I wonder if they serve "freedom fries"?!

Critics say world's best restaurant is French - but in California
By Michael Paterson, Telegraph.co.uk
(Filed: 29/04/2003)

A British-dominated panel of food critics has decreed that the best place to eat in the world is the French Laundry, a French restaurant run by Americans in California...according to the Restaurant magazine poll of 300 chefs and restaurant reviewers.

The French Laundry opened in 1994 in a two-storey 1890s steam laundry in Yountville, Napa Valley. Thom Hetherington, of Restaurant, said: "The stunning location in the hills of the Napa Valley was a big plus factor. But their cuisine was deemed better than any restaurant in France because, while they had a French-trained chef, they were not restricted by the more conservative tastes of many French clientele." There is a two-month waiting list for customers to pay around £80 a head plus wine.

The top 10 were:

1 French Laundry, California;
2 El Bulli (last year's No 1), north of Barcelona;
3 Le Louis XV, Monaco;
4 Jean Georges, New York;
5 Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London;
6 L'Arpege, Paris;
7 Comme chez Soi, Brussels;
8 Rockpool, Sydney;
9 L'Ambroisie, Paris;
10 Gramercy Tavern, New York.