---
title: 'I Tried The #1 Restaurant in America'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zNHKgUjrISs'
video_id: 'zNHKgUjrISs'
date: 2026-06-29
duration_sec: 1785
---

# I Tried The #1 Restaurant in America

> Source: [I Tried The #1 Restaurant in America](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zNHKgUjrISs)

## Summary

The video follows a host as he tests the top five restaurants in North America according to an ultimate list, eating over 100 courses across the continent. He brings special guests to each stop, including a Canadian food YouTuber, a restaurateur, a bodybuilding legend, and a celebrity chef, to determine if the ranking is accurate and worth the hype.

### Key Points

- **Premise** [0:00] — The host sets out to test the top five restaurants in North America, eating over 100 courses to see if the list is accurate.
- **Tanière (Number 5)** [0:38] — A two-Michelin-star restaurant in Montreal, hidden underground, requiring a secret code. Signature dish: Noble (scallops, caviar, butter sauce). Guest: Gurky, a local food YouTuber.
- **Smyth (Number 4)** [4:48] — The only three-Michelin-star restaurant in the top five, in Chicago. Known for obsessive creativity and on-the-spot dish creation. Guest: Christopher Zucchero (Mr. Beef), a lifelong dining skeptic.
- **Pearl Morissette (Number 3)** [11:10] — A farm-to-table restaurant in rural Ontario. Focus on hyper-local ingredients. Guest: Will Tennyson, a bodybuilding YouTuber.
- **Mon Lapin (Number 2)** [17:31] — A simple neighborhood wine bar in Montreal with zero Michelin stars but high ranking. Guest: Chef Laurent, a regular who aims to convince the host it should be number one.
- **Atomix (Number 1)** [23:20] — A Korean-inspired fine dining restaurant hidden in a New York City apartment building. Personalized chopsticks, storytelling through food. Guest: Chef Christian Petroni.
- **Conclusion** [29:03] — After 100 courses across five cities, the host concludes that the ranking doesn't matter; each restaurant felt like number one in its own way, and the list simply indicates the caliber of the experience.

### Conclusion

The video concludes that the ranking of the top five restaurants is subjective and each offers a unique, exceptional experience. The host encourages viewers to simply pick a restaurant and enjoy the experience.

## Transcript

If there are over 1 million restaurants
across North America and an equal
number of best restaurant lists,
how could you possibly
know which are really...
the best?
What if there was one ultimate list?
Well, there actually is,
and it says there are five
restaurants making food better than
anywhere else on the continent.
So I'm testing the top five on the list,
eating over 100 courses across
North America to see if the list
is as accurate as they say it is.
And better yet,
is it worth it?
At every stop,
we're bringing a very important
guest. Many will be people who
rarely eat food like this.
A representative of the people.
And at our final stop,
a chef who knows what it
takes to be number one.
Starting not only with a
two-Michelin-star restaurant,
but you need a secret...
code to get in.
So we step inside a place called Tanière.
This is something I've never...
seen before.
A long, eerie tunnel.
And then another.
Am I going to be locked
away down here forever?
Kidding.
I hope.
This entire restaurant lives underground,
carved into a series
of connected chambers.
And as the night goes on,
we'll move deeper and deeper.
And our first special guest
waiting in the snack room is Gurky,
a local Canadian food YouTuber who
has never been to a place like this.
One of only two,
two-Michelin-star
restaurants in all of Canada.
The snacks were very unique,
but the first main course.
Whoa.
This is their signature dish called Noble,
which in the bottom is
a rich butter sauce...
And on top, scallops,
poached in that butter with
another topping of a massive
pile of the finest caviar.
And then they serve that all topped off.
The first beverage you get in
here is a beautiful glass of
champagne to go with that.
I mean, the good life.
C'est bon dans 'yeule.
Good in the mouth.
C'est bon dans 'yeule.
Yes!
Welcome to Quebec.
All the layers work together.
They're leveraging very simple
flavors that are very powerful.
And then this champagne cuts through
it like a hot knife in butter.
It is so sharp and tart and just
mineralic.
Is that a word?
This meal makes you want to wear
a huge coat of fur and be a Noble.
