AI Recommendation Patterns in New York City Fine Dining

How to read the results

Fifty prompts were organized across five booking-intent clusters. Each prompt was run three times in its original form and three times with controlled query variation across four AI platforms, producing 1,200 expected trials. One Gemini response in Prestige & Destination Dining returned an explicit provider error, leaving 1,199 usable responses and 99.92% coverage.

• Primary metric: normalized response appearances. A restaurant counts no more than once per response, even if the answer repeats its name. Overall inclusion rate is appearances divided by 1,199 usable responses. Platform denominators are 300, except Gemini at 299.
• Comparison set: the extraction layer produced 1,156 strings. The published analysis uses a manually reviewed set of 133 current, eligible restaurant entities covering every name with enough frequency to affect the leaders or concentration cases.
• Entity normalization: material consolidations included Le Bernardin Privé / Le Bernardin Prive → Le Bernardin; Restaurant Daniel / Daniel by Daniel Boulud / The Skybox at Restaurant Daniel → Daniel; The Modern at MoMA / The Modern – Dining Room / The Modern - Dining Room / The Bar Room at The Modern / The Kitchen Table at The Modern → The Modern; Chef's Counter at Atomix → Atomix; The Dining Room at Gramercy Tavern → Gramercy Tavern; Brooklyn Fare / The Restaurant at Brooklyn Fare → Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare; Al Fiori / Aifiori → Ai Fiori; The Grill at Seagram Building → The Grill; Jungsik New York → Jungsik; Cote NYC / COTE Korean Steakhouse / COTE 550 → COTE; One if by Land → One if by Land, Two if by Sea; Noz / Noz on Park → Sushi Noz; Hawksmoor NYC / Hawksmoor New York → Hawksmoor; Oceana's Chef's Counter → Oceana; Musket Room → The Musket Room; Nobu Downtown / Nobu Midtown / Nobu Tribeca / Nobu Fifty Seven / Nobu 57 → Nobu; Keens → Keens Steakhouse; Sixty Three Clinton → 63 Clinton; Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi / Tatiana by Chef Kwame / Tatiana by Chef Kwame Onwuachi → Tatiana; Odo East Village → odo; Sushi Yoshino / Yoshino New York / Yoshino • New York → Yoshino; HAGS East Village → HAGS; Polo Bar → The Polo Bar; Le Pavillon NYC → Le Pavillon; Nakazawa / Sushi Nakazawa NY → Sushi Nakazawa; Gage and Tollner → Gage & Tollner; Milos Hudson Yards → Estiatorio Milos; L'Artusi Supper Club → L'Artusi; Shion / Shion 69 Leonard / Shion 69 Leonard St / Shoji at 69 Leonard / Shoji at 69 Leonard Street → Shion 69 Leonard Street; L'abeille à Côté → L'Abeille; River Café → The River Café. Restaurants under common ownership were not combined because diners encounter them as distinct booking choices.
• Disambiguation: chef references were not counted as restaurant appearances. “Daniel Boulud” did not count as Daniel, and “by Jean-Georges” did not count as the Jean-Georges flagship unless the restaurant itself was also named.
• Exclusions: people, hotels, landmarks, booking platforms, publications and event venues were removed. Examples include Central Park, MoMA, Eric Ripert, The Langham, Tock and Eater NY. Closed or out-of-market restaurants—including Momofuku Ko, Del Posto, Aureole, Kajitsu, 21 Club and Blue Hill at Stone Barns—were also ineligible. Current-status review used official restaurant sources and the Michelin Guide.¹
• Scope: an appearance measures inclusion, not sentiment, placement, factual accuracy or purchase conversion. The results are a dated observational benchmark, not a permanent model ranking.