We did not really expect to meet with Dr Evil, but we really wished Nina Zagat would do some air quotes here and there. The quote is the hallmark of the guide. Could she do them when she talks about the "laser" or the "tractor beam"? No such luck. Come on, not even once! Boy, were we disappointed.

The Zagat 2006 is out, and it's the 20th anniversary of the SF edition. So we got to hang out with Nina in her suite at the Four Seasons. She did not wear a burgundy jacket either, but she was like her guide: passionate about food, yet very organized. She was still raving about her lunch at the Slanted Door, and especially the excellent jasmine tea she had.

Regarding the SF guide, the 2006 edition mostly refines the previous one: the top restaurant in the food category and the most popular restaurant is again Gary Danko. The most notable apparition would be that of Manresa as the third best food rating. About 1,000 restaurants were surveyed and almost 7,000 reviewers contributed, whom Nina describes as "passionate food lovers who eat out a lot and want to share their experience and help the guide readers."

Nina was also excited, as her survey's data is picking up the end of the economy downturn, with people going out more (3.2 meals per week) and with new places sprucing up everywhere, and especially "great leaders such as Gary Danko or [French Laundry's] Thomas Keller spawning off new restaurants." Myth, Cyrrus, U-Street Lounge were the ones she mentioned in a "vibrant, healthy restaurant market."

The guide does weed out the un-interesting places, and only "half of the reviewed restaurants make it into the guide." Bad applies only to the food: Saigon Sandwiches is top bang for the buck this year -take that, TBFTB 2005 winner, Rosamunde- despite a 3 decor rating. Nina, always one to see the positive, suggested that since "no one would notice if they spill their apple juice, it's a great place to take your kids."

We were happy to learn that it is Paris' restaurants that got Tim and Nina to start their guide, when they spent two years there after Yale Law School in 1968 and began to compile a list of places for the visiting clients from the NY office.

Talking about NY, does she read Gothamist? She apologizes, she is not a "regular reader," she has "more stuff to read that she can handle." Yet, she is quick to differentiate Zagat from the anarchy of the internets: food blogs are great, they provide so much information on a lot of places, but the guide is "more structured, more organized." It has a very "rigourous editorial policy," which makes it "fun to read and well written, not randomly thrown out on the page" like some guide she would not mention -wink, wink, chowhound. "Plus, the guide works within the guidelines of the numerical ratings," so it is "very reliable, accurate, comprehensive and fun to read."

Oh, they do react to them new technologies, though, with Zagat.com, where the "content is updated year round" and "where anybody can vote, even if they are not a registered user." You should do it, you get a free guide out of it.