Expensive restaurants? Oh, I thought you meant expensive.

I take it all back, Michelin: Los Angeles doesn't know from expensive.

At Forbes, Pascale Le Draoulec (she of the LA Times' "it's-so-hard-to-get-good-help" article a couple of weeks ago) writes about the world's priciest restaurants, of which LA has a whopping none.

Spending $150 on a meal might seem steep for some.

At Masa, the sushi temple in Manhattan's Time Warner Center, it's merely the cost of canceling your dinner reservation last-minute.

Should you dine, plan to shell out a minimum of $500.

Costly, for sure. But the $400 prix-fixe dinner at Masa is comprised of about 25 courses. That doesn't include tax or the automatic 20% gratuity--kaching! Nor does it cover a beverage. The least expensive sake on the menu is the Otokoyama Momenya. An eight-ounce pour costs $24.

There's also a slide show that features the usual suspects (French Laundry, Joel Robuchon, Alinea, El Bulli) as well as a "modest little steakhouse" in Tokyo, Aragawa, that runs $550 per person. Baffling: The photos include a Montreal place, Toque! There, a seven-course menu is a mere $92, a barrier LA (and a lot of other cities) could crack without breaking a sweat.

World's Priciest Restaurants [Forbes.com]

Comments

[Nick]

Ah, conspicuous consumption porn. Always sells issues. Yawn.

[Dana]

Yes, indeed... Forbes has built an entire business around it. And as the inclusion of Toque! suggests, it often tells us so little.