Next up.
At the bottom of the
plate is a lobster tail.
At the top,
a center cut slice of the lobster claw.
And to the left, various greens.
But more importantly, matsutake mushroom.
Wow, that is so,
so packed full of lobster
flavor and like a toasted,
like this roasted mushroom flavor.
Honestly,
that's borderline MSG hack right there.
That's crazy.
Full of umami.
Like, it's crazy.
The fact that we're getting this from
the number five makes me kind of,
like almost,
like nervous.
Like, what is number one gonna be?
Like,
maybe this deserves to be number one.
I don't know.
This next one could propel Tanière to the
top of my personal leaderboard so far.
So we have a big rock.
Ooga booga.
So we have cheese,
Au Gré des Champs.
Yes.
Cheese.
Let's go.
Now,
in the upper left and
lower right is that cheese.
Shaved morel mushrooms in the bottom,
and in the center is a
crunchy tuile cylinder.
And inside that,
more of that cheese in a foam form.
Cheers.
Oh, I have a Ratatouille moment.
Being in...
the woods with my father and
walking on a mushroom that farts.
I don't like this story,
but I love this dish.
That's a 10 out of 10.
That is a perfect...
dish.
This is a dish that would signal me
that we are in a restaurant that belongs
in the top 50 best restaurants...
in America.
Creme brulee at a Michelin restaurant.
On the left, more caviar.
And on the right, a maple creme brulee.
I'm a little skeptical.
Oh, wow.
That's insane.
If someone were to have asked me,
what's your favorite use of caviar ever?
I might have said, on a potato chip,
mixed into a sauce.
I'm going to go ahead and
say it's creme brulee.
Number five is low-key
swinging for number one.
The first dessert.
Insane.
But could the final dessert match
the surprise I felt entering...
the final room?
An ice cream sandwich that on the
outside has a crunchy praline,
and then inside,
that little thinner part
is essentially a jelly,
and the thicker,
creamy part is a maple ice cream.
So, yeah, ice cream.
I have a Ratatouille moment once again.
This is exactly like
being in a sugar shack.
It feels exactly like a maple taffy.
It's delicious.
Everything was extremely good.
10 out of 10.
I loved it.
Memorable experience.
You should try it out.
Most people would love this kind of food
because everything that was served are
things that are craveable and delicious
and interesting without being,
like, so crazy.
Incredibly fresh local ingredients
executed literally perfectly.
Who's not gonna love that?
So is it worth it?..
Duh.
But is it a number five
or is it a number one?
It's gonna be a hard question to answer
because the remaining spots are insane.
Number three is a barn,
literally in the middle of nowhere.
Number two, reminder,
in all of America,
is just a simple neighborhood wine bar.
And number one is inside a New
York City apartment building.
We've got an interesting experience ahead.
But next, Smyth in Chicago,
the only three-Michelin-star
restaurant in the top five.
One of only 14 restaurants in all of
America have been bestowed three stars.
This is about obsessive creativity.
But there's something
unusual they do here.
Constant risk taking in the
middle of dinner service,
which we'll see soon.
And joining me on this adventure is quite
possibly the perfect person for the job.
Mr. Beef himself, Christopher Zucchero.
What the show The Bear is modeled after...
Not only is he a restaurateur,
but he's a lifelong dining skeptic.
So we're gonna find out if we change this
man or if his beliefs are solidified.
You're not a big fine dining guy.
So what do you think of
restaurants like this,
and are they worth it?
Normally, I would not do this.
My wife eats like this.
Her friends eat like this.
And I've been invited to a
lot of nice places like this.
It's just never been my thing.
Who would want to eat like this?
This isn't comfortable.
Now we're gonna see how you feel...
after the meal.
Within minutes of being seated,
they put something on the table
that I'm worried is going to...
upset Chris,
but I thought it was beautiful.
That leaf-like object on
top is actually seaweed,
and underneath,
a tart filled with Hokkaido uni.
Interesting.
It's beautiful.
Looks like a piece of art.
Why would you want to
eat something like this?
Shall we?
Let's go, my love.
One bite.
Delicious brother.
Oh wow.
Super well seasoned and
a little bit of umami.
