Zagat's new guides to US hotels, European dining

NEW YORK – Two new Zagat guides offer reviews of hotels in the United States and restaurants in Europe.

Zagat's "Top U.S. Hotels, Resorts & Spas 2009" covers 1,001 properties and chains in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, based on input from some 10,000 travelers.

Highest-rated hotels in the Zagat guide were the Dallas-Ft. Worth Ritz-Carlton and the Peninsula in Chicago for hotels with 100 or more rooms; and Twin Farms in Vermont and Blackberry Farm in Tennessee for hotels, lodges and inns with less than 100 rooms.

Best buys, meaning best value in a hotel stay, according to the guide, were Disney's Fort Wilderness in Florida and the Paris and MGM Grand in Las Vegas among large hotels; and among small hotels (less than 100 rooms), the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, Ore., and in the Carmel, Calif., area, Deetjen's Big Sur Inn and Mission Ranch.

Zagat's "Europe's Top Restaurants 2009" rates 1,639 eateries in 27 cities from Amsterdam to Zurich, based on input from nearly 17,000 diners. The guide covers 101 types of cuisine, from Bavarian and Basque to Turkish and Tuscan. Despite the diversity, Italian food was rated the No. 1 favorite among the Zagat surveyors, followed by French and Mediterranean.

The biggest complaint about dining out in nearly every city in the survey was service. But which European country has the friendliest restaurant service? Italy came in first among Zagat respondents, followed by Spain and Ireland. Among the top-ranked restaurants in the survey were Ron Blaauw in Amsterdam, Thornton's in Dublin, Passadis del Pep in Barcelona, Baraka in Budapest, G. Ramsay/68 Royal in London, and Taillevent in Paris.

In addition to the paperback guidebooks, which cost $15.95, Zagat content is available online at Zagat.com and for mobile devices, at Zagat.mobi and Zagat To Go.

This year marks the 30th anniversary for Zagat, which started out "as a hobby involving friends rating NYC restaurants," according to founders Tim and Nina Zagat in their introduction to the guides. The Zagat enterprise now has over 350,000 participants and guides to everything from golf to shopping.

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