Photo Courtesy of the Le Parker Meridien

While brunch places and specials abound throughout the city, only a select few were able to withstand the rigorous scrutiny of the Gobbl formula. The ten left standing are:

10. Norma’s 118 W. 57th St., New York NY 10027 (pictured above)
9. Jane 100 W. Houston St., New York NY 10012
8. Prune 54 E. 1st St., New York NY 10003
7. Five Points 31 Great Jones St., New York NY 10012
6. Ocean Grill 384 Columbus Ave, New York NY 10024
(more…)

We made a splash at Gobbl last week when we revealed our list of New York’s top fifty restaurants based on an ultra secret formula. Though we made every effort to leave out our own biases in the creation of the most objective list possible, the Gobbl Top 50 sparked a hearty debate among NYC food enthusiasts. Some suggested that the Top 50 was skewed in a particular direction or composed of exclusively overpriced, celebrity-chef locales while still others were excited to see that their favorite digs were ranked so high. Fellow diners, you are in for a definite treat as we reveal to you today a few of the criteria that we considered in the crafting of our all-too secret Gobbl Top 50 formula.

The criteria for the Gobbl Top 50 drew from the experiences of nearly 700 New York diners, as we employed not only the point of view of critics but the general public as well.

• We gave the public’s opinion a healthy 70% of the weight in the formula, while the reviews of notable food critics (among them Frank Bruni and Adam Platt) received 30% of the formula’s weight.

• Drawing from an extensive list of community-based review sites, we valued the sites with quality reviews far more than the ones populated mostly by rants and raves.

• We threw all of the data we accumulated into our high-tech number cruncher, and out came a polished version of the Gobbl Top 50, a computer-generated ranking based on all of the information that we had accumulated.

Let this gastronomic debate live on and tell us what you think! Is an objective top list even possible? Or is the ranking system at its core subjective?

Photo Credit: Nick Solares of Beef Aficionado

There are some heavyweight critics who don’t believe in these types of lists. For them, the dining out experience is too subjective and unquantifiable. Here at Gobbl, we’re inclined to disagree. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been applying our math and social science skills to produce a rather nerdy formula - one that accounts for the opinion of big time critics, the haters, the lovers, and nearly 500 diners. We’ve filtered almost 200 restaurants through this formula to produce our top fifty restaurants in New York City. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas, but of course, we’re keeping our secret formula under a tight lid for now!

50. Buddakan
49. Il Mulino
48. Peter Luger Steak House
47. Telepan
46. Sushi of Gari
45. The Little Owl
44. Sushi Seki
43. Devi
42. Morimoto
41. Spice Market
40. Sfoglia
39. davidburke and donatella
38. Kuruma Zushi
37. Four Seasons
36. Town
35. WD-50 (pictured above)
34. Country
33. Oceana
32. Balthazar
31. Ouest
30. Esca
29. Annisa
28. The Modern
27. Alto
26. Aureole
(more…)

Photo Credit: Krista G.

With coffee table book releases and tv shows galore, the celebrity chef is a unique breed in the restaurant industry. While the general public may adore these personalities and their ubiquity, those within the industry (even the celebs themselves) often shake their heads at this growing group. Whether you hate them or love them, here’s Gobbl’s rundown of the top celebrity chefs and their restaurants:

10. Gramercy Tavern - Michael Anthony
9. Aquavit - Marcus Samuelsson
8. Craft - Tom Colicchio
7. Cru - Shea Gallante
6. Babbo - Mario Batali
(more…)

Photo Credit: Robyn Lee

Here at Gobbl we like things to be neat and orderly, so we’ve come up with a super secret, Nobel Prize worthy formula to rank New York’s restaurants. Our first application of the formula? To the wide world of NY Thai restaurants. We hope the following list will help solve the Thai conundrum.

10. Pukk 71 First Ave, New York, NY 10003 (nr 4th Ave)
9. Highline 835 Washington St, New York, NY 10014
8. Pam Real Thai 402 W. 47th St, New York, NY 10036
7. Joya 215 Court St., Brooklyn, NY 11201
6. Song 295 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

The rest of the rankings after the jump. (more…)