitter handles
In order to learn more about diners’ profiles in Dallas, Houston, Miami and Seattle, we conducted a dining trends survey in each of these cities. Here are some of the highlights for each as compared with the national average:
Dallas Diners
:
Eat out often.
On average, Dallas surveyors report eating out 2.5 lunches and 2.4 dinners per week, for a combined total of 4.9 meals out per week, higher than the national average of 4.4 meals out per week.
Spend less for dinners out.
They report spending an average of only $31.87 per person for dinner, significantly lower than the national average of $40.53.
Love their Mexican food.
Although still not beating out classic favorites like No. 1 Italian (18% of the vote) and No. 2 American (14%), Mexican ties Seafood at No. 3 with 13% of the vote for favorite cuisine. But while nationally Seafood cuisine is preferred by 11% of surveyors, Mexican cuisine is only preferred by 5% of them, showing that Dallas residents love Mexican food even more than the rest of us. Find the Top Mexican Restaurants List
here
…and let’s not forget
Tex-Mex Tops
too.
Dallas’ Top-Rated Restaurants Include:
Saint-Emilion
(
Top Food
),
The French Room
(
Top Decor
&
Service
) and
Abacus
(
Most Popular
)
Houston Diners
:
Eat out even more often (than Dallas diners, as well as the national average).
Houston diners eat out for lunch 2.8 times per week (vs. 2.1 nationally) and 2.7 times for dinner (vs. 2.3 nationally), for a combined total of 5.5 meals per week eaten out.
Spend less for dinners out too.
As previously mentioned, nationally, diners report spending an average of $40.53 per person for a dinner out, but in Houston, the reported average dinner spend is $35.57.
Desire more French cuisine.
French is the top cuisine in demand in Houston. Nineteen percent of Houston francophiles asked to see more restaurants in the area, in contrast with only 12% nationwide. Check out the Top French Restaurants in Houston
here
!
Houston’s Top-Rated Restaurants Include:
Da Marco
(
Top Food
&
Most Popular
) and
Brennan's
(
Top Decor
&
Service
)
Miami Diners
:
Dine out often for dinner, average for lunch.
Even with the average reported spend for dinner in Miami at $43.82 (vs. $40.53 national average), Miami surveyors reported eating out for dinner 2.7 times per week, higher than the national average of 2.3 meals/week. Restaurant lunch dining is at 2.2 meals per week, on par with the national average of 2.1
Take dining etiquette very seriously.
Sixty-three percent of Miami surveyors think it’s “rude and inappropriate” to text, email, tweet or talk on mobile devices in a restaurant, while only 32% feel it’s “ok in moderation.”
Are irritated by noisy restaurants.
The No. 1 dining irritant among Miami diners is the Noise Level. Eighty percent of Miami surveyors actively avoid restaurants that are too loud vs. 73% nationally.
Miami’s Top-Rated Restaurants Include:
Naoe
(
Top Food
&
Service
),
Setai The Restaurant
(
Top Decor
) and
Joe’s Stone Crab
(
Most Popular
)
Seattle Diners
:
Cook/prepare more meals at home.
On average, Seattle surveyors cook or prepare 7.5 meals/week vs. the 6.9 meals nationally. They only eat out 4.2 meals per week as compared with the 4.4 meals/week national average.
Make reservations via Internet.
When Seattle diners do eat out, 60% make their reservations online, with the largest percentage (34%) booking via desktop/laptop.
Are irritated by parking.
Though the No. 1 dining irritant for Seattle diners is Noise Level (26%) and No. 2 is Service (17%), Parking comes in third at 16%, compared with an average 7% nationally.
Seattle’s Top-Rated Restaurants Include:
Nishino
(
Top Food
),
The Georgian
(
Top Decor
),
Canlis Restaurant
(
Top Service
) and
13 Coins
(
Most Popular
)
We hope you like the new Dallas, Houston, Miami and Seattle additions to our media coverage. Stay tuned as we continue to expand our content to even more locales in the coming months!