Tasted like a real excellent Ritz cracker.
Okay, he's being nice,
but let's be honest,
he seems pretty unimpressed.
Next up.
I think this is the thinnest
sandwich in the world.
The bread,
crispy corn tuile filled with
a lot of truffle and pate.
Second course.
And we already have a sandwich
with the king of sandwiches.
My wife's gonna be proud.
She's not gonna believe that
I ate something like this.
What flavors and textures
are you picking up,
Chris?
I don't know, man.
It's delicious, though.
This is one of those things
that no matter who eats it,
they'll find it delicious and
they won't understand why.
It's like the perfect,
perfect pairing of an assortment
of flavors that you don't normally
see together greater than
the sum of its parts.
I would normally not eat pate,
but all that together was
outstanding.
It was delicious.
I almost want to eat Vicram's right now.
Next up, I don't love uni.
And this is like, uni on uni on uni.
So...
without further ado.
I think it's delicious.
This is really good, dude.
It's very refreshing.
Kind of insanely good.
It's, like,
both rich and light at the same time.
This is one of the only ways I think
you're gonna get me to eat uni.
Restaurants like this will put things
in front of you that are often,
like,
underappreciated or ignored or scary,
and they find ways to make you love them.
And I think that is hallmark
of not just great cookery,
but also good creativity.
It's basically saying,
we're gonna take this thing that not
everybody loves and just figure it out...
And then a puffed liquid
nitrogen frozen disc...
of lobster with peanut milk in the bottom.
This is the most lobstery lobster
I've ever tasted in my life.
What he said.
It tastes like an amazing
Thai dish right now.
Probably number one lobster bite
I've had in the last 12 months.
It's the only thing like
this I've ever had ever,
in the 45 years I've been on this planet.
I can't believe it.
Is this actually changing
Chris's mind here?
We haven't won him over yet, though,
so on to the next course.
Three Michelin stars don't fuck around.
They design their spoons for the
vessels that you're eating out of.
This is essentially a lobster chawanmushi,
which is a savory Japanese egg custard.
It's so hard to make
something cold that flavorful.
It's crazy.
I like custards.
Whatever came out of that was delicious.
This is the type of dish that makes
a restaurant two or three Michelin.
It also is the type of dish that
will get you on the top 50 list,
especially...
in the top five.
I don't like seafood.
I've engulfed everything
that's been seafood.
It's easy to do here.
He goes, "I don't like seafood." I'm,
like,
hammering him with the seafood restaurant.
No, you do whatever you want to me,
Joshua, I'm enjoying this.
Chris was shocked,
but it turns out I am as well.
And it gets crazier.
Smyth is known for creating
dishes on the spot,
and believe it or not,
they did that with this.
A completely translucent ravioli.
Like, look at this.
You can see through them,
filled with pea broth and hoja santa.
Banger.
Bingo.
This was seasoned 30 seconds ago.
They dialed it in just
now and then sent it out.
From an operational standpoint, it's,
like,
not only borderline impossible
but it also is ballsy.
This is another on the spot dish.
The little brown pieces
are brined young walnut,
a quenelle of cream sitting in a broth,
and possibly the most generous
serving of caviar I've ever seen.
Hopefully, Chris likes caviar.
It's f***ing crazy.
There's no way they haven't tested this.
This is the best caviar
dish I've ever had.
Same here.
Like,
this is a 10 out of 10 use of caviar.
This is it.
This is the one.
A three Michelin star restaurant
constantly striving for utter perfection.
And they're like, f*** it.
Let's just test brand new dishes
on these guys that we've never
put on the menu ever before.
Right now on camera.
You gotta respect that.
I understand
why this is at the top
five restaurant in America.
I also am beginning to question,
should this be number one?
Then came the most beautiful bread
I've ever seen in my entire life.
This looks like it belongs with
the gods on Mount Olympus...
Oh, my God.
That is diabolical.
How good that is.
It makes Parker House rolls
look like f***ing b******t.
All right, that's what it does.
I don't know if this is our last course,
but if it is,
that was one hell of a crescendo.
And that means that dessert is next.
Of course.
It's rice pudding,
My favorite quintessential...
dessert.
