Which restaurant is the most expensive in the Bay Area and what is its
average cost compared to its five closest competitors?

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Clarification of Question by litlchi-ga on 18 Mar 2006 10:06 PST

Sorry, I meant San Francisco Bay Area.

Would that be the San Francisco Bay Area?  Or some other bay?

Archae0pteryx
(not a researcher, but a Bay Area resident)

If you mean the SF Bay Area, Forbes says that the French Laundry is
the most expensive:
http://www.forbes.com/travel/2004/10/14/cx_cv_1014feat.html

But this site suggests that Masa's may be:
http://poweredby.10best.com/list.process/OID_58C1E50B/MID_38/CG_1/SID_58/

Perhaps some of the other restaurants on the site are runners up for
your five next most expensive places.

[Tryx, thanks for your nice words on the two 13er questions.]

Regards, Myoarin

I'm not sure that you can objectively find the one "most expensive"
restaurant in a given area.  Considering the variety of dishes on any
menu, how would you quanitfy the most expensive?  The single most
expensive meal found on a menu?  The highest average final bill?  But
then how can you really compare restaurants' dishes when no two
restaurants offer exactly the same dishes on their menus.  Can we
include the price of expensive wines in this final bill?  Or are you
looking for some kind of per-person ratio of expensive food?

I understand your intention, but I hope you realize you may not get a
single "correct" answer.   Instead, it's probably more useful to
consider the top dozen or so restaurants in terms of price rather than
looking for a single "most expensive" restaurant.  You could find a
$600 bottle of wine at a restaurant that may not be considered one of
the most expensive, and thereby jack up the price of the final bill to
win the category, for example.