French food is considered the world's premiere cuisine. Which is something that has always kind of boggled my mind.
The reason isn't because I don't like french food - as a matter of fact, I happen to love it. Whether it's fisherman's soup, or escargots, or moulle frittes (mussels and fries), french food is among my favorite cuisines. A local bistro in my neighborhood, Le Barricou, is one of my favorite restaurants. So it's not like I don't love french food.
The issue is that the quality of one cuisine versus another has always seemed like a totaly objective thing to me. Who is there to say that a french steak is better than a german style steak if you like the german style better? Who is there to say that one cuisine is more distinctive or complex than another, when the reality is that nearly every cuisine (with the exception of Great Britain and Ireland, which are unanimously considered culinary wastelands) has its own complexities and distinctive traits?
The reality is that no one has the right to say that one way or the other. Good French food is really good. So is good italian food, so is good thai food, so is good Mexican food. None is inherently better than the next. It's all a matter of personal preference and tastes.
So as we've established, I really, really like French food. If I were to make a list of my favorite restaurants, Le Barricou would be at or near the top. Put a gun to my head and I'd say it's my second favorite, but ranking so many restaurants that I love like that feels like a betrayal. So that said, I'd say there's a "top flight" of best restaurants, and Le Barricou is in there.
The others would be a local pizza place called Motorino, which the New York Times recently called the best pizza in New York City (and, therefore, the best pizza in the United States of America). I'd also add La Piazzetta, another local Italian restaurant - this one specializing in pastas and fresh fish instead of pizza. I'd also include Fette Sau, a barbeque joint that does a Texas-style BBQ with a brooklyn twist. They use cuts of meat like flank steak and pulled pork that you just wouldn't find in Texas.
There are others of course - the danger of a list like this is you inevitably forget one or two restaurants that you love.