Any place has rice pudding.
I automatically get it.
There's a twist, though.
The twist is that it has foie gras in it.
And I'm gonna be honest with you guys.
I don't like foie gras that much.
Neither do I.
They're f***ing it up for us.
Man,
I really hope this is not a risk
that doesn't pay off for them.
It all comes down to this.
Mm.
I hate foie gras.
I hate all that stuff.
But the rice pudding is warm.
Most people never have that s***.
Rice pudding warm.
This just won me over,
even though there's foie gras in it.
I love you, Josh.
And I love you, Vic.
Going through this whole thing,
we took you to the number four
restaurant in North America,
three Michelin star Smyth.
Is it worth it?
I think I've reached my ne plus ultra,
as they say,
which is the French word for like,
the limit.
I've eaten 24 inch pizzas by myself,
all types of racks of ribs.
I've never been this full in a while.
I didn't think a place like this,
you could fill up on that.
And I'm completely wrong about that.
So I apologize for sitting
in my restaurant for
so many years,
f***ing harping on joints like
this because clearly you can
get your money's worth here.
I'm stuffed right now, Joshua.
Wow.
Honestly.
On to the next.
Now that we've come back to the US
we're actually going to go right back
to Canada for restaurant number three,
Pearl Morissette.
This one might be one of the weirdest.
It's just on a random farm
in the middle of nowhere.
So if all of their food is
being served off the farm,
how are they going to deliver any sort
of an experience when it looks like this?
So this is their moment to prove
their seating on the list...
If they can still deliver,
do they deserve to be number one?
Eating with us is Canada's
biggest calorie consumer
bodybuilding YouTube legend,
Will Tennyson.
As a bodybuilder,
you try to get every last ounce
of value out of what you consume.
So Will is the perfect
person to help us decide.
Is this meal truly worth it?
We'll make that decision at the end.
Here we have a tart filled with crab.
But you see that little clear jelly
looking stuff underneath the crab?
That's a hardened gel of pure crab flavor.
I don't want to eat it.
I want to frame it.
It's beautiful.
Then in front of us,
we have what looks like a taquito to me.
But it's not a taquito.
It is a roe crispy carrot.
Cheers.
That's a nice taquito.
Whoa.
The tart shell.
That was executed well.
I love, like,
the crispy wafer at the bottom.
Oh, my God.
Never had anything close to this.
This is just a snack.
You gotta calm down.
I thought when he put this down,
this is like a little
burrito or something.
But it's a towel.
You never know.
This dish is interesting.
I wasn't expecting to see a geoduck dish,
which is a type of clam
that looks like a penis.
Oh, huge penis, actually.
I love that.
It's very fresh.
It almost reminds me of
like a Chinese egg custard,
even though there's no egg in it.
Not only is this beautiful,
but it's hyper, hyper,
hyper local.
Because they have stuff that's
coming from the ocean locally,
and then they have stuff that's
coming from their greenhouse locally.
Are you supposed to, like,
superset,
like the sake with the dish or you, like,
finish one and then go...
Yes, superset.
The sake.
Crazy use of superset.
This is where things got a little unusual.
Instead of a small plate,
we were given a giant slice of bread.
Did you smell it?
Sniff the underside of that.
Right.
Wow.
Yeah.
So fine dining,
you typically see a lot of small portions,
which you've already seen, but we have...
the signature dish,
which is from a 3 kilo loaf of bread.
They did specify you can have
as much of it as you like.
Should we ask for more?
Of course we should.
I low key, could just do this
and then just eat that.
That's crazy, man.
Macros are dead.
Memories over macros, right?
Mmhmm.
Why is bread so f***ing good?
I don't even know.
It doesn't make sense.
But I can almost taste the fact
that the butter was made here.
It tastes so fresh.
You give it a 10 out of 10?
I give it a 9.
Damn.
Almost perfect.
This is supposedly the most
perfectly cooked lobster ever,
but will it compete with the
lobster dish at Taniere and Smyth?
I don't smile much,
but this one's making me smile.
I haven't even eaten it yet.
This one deserves a standing ovation.
It is a privilege to be here right now.
We've had lobster at almost every single
restaurant we went to on this list.
