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Washington Post Restaurant Critic Tom Sietsema's Top 10 List of Favorite Restaurants, Fall 2018


Marty L.

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Does anyone have the faintest idea what he's doing with this list? Surely he doesn't mean Ten Best, or even his Ten Favorites.  At first I thought it was something like his top 10 most exciting openings of 2018, but nope, not that either.  I'm a bit confused, not that it much matters.

As for their merits, the only one from ##3-10 at which I had a great meal this year was Spoken English, FWIW.  (My most recent meal at Hitmitsu was good, not great, and not quite worth the $$.  But I've been wowed there in the past.)  I haven't been to Three Blacksmiths or Centrolina. 

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I ate at the bar at Centrolina earlier this summer and had a couple of kick ass dishes.  The clams he mentions was actually the one not so great dish.  Some of the clams were on the chewy side.

But otherwise I was impressed.  It's a little on the $$ side, but I felt the place was flying under the radar for the quality of the cooking.

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11 hours ago, Marty L. said:

Does anyone have the faintest idea what he's doing with this list? Surely he doesn't mean Ten Best, or even his Ten Favorites.  At first I thought it was something like his top 10 most exciting openings of 2018, but nope, not that either.  I'm a bit confused, not that it much matters.

As for their merits, the only one from ##3-10 at which I had a great meal this year was Spoken English, FWIW.  (My most recent meal at Hitmitsu was good, not great, and not quite worth the $$.  But I've been wowed there in the past.)  I haven't been to Three Blacksmiths or Centrolina. 

No clue.  It’s just an arbitrary list.  I’ve only been to Maydan and Momofuku.  I’d try Himitsu if it wasn’t a pain to get to.  The others hold little appeal.

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Like many people on here I read everything Tom puts out but the Fall Top 10 has always been a bit of a head scratcher to me - it seems like it's trying to highlight a variety which makes sense for a guide but in a countdown it's weird seeing a 3.5 start at #4 and a 3 star at #3 - I'd prefer just a straight up power ranking top 10 although I'm sure people would bitch and moan about "only fine dining for the 1%" crap that you see in the comments sections.

The format as best I can tell generally tends to be #10-6ish newer places that are usually good value, 6ish-3ish highly rated nicer but non tasting menu places that have generally opened within the past 2-3 years with usually one that's opened within the last year.  #3ish - 1 : The tasting menu spots.

With P&P at #2 I'm predicting Inn at Little Washington at #1 tomorrow (it's had quite a year in terms of recognition) - I would've personally still picked Komi over P&P but if reviewed I'm sure it'll get a similarly high rating.

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On 10/8/2018 at 10:49 AM, FranklinDubya said:

I would've personally still picked Komi over P&P but if reviewed I'm sure it'll get a similarly high rating.

Don't be silly. Kuya Ja and Little Havana are far better than Komi.  (Just teasing, Tom.  But you really ought to be clearer about what it is you're doing.)

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9 hours ago, mtureck said:

And Del Mar is #1. 

Obviously more of a "places I'm really liking right now" as opposed to a real ten best list.

And I've been to a grand total of zero of the ten. Impressive. 

I haven't read through the list, much less any of the reviews, but if you enjoy Spanish cuisine, I will tell you first hand Del Mar is worth a splurge. 

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