| April 22, 2008
For a meal at the world’s best restaurants, Americans are going to have to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Restaurant magazine yesterday announced the results of its annual restaurant ratings. Chef Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli in Roses, Spain, topped the list, compiled each year by 700 chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers. The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England, and Pierre Gagnaire in Paris took the no. 2 and 3 slots, respectively.
The highest-rated eatery in America was chef Thomas Keller’s Yountville, Calif., restaurant, the French Laundry, which came in fifth. Mr. Keller’s Per Se, in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, jumped to no. 6 from no. 9 last year. The other local restaurants to make the list were Jean-Georges (no. 17), Le Bernardin (no. 20), and Daniel (no. 41).
El Bulli has taken the list’s top slot for the third consecutive year. Situated due north of Barcelona, on Spain’s Costa Brava, the restaurant is open between April and early October. Hundreds of thousands of would-be diners are said to apply to dine at the restaurant each year. El Bulli seats about 8,000 patrons annually.