Best lobster dish by far.
That is a banger.
Cooked absolutely perfectly.
Seasoned perfectly without losing
any of the flavor of the lobster.
On to the next course.
The most perfectly cooked
scallop sitting on top of pearls,
made of lobster, green strawberry,
and served tableside...
a savory broth.
Oh, this is so good.
First of all,
the scallop is cooked insane.
Ooh.
Tastes like bacon.
I also am getting that.
They're leveraging all the briny
flavors of the sea in this.
You have dashi, rich umami.
God, the scallop is just,
like, briny and perfectly cooked.
It, like,
melts in your mouth,
and I don't know how to
say it without saying it,
but the little balls in your mouth.
Incredible.
Like texturally.
Actually, yeah.
Honestly, Will's right.
The balls in your mouth are crazy.
Like, I love these balls in my mouth.
Gargle them around and then chew.
Whoa.
Yeah.
So we've moved on to
an interesting course.
This is a celery root,
one of my most favorite vegetables.
They like
let it stay in the ground
too long so it freezes over,
and then it thaws,
and then they slowly cook
it for multiple hours.
It smells more like a croissant
than celery root.
That's bonkers.
That's a flex.
My toenails are curling.
Wait pause.
How are you supposed to go
back after something like this?
You know what I mean?
Like,
if my wife makes me dinner when I go home,
I'm just gonna throw it away...
I'm like, this is what I expect now.
Like,
you're not making me
celery root like this.
Give it to the dog.
How many calories you think
we're at for the meal so far?
I'm gonna say we're at 1350,
maybe you 2000 with the butter.
You're right.
Yeah.
This is the best dish I've had so far.
This is number one.
Number two is the lobster,
and number three is the
tart in the very beginning.
I just want to point out the fact that
what beat out lobster was a vegetable.
Not just a vegetable,
but a really f***ing ugly vegetable.
I don't know about this one, guys.
A halibut dish sitting what
they call an onion bubble bath.
Ah.
And more caviar.
Of course.
That is a f***ing banger.
Personally, we got another number one.
No!
it's seasoned perfectly...
Balanced perfectly.
The caviar, little pops of umami,
and salty brininess from that.
The fish is cooked perfectly.
But what I really love about this
is the explosion of smoke in my
mouth from the smoked onion.
Like, every bite, I'm like...
almost like my mind just goes clear.
It's just so good, though.
We were getting tremendously full,
but then at the start of dessert,
they threw us a curveball
that really confused Will.
Can you explain to me why at this
point we need to have cheese?
It's like, the last thing I want.
Honestly, I don't know, but I like it.
Yeah.
I'm not gonna complain about it but...
You sound like you're complaining.
I guess I am complaining about it.
Yeah.
I think it's kind of like...
Oh, oh, you're changing your mind?
That honey.
I'm never gonna be able to
enjoy other honey ever again.
This feels like the most
luxurious bite we've had.
We're transitioning into dessert
quite literally with a very sweet
but also a very salty dish.
Our first two desserts were tasty,
but not crazy.
A rosehip ice cream and an apple tart.
But now we have something
I didn't know was possible.
We have reached the final two courses.
So far, they've had non-stop bangers.
A few ones that didn't
quite impress us as much,
but ultimately, I think overall,
we could agree this has been a
pretty phenomenal experience.
Are they going to win it at the end,
or is this going to be a crash?
I feel like they have to.
They have to end on a high note.
I feel like the chefs back there
know that this has to bang.
The more I eat this the more I like it.
I appreciate the creativity of this.
We ate that fast.
Hang on.
We have warm madeleines.
It's like a little banana bread pillow.
Crispy on the outside.
It's almost like a donut
and a cake at the same time.
I love the cold, and I love the hot.
It's a nice, lighter thing to finish off.
Kind of like a fruity finish.
Holistically,
this meal has been absolutely bonkers.
I wish it would have ended
with a bit more of a bang,
but I have mixed feelings about it,
and I want your actual opinion.
Is it worth it?
I feel like there was a few moments
within this meal that I'm going to
talk about for a very long time.
I think that food is more than just food.
It's an experience.
And I think you'll be able to, like,
go and share that with other people...
