Top up-and-coming restaurants in America

Video: What are America’s best restaurants?

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2. Transcript of: What are America’s best restaurants?

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   ANN CURRY, co-host: Back now at 8:50. And the customer is the critic for Zagat surveys of restaurants in America . And this morning, the latest reviews are now available in the 2011 guide to America 's top restaurants , as well as on the Web site zagat .com. And CEO Tim Zagat is here now joining us with details. Tim , good morning.

   Mr. TIM ZAGAT (Zagat Guides): Good to see you again.

   CURRY: It's always great to have you here.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Love seeing you.

   CURRY: But before we get to your list, let's talk about the economy, because that's kind of the thing, a lot of people were not eating out last year...

   Mr. ZAGAT: Mm-hmm.

   CURRY: ...because of the economy; what are you seeing this year?

   Mr. ZAGAT: Well, it -- people are hoping it'll be better, but this is very early in the year. The -- all of the predictions are things are going back. But there was a decline from 3.3 meals per week to 3.1 between the pre-recession and today.

   CURRY: Mm.

   Source: Zagat

   Mr. ZAGAT: And that's a big, big loss in terms of cross-country.

   CURRY: And people are -- can take certain steps to keep the costs down when they're at restaurants , right?

   Mr. ZAGAT: Absolutely. I think most people know you can avoid things you don't need like alcohol or you can cut back on appetizers and desserts. People are much more price-sensitive, so they may be looking at the menu and say, 'The chicken is $20 and the steak is $25, I'll go with the chicken.' There's a great deal more price-sensitivity. And people are also going to less expensive restaurants . In fact, most of the new restaurants today are less expensive, casual, but I would say more fun than ever.

   CURRY: Mm, that's a good bit of note.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Yeah.

   CURRY: People are conversely tipping more, is that right?

   Mr. ZAGAT: People have been consistently tipping more, even during the recession, we've been surprised about that. I thought I was being very generous at tipping around 16 percent and I'm 3 percent less than the national average. But the funny thing is people on the West Coast tip about 1 percent on average less than people on the East Coast .

   CURRY: Hm.

   Best tippers: New Orleans 19.7%

   Worst tippers: Hawaii 18.4% US average 19.2%

   Source: Zagat

   Mr. ZAGAT: So that Philadelphians , New Yorkers, Bostonians tip 1 percent more than people from San Francisco , LA and particularly Hawaii , don't ask me why, I'd love -- if anybody know why they could tell me I'd appreciate it.

   CURRY: Oftentimes you tip because you ask people, 'So how much should I give?' and so maybe that's part of it is -- the news is now spreading that it should be 19 percent...

   Mr. ZAGAT: Right.

   CURRY: ...at least -- at least for -- by what you just said this morning.

   Mr. ZAGAT: That's right .

   CURRY: Let's take a look at your top picks. And the newbies on the list include New York 's number one restaurant , which is Le Bernardin . Did I say that right? Yes.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Yeah.

   CURRY: That's no big surprise. But there is also a newcomer, it's Danny Meyer 's. He's a terrific restaurateur. It's called -- you tell me how to say it.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Maialino .

   CURRY: Oh, Maialino. What -- tell us about this restaurant .

   Mr. ZAGAT: It's wonderful Italian food , rustic Italian food . And every one of Danny Meyer 's restaurants always is a good value and the hospitality, that's his specialty.

   CURRY: OK. In Atlanta there's a new restaurant as well, also with a difficult-to-pronounce name, I'm going to try it, Bacchanalia ?

   Mr. ZAGAT: Bacchanalia .

   CURRY: Bacchanalia. There you go.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Bacchanalia. That's been one of the top restaurants for a long time. But the new restaurant there is The Counter ...

   CURRY: Ah.

   Mr. ZAGAT: ...and it's, again, indicative of what new restaurants are, it's a burger joint with wonderful burgers and endless combinations of toppings, they say that they can make 300,000 toppings, I don't really know how they do that, but that's what they say.

   CURRY: In Seattle you've got a restaurant called Cafe Juanita , right? And it's got a 28 for its food.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Out of 30.

   CURRY: That's right . Now you've got a newcomer, it's called Food Van that's got a 27, that's pretty terrific.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Yeah. It's a place called -- it's Marination , and again there are food trucks developing by -- developed by some of the top chefs in America ...

   CURRY: Hm.

   Mr. ZAGAT: ...all over the country. And we have on our Web site about 40 food trucks where you can go and find out where they are at any one time. Most of them twitter and say, 'I'm here now,' and you can find them that way. But it's a phenomena which I think is increasingly important.

   CURRY: OK. And also in Los Angeles you've got an eatery we all know about which is called Sushi Zo . But gaining momentum there's an innovative restaurant , it's called Noir Food Wine .

   Mr. ZAGAT: It's wonderful wines and food. Very, very good food.

   CURRY: A good combination.

   Mr. ZAGAT: Yeah.

   CURRY: All right. And in San Francisco we've all heard about the French Laundry , but now there's a reservation for something called Frances . What's so great about this?

   Mr. ZAGAT: Frances. The chef, Melissa Perello , had a great reputation before she started this restaurant . It has excellent California style food, but the main thing is the ingredients are locally sourced and couldn't be any fresher.

   CURRY: OK. In Philadelphia there's an upstart called BYOB -- actually it's a -- it's called Fond . It's a BYOB storefront, but it's called fond.

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