Philadelphia Top Restaurants 2004 - RESULTS

Hey everyone,

First off, thanks to those who participated. I acknowledge that this is not a perfect poll, far from it ... but I'm sure it's still fun and informative to anyone who might be interested.

The first number is the total points the restaurant garnered, and the second number (where applicable) is the number of #1 votes the restaurant received.

Here are the results:

Django 47 7
Lacroix 37 2
Matyson 27 1
Fountain 21 3
Le Bec Fin 21
Vetri 21 2
Pif 15 2
Buddakan 14
Morimoto 12 1
Azafran 10 2
Capital Grille 9
Vietnam 9
Chloe 8
Dmitri's 6 1
Monk's 6
Radicchio Café 6
Striped Bass 6
Alison's in Blue Bell 5 1
L'Angolo 5
Pasion 5
Pod 5 1
Caribou Café 5 1
Fork 4
La Buca 4
Nodding Head 4
Latest Dish 3
Sabrina's 3
Tequila's 3
Susanna Foo 3
Pumpkin 3
Los Caszuelas 3
Southeast Chinese 3
Brasserie Perrier 2
Buon Appetito 2
Gilmore's 2
Prime Rib 2
Tai Lake 2
Tangerine 2
Tre Scalini 2
White Dog 2
El Azteca 2
David's Mei Lai Wah 1
Kabul 1
La Boheme 1
La Lupe 1
La Viola 1
Rx 1
Audrey Claire 1
Verge 1
Cuba Libre 1
Villa di Roma 1

BTW: I think the fact that we have two BYOs (one taking the top spot!) in this list is a good sign that they're here to stay ... ;)
-J

[mhdousa]

I decided to bump this up from FIVE YEARS AGO because I was walking by the closed Django today and I remembered seeing this post come out just as I found I was moving to Philly.
Back then, the Pennsylvania board was dominated by talk of Django. It's interesting to see what's happened to many of the top restaurants on this list:
Django - closed
Lacroix - new chef
Matyson - new chefs and new owners
Fountain - probably the same, although really talks about this place
Le Bec Fin - Perrier "gave back" his stars or diamonds or whatever and changed up the feel of the place
Vetri - the only place up to this point that still is probably very similar to what it was back then
Pif - closed

Thoughts?

[percyn]

Certainly interesting, though it should be pointed out that the chef/proprietors of the 2004 Django and Pif have channeled their efforts into "evolutions" of the former restaurants.

[Bigley9]

I guess I am more amazed at the number of places that are still around and turning out good food after 4 1/2 years!

Thank you!

Yes, it was fun and informative. It also reminded me of some of our once-favorites that we haven't been to lately.

I'm sure it must have been a lot of work. You deserve a good dinner. Choose from the top!

Thanks for running the poll. It's an interesting list. I like (and dislike) it in almost precisely the same way I do Zagat's - guess it's inherent in the process. It could be perfected by just using *my* kist, of course ;-) but short of that you'll always get a mix of disparate places.

And yes, barring a change in the law, BYOs are here to stay: 2 of the top three, 4 of the top ten.

Thanks for doing this.