Makes it worthwhile.
That, like, halibut, that lobster.
I think it's definitely worth it.
We're at number three,
but does this belong at number one?
So we move on
to number two...
This is Mon Lapin in Montreal, Quebec.
This is the biggest upset on the
entire list because it's nothing
like any of the other restaurants.
It has zero Michelin stars,
no tasting menu, reasonable prices,
and it's run by one of the chillest
chefs I think I've ever met.
But I'm a little bit in the hot seat
here because we're with Chef Laurent.
He's a regular here.
He's a native,
and his goal is to convince me that
Mon Lapin should be number one on
the list. We'll see if he's
right at the end of the video.
We're at Mon Lapin.
My rabbit.
Like you.
The food, the wine,
the service,
everything is to the
level of a Michelin Star.
Like,
you can come here on a
regular Tuesday night,
just show up in sweatpants,
have a good dinner, and leave.
Kicking us off,
this is a cookie in the shape of a rabbit,
except it's filled with chicken liver.
A humble and also unexpected start.
So good, simple.
The cookie is super crisp.
It's like a shortbread.
So very buttery.
A little lightly sweet.
And then the inside,
the chicken liver mousse
is creamy like butter.
So clean.
Nice flavor, well seasoned.
Really nice great start.
Another shockingly simple dish.
Clams with a lot of crushed
sun gold tomato on top.
Very fresh, briny.
The perfect sweetness, acidity.
The natural brininess of
the clams. It's amazing.
Followed by what looks like
essentially deep fried ravioli.
Wow.
It's so tender.
It almost has like a spanakopita.
I was just saying, we think the same way.
It's just like
uncomplicated and delicious.
There wasn't a million ingredients.
It was a great sauce.
A lot of Swiss chard cooked very nicely,
seasoned very nicely, very simply...
This last one stopped me in my tracks.
These are leeks,
gently cooked in mussel brine.
And you eat them by taking them out,
putting them on a beautiful
in-house made potato chip,
spoon on some of the aioli they
serve on the side and take a bite.
Beautiful.
So simple.
I always have the word
pure because of that,
letting the ingredient
just speak for itself.
They're really blowing me away.
I can't believe how good this is.
We're just getting started...
So they've earned their
number two spot for sure.
But this next dish might have
me thinking it's number one...
So we have shrimp from Nova Scotia.
which are usually cooked
directly on the boat,
and somehow they've
managed to acquire them,
on the plug...
So we're gonna enjoy them raw.
Yeah.
In 37 years of existence,
I've never had those raw
because they always come cooked.
Yeah, they're unbelievable.
Wow.
Great sweetness.
That's insane.
Are those not regular capers?
Question.
Yeah?
What are those you said?
Blueberry capers.
Premature blueberry fermented like capers.
Green blueberries fermented like capers.
That just blew my **** right off my body.
The sweetness from this is
sweeter than any king crab,
lobster, whatever.
And they're just little baby shrimps.
I mean,
I don't think I've ever had anything
from a seafood standpoint that pops
with sweetness like that naturally.
Canada.
This is toast...
Well,
actually a scallop toast filled with a
scallop mousse and a sauce to dip it in.
So good...
The sauce here is called a
rouille with saffron and garlic.
That is incredible.
Better than any shrimp
toast I've ever had.
The textures are so
beautiful and contrasting.
The outside's beautifully
crispy and toasted.
The inside is like smooth
and almost creamy texture.
Almost like a soft scrambled egg.
Oceanic, briny,
super, super salty and nice.
It's a perfect dish.
It really is.
It's unbelievable.
The first time I had this,
it was like the first time I kissed you...
It was amazing.
Now a celery root dish that may compete
with the one from Pearl Morissette.
We have a roasted celery root,
buffalo mozzarella, a special sauce,
and finished with a ton of
grated Perigord truffle.
Wow.
If I smell it, I only get truffle.
When you bite it,
all you get is celery root.
It's also so fresh.
It's not too rich at all.
All the flavors are there to, like,
lift the celery.
This is making me realize something.
Tell me.
I understand now why they are so high
on the list. I'm realizing that every
single thing here is so fresh and also,
like, creatively hand selected.
