Photo by jimbographer

Esquire created a list of top 10 restaurant cities, placing D.C. in eighth position. Even after the disastrously painful-to-watch Top Chef D.C. spent half of the season outside of the city proper, there’s still no doubt that we attract fantastic talent in our kitchens. Unsurprisingly we come in behind, in rank order, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. But we were somewhat surprised to see that Houston placed ahead of us in seventh place. Boston and Seattle rounded out the rest of the list.

Interestingly, they suggest that we’re home to the country’s best Spanish and Indian restaurants – Taberna del Alabardero and Rasika. And we’re pleased that in the short blurb allotted to D.C. that rather than blathering on about the influx of New York chefs and chains opening in D.C., the author focuses on our adopted Frenchman Michel Richard and his numerous culinary contributions to our city.

So we’re curious – is eighth our rightful place in this lineup? Should D.C. rank higher or lower? Are Taberna del Alabardero and Rasika worthy of such superlative praise?