As you might remember, Y&H last year made something of a fuss about Makoto‘s strange stranglehold on the top spots in the annual Zagat Guide, which really isn’t so annual after all.
Well, the new 2011 Washington D.C./Baltimore survey just hit the streets today, and guess what? Makoto is nowhere to be found among the Top 5 restaurants in terms of food quality. Take a peek at the top finishers in the food category:
1. Marcel’s
3. Komi
4. CityZen
5. Rasika
The victory is a first for Marcel’s, Robert Wiedmaier‘s French-Belgian restaurant in the West End, and he deserves the recognition. But I wonder what happened to Makoto since the last survey? Did Zagat unearth a ballot-stuffing operation on the part of Makoto? Did diners suddenly turn against their perennial favorite? Have the media influenced diner voting?
So many questions. I’ll try to answer some in the coming days. Or at least gather more opinions on the matter.