You probably have a guy for celery root,
a guy for asparagus, a guy for tomatoes,
you have a guy for clams. It's when
you take the time to curate different
suppliers for every single ingredient.
A lot of chefs don't think about that.
It's kind of a lost art.
Mon Lapin.
Wow.
Fewer dishes,
and they're matching punch for punch.
And apparently, it's my birthday,
by the way.
It's not.
Happy birthday, Joshie!
He's 25 years old today.
Just aged very badly, that's all.
Yeah.
Worked in the restaurant industry.
Yeah.
This is the most random
thing you can imagine.
A buckwheat cake is something
I've never even heard of.
And every time I come here,
I get it because it's very good.
Wow.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Right?
That's so good.
Like,
a little crispy tuile makes the cake.
Dense and, like,
whole grain, but in a nice way.
Yeah.
Super lightly sweetened.
And then that caramel, like,
super rich, super buttery,
salty.
That brings a lot of the sweetness.
Textural wonderland.
So this is the final dessert.
The sorbet meets meringue meets
brown butter meets berries.
It doesn't look crazy.
If they don't hit it with this,
then it really ruins the meal.
Can these guys bring it home?
That is a top 10 dessert of my life.
I love this.
That brown butter powder is genius.
Because it brings dairy in without, like,
overwhelming your palate with cream.
Yeah.
Instead, we get the best form of dairy,
which is toasted milk solids.
I'm shocked.
Could this place be the best
restaurant in North America?
This is the best meal
I've had on this list,
and it is the best cooking
I've had on this list by far.
You can't be the best
without having ego about it.
You can't, but this is,
like,
one of the first times I've been to a
restaurant that's on a major list and has
a high ranking where it does not feel
overwhelmingly like they have a huge ego.
This level of talent
has been here forever.
It's just been always under-recognized.
I think we're starting to get the love
that we deserve in Montreal because
we've had some great restaurants
for the longest time here.
Out of the list we've had thus far,
it is the best place
that we have eaten at.
We have one more left.
So the question is,
is this number one or is
the number one number one?
It all comes down to this.
The final restaurant.
The number one on the list,
Atomix in New York City.
From the outside, I'm going to be honest,
it's just a random apartment building.
But what's tucked inside blew my mind.
Underneath the surface isn't
just a breathtaking kitchen.
You're greeted by a display of
every single fresh ingredient
you're about to eat.
Hand selected by the chefs.
It's a whole experience
before the food even starts.
It has best restaurant
in North America energy.
And to help us make this decision,
we have the only person I
think suited for the job.
Christian Petroni, chef,
Food Network celebrity.
He's built and run many restaurants.
So I asked him,
what does he think it
takes to be number one?
Well, first of all,
the people behind it need to
be a little sick in the head.
There's a level of pure obsession
to be called one of the best
restaurants in America.
You need to execute every day at
the highest level humanly possible.
Nobody is moving without purpose.
It's theater, man,
in the most beautiful way.
First course,
a wild looking raw scallop set
atop rice and a wrap of seaweed,
almost like a sushi roll.
Send out a dozen more.
You know?
I would eat 600.
A whole tray of them.
Every little grain of rice,
you could detect the individual
piece in your mouth.
And everything about
that bite was so dialed.
Believe it or not,
this is the craziest
looking little clam tart
in the form of a single bite.
Bang.
Wow.
Yeah.
When fine dining is executed really well,
it's when they can still
maintain craveability.
Because when you lose craveability,
then what's the point?
You'll be thinking about those
bites three days from now.
They sent these out to let us know, hey,
man, you guys are safe here.
If they were like, take your shoes off,
I'd do it.
Mine are already off.
Oh shit.
Okay.
Belt?
So I don't know the last time you
guys went to a restaurant and they had
personalized chopsticks for you to choose,
but this one does.
Part of me is excited about the choice,
but I'm also a little nervous
because what if I regret this?
These are a little short.
Sometimes you just gotta pick a pair
of chopsticks and run with them.
I should add,
every time they bring me a new drink.
It is so cold.
It's like, colder than ice,
but somehow in a liquid state.
It's like McDonald's Diet Coke level cold.
