Holy zot! Gourmet's list of the top 50 restaurants is just out. And two local restaurants made the list. Magnolia Grill at #11! Lantern at #47!! w00t. Obviously everything about a list like that is subjective, from who makes it at all to how they're ranked. I think I'm more surprised to see Lantern at all than to see Magnolia Grill so high up the list. Not that Lantern isn't deserving just that I'm surprised to see them recognized, as they're a lot more "off the beaten path" than many places on the list. Of the places I haven't been, I must say I'm surprised to see Chez Panisse ahead of French Laundry. I'd gotten the impression from what I've read that the buzz was that Chez Panisse had slipped in recent years and many seem to think French Laundry is the best in the country. Oh well. See previous comment on subjectivity. Alas, we haven't had the chance to go to any of the Vegas based restaurants on the list. We had reservations at Babbo when we were in NYC last year but had to cancel them due to a family emergency. It's kinda interesting to me how high the price scale at some of those places runs. Which again is all relative, I suppose. But if you figure that a meal at Magnolia Grill, say, is probably going to be seen as so expensive as to be unimaginable by many (if not most) people, then how do you deal with Robuchon which is probably 2x or 3x as expensive? Or Masa (at one point the most expensive restaurant in the country) which might be 8x to 10x as expensive? Is there a point at which there's no food (or no experience of any kind) that can be worth that much money? Or is it just a question of percentage? Perhaps a $300 price fixe meal doesn't seem expensive if that's what you're making in an hour.