Posted by Curt Gathje, Zagat Lead Editor
Zagat 2014 NYC Restaurants Survey: Le Bernardin Wins Top Food for a Record 12th Time; Ethnic Cuisines Outgrow European Favorites in Local Dining Scene Over the Past 10 Years
October 1, 2013
Other Survey Winners Include: Asiate (Decor), Per Se (Service) and Il Bambino (Best Buy)
NYC Welcomes 111 Openings vs. 42 Closings
The
results
of Zagat’s 2014 New York City Restaurants Survey, covering 2,084 restaurants, are now live on zagat.com. The restaurants include more places than ever in Brooklyn – 265, compared to 127 ten years ago. The ratings and reviews can also be accessed on Zagat’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android, through Google Maps and Search, as well as in local bookstores. In total, 48,114 avid diners voted in the Survey.
This year, surveyors report eating a total of 4.9 meals out per week, including 2.7 dinners out, and spending an average of $48.56 per person, well above the national average of $40.53. The average percent tip left by NYC diners is 18.8%. When it comes to home cooking, New Yorkers cook or prepare 5.5 meals per week (lunch or dinner) at home, compared to 6.9 meals per week, nationally.
Eric Ripert’s
Le Bernardin
took home the award for
Top Food
(with a 29 on Zagat’s 30-point scale) for the 12th time, while also winning
Most Popular
for the third straight year. No other restaurant in the NYC Survey’s history has won Top Food as many times. The other major categories honored repeat winners
Asiate
(
Decor
) and
Per Se
(
Service
). On the upswing,
Bouley
(No. 2 for Food) has continued to improve its rankings, jumping from No. 15 to No. 5 in overall popularity.
This year’s Survey crowned nine new cuisine winners:
Pies-N-Thighs
(Chicken),
Prosperity Dumpling
(Chinese),
Barney Greengrass
(Deli),
Raoul’s
(French Bistro),
Kurumazushi
(Japanese/Sushi),
Jungsik
(Korean),
Tortilleria Nixtamal
(Mexican),
Casa Mono
(Spanish/Tapas) and
Taïm
(Vegetarian).
In addition, the Survey welcomes 111 newcomers, compared with 42 reported closings. This year’s
hottest debuts
include big-name projects like Jean-Georges Vongerichten's
ABC Cocina
, Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick’s
Carbone
and Andrew Carmellini’s
Lafayette
, as well as meat-centric
BrisketTown
and
The Marrow
, and quick bites
Umami Burger
and
Salvation Taco
. On the East Side,
Pearl & Ash
and Wylie Dufresne’s
Alder
have made strong debuts, while the outer boroughs welcomed
River Styx
and Paul Liebrandt’s
The Elm
in Brooklyn, as well as
M. Wells Dinette
in Queens.
With roughly 100 cuisines represented in the Survey, it has long been evident that New York’s dining scene is as diverse as its millions of residents. And though
Italian
continues to be the favorite cuisine among NYC surveyors with 32% of the vote this year,
French
restaurants still have a stronghold on the Top Food list, taking seven of the top 10 spots. Despite these stats, Japanese restaurants receive the highest average food score (23.87). In contrast, the average food rating for French restaurants is 22.08. Reflecting the diversification of the NYC palate is the fact that in the last 10 years, there has been 22% growth in the number of Asian, Mexican and Middle Eastern restaurants combined and a 2% decline in Italian, French and American.
When it comes to dining irritants, noise was voted No. 1, with 30% of the total vote. Furthermore, 72% of diners say they actively avoid restaurants that are too loud. And when asked about service, NYC surveyors ranked inattentive staff (17%), slow service (14%), rude staff (12%) and plates being cleared before the entire party finishes the course/meal (11%) as the top complaints. Ironically, rushed service was also a complaint (8%).
New York City surveyors continue to embrace digital dining trends, as 56% say they typically make their reservations via the Internet, including 30% on desktop, 16% on mobile and 10% on tablet. And with the proliferation of brunch in NYC restaurants, 44% of surveyors reported that they go out for brunch “sometimes” while 14% claim to go “nearly every weekend.” For those seeking a few must-try brunches this season, check out this
recent zagat.com feature
– and happy brunching.
Zagat.com and Google Maps also feature over 100 curated lists of restaurants in NYC designed to help users discover great dining options for different occasions, everything from
dining near the Barclays Center
, to meeting friends for
brunch in Midtown
, or even on a break during
Jury Duty
.
To access all of this year’s ratings and reviews, check out zagat.com, download the Zagat app for
Android
and
iPhone
, or purchase the print guide, available at local bookstores.
Posted by Curt Gathje and Carol Diuguid, Zagat Lead Editors
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