You know what I'm talking about.
This next one is risky,
to say the least. Monkfish liver...
Now, this is a make or break dish.
I've had monkfish liver
four or five times,
and there have been times
where it has blown me away.
Delicious.
And then there have been other times
where it was the polar opposite.
It's like butter.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
That is so damn good.
I'm kind of shocked out of the
monkfish liver that I've had.
This one's craveable.
I was gonna say make or break...
So far, it's a make.
Underneath that giant dollop of
caviar are shreds of kohlrabi,
which is kind of like a radish.
Underneath that is hot crab all
sitting in a rich cream sauce.
Whoa.
I'm, like, tearing up a little bit.
This one's getting me.
This one's really...
good.
The little flecks of salt popping.
The perfectly cooked kohlrabi,
the cream...
This is a
meal.
I'm feeling it.
I'm schvitzing.
So this is a standout dish for me.
It's a dish that makes me ask,
is this the type of dish that
makes a restaurant the number
one restaurant in America?
How many times can lightning strike,
right?
I don't know.
It's striking.
Ever heard of abalone?
Well, it looks like this.
It's essentially a giant clam.
This one is tempura fried sitting
in a sweet and sour sauce,
almost oddly simple.
But they gave us another little
dish that they told us to
save for the very last bite.
If you want to be the best in the US
you have to find a way to merge
the creative art with familiarity.
That's crazy, right?
That's f***ing insane.
And then you hit this thing
that they tell you to hit last.
The accoutrement.
The accoutrement.
This little thing is a 10 out of 10
I'd change absolutely nothing.
It was so good because I think
that the intensity of the acid,
the saltiness, the sweetness,
and the umami combined with all of the
aromatics was at its absolute maximum.
And that was crazy.
Now they're hitting me in my soul.
Lobster glazed in one of my
favorite ingredients ever,
Gochujang.
And on the side,
a perfectly cooked rice
rolled in tofu skin.
The rice is cooked so crazy perfect.
And the spicy little kimchi in there.
This is, like,
I think,
the most obvious impression of Korean
cuisine in our entire meal tonight
that is perfectly meshed because
this is the fine dining,
the lobster.
But then you take a bite of this,
and it's like, oh,
this is like an amazing
little Korean dish.
The lobster, creamy, rich butter.
We're in France...
But then you put it up against
this Korean style rice.
One of the things I'm
starting to realize here,
they're telling a story about Korean
culture with every single dish.
What drives me to cook food...
I'm constantly trying to get people to
see food through the lens that I see it,
to enjoy it as much as I do.
And that's kind of what
they're doing here.
They're telling the story of Korea and
presenting it to you in the best possible
format in a way that's delicious,
that you get it.
We didn't have a single bite of truffle
for this entire dinner until dessert.
To the right,
there's a little chocolate torte
topped with a massive layer of fresh,
thinly sliced black truffle.
On the left,
a corn ice cream on top
of white chocolate snow...
We waited the entire meal for this.
Will it pay off?
The texture of the cake is, like,
decadent and thick.
It's like a black truffle brownie
with corn ice cream is
what it tastes like to me,
and I'm here for it.
I love that the truffle adds, like,
a little bit of a subtle, earthy funk,
but leaves almost like an earthy
mocha kind of tone to the chocolate.
Having that sort of hint of, like,
let's be honest, dirt,
right?
Yeah.
Is beautiful.
Against,
like,
what I see as a very sort of
nostalgic style of dessert.
Guys.
A hilariously understandable ending to
a meal that closes out possibly one of
the craziest dining experiences we've
flown all across North America.
The top five restaurants.
The question that we
need to answer here is,
do they deserve their spots?
After 100 courses?
Five major cities.
Here's what I really think.
The ranking
did not matter at all, actually.
It's so incredibly difficult to even
get on a list like this as a restaurant.
It's just giving you an idea of
the type of caliber of a restaurant
you're going to be walking into.
They all felt like number one in
their own way because they
were all completely different.
Each restaurant could be number one on
a different day to a different person,
just depending on how the
restaurant's night went or
how that person's night went.
So just pick something,
go and have a good time.
Love you.
Subscribe...
see you.