Ayesha Curry gets a nod on OpenTable’s 100 Best Restaurants

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The lines between fine and casual dining are increasingly blurred, but the special-occasion restaurant is alive and well. It’s the place that pops into our minds the minute someone needs a recommendation for a milestone birthday dinner or festive girl’s night out.

Today, OpenTable is releasing its “100 Best Restaurants in America for a Big Night Out in 2019.” The list features restaurants with not only exceptional food and drinks, but also vibrant bar scenes and lively atmosphere.

California leads the list with 18 restaurants, with George Chen’s China Live, Ayesha Curry’s International Smoke, Charles Phan’s Slanted Door and the venerable House of Prime Rib, which opened in 1949, representing San Francisco. Cindy Pawlcyn’s Mustard’s Grill in Yountville also made the list.

New York follows with 16 restaurants and Illinois comes in third with 14 winners — all located in Chicago. The remaining restaurants are in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Florida and Las Vegas.

What about the cuisine, you ask? Classic and contemporary American food dominates the list with 26 restaurants, but there is an array of international flavors, as well, including Chinese, Lebanese, Mexican, Spanish and Vietnamese fare.

OpenTable’s list is culled from more than 12 million verified diner reviews of more than 30,000 U.S. restaurants (and solely from reviews collected between March 1, 2018 and Feb. 28, 2019). All restaurants with a minimum “overall” score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the sum of tags for which “hot spot” was selected as a special feature.