NEW YORK, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Opinionated About Dining (OAD), the leading source of global restaurant rankings for devout diners, has ranked Paul Pairet's experiential Ultra-Violet by Paul Pairet in Shanghai as the number one restaurant on the OAD Top 100+ Asian Restaurants List. Considered by many of OAD's reviewers to be the most experiential restaurant in the world, Ultra-Violet by Paul Pairet offers diners an exclusive 22-course dining experience within an intimate10 seat setting.
"In an era where most chefs focus on ingredient driven cuisine, Paul Pairet's restaurant, who many consider to be the most avant-garde dining experience in the world, captivates OAD reviewers regardless of the style of cuisine they usually prefer." Steve Plotnicki, Opinionated About Dining
The number two spot on the 2018 list goes to Sushi Saito in Tokyo, last year's highest ranking restaurant, which year after year delivers the flawless execution, extreme precision and level of consistency that OAD's reviewers have come to expect. A former apprentice at Sushi Kanesaka, Saito produces perfectly balanced and exquisitely formed Kanesaka-style sushi, with every piece that is placed in front of guests exactly the same size, shape and temperature.
Third on the list is Chef Matsukawa's introduction-only restaurant in Tokyo where the only way to ensure a seat at the table is to be invited by a regular. Considered by OAD's reviewers to be the best traditional Kaiseki restaurant in Tokyo, Matsukawa transforms the most pristine ingredients into masterpieces by combining simplistic yet impeccable flavors with elegant Japanese aesthetics.
It comes as little surprise to OAD founder, Steve Plotnicki, that OAD's Top 100+ Asian Restaurants List is dominated by Japanese restaurants. 140 of the 200-strong list originate from Japan with 97 of those restaurants hailing from Tokyo. Steve Plotnicki believes "Japan has a fundamental advantage over other countries that stems from how the restaurants are set up because they serve smaller numbers of guests."
Other restaurants in the top 10 of this year's list include Tenzushi Kyomachi-ten in Fukuoka, Japan, Robuchon Au Dome in Macau, China, Den in Tokyo, Seventh Son Restaurant in Hong Kong, China, Sushi Sawada in Tokyo, Kitcho in Kyoto, Japan and Kyo Aji in Tokyo.
The list will be available to read on the Opinionated About Dining website in English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.
History and Overview
OAD (Opinionated About Dining) was created by Steve Plotnicki in 2004. Originally functioning as a blog to document Steve's dining exploits, Steve quickly identified widespread frustration with the reliability of dining guides on the market and recognised the need for a way to more accurately capture the movement of global dining culture. So in 2007, Steve shifted the focus of OAD from his own opinions to the results of a survey guide that would be shaped by many. The initial OAD survey was sent to just a handful of Steve's friends who shared his passion. Almost a decade later, OAD has evolved into an internationally respected dining guide brand that incorporates the opinions of nearly 5,000 of the world's most passionate destination diners, regarding 16,000+ restaurants located throughout the world. Noticing a significant difference in the results of OAD's survey and other guides on the market, Steve began producing unique collaborative dinners that featured chefs identified in the survey as either being up-and-coming or deserving of more attention from the dining community and press.
Everyone is entitled to a have an opinion. But OAD's philosophy is that all opinions are not equal. Unlike other more egalitarian survey guides on the market, OAD believes that experienced opinions generate more accurate conclusions. So to intensify the accuracy of the results of its surveys, OAD emphasises the experience of the voting panel. First, the panel of voters that contributes to OAD surveys is lightly curated to ensure that it consists mainly of globetrotting, highly culinary-literate reviewers that can place their experience within the context of global trends.
OAD ensures that within the voting pool, the more experienced the diner, the more of an impact their opinion has on the results of the survey. Each voter's results are run through a proprietary algorithm that takes into account the quantity and quality of the restaurants each has visited (in conjunction with a number of other factors), which results in them being given a score. That score determines how much weight each participants' votes have on the results.
Jay Cheshes discusses OAD's ranking system in the Wall Street Journal here - https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-rank-the-restaurant-rankings-1464886410
About Steve Plotnicki
Steve Plotnicki's passion for food has been an intrinsic part of his life. A native New Yorker and the son of a butcher, he was a successful guitarist and songwriter before co-founding Profile Records in 1981. In 1998, after success with groups such as Run-DMC and Rob Base, Steve sold his company, though still retains the music publishing catalogue and each year licenses a considerable amount of music for films, TV & commercials. He is also the owner of the television property, Robot Wars, which returned to the BBC2 in 2016.
Contact: Alice Ryan, 1-646-277-7110, aliceryan12@gmail.com
