You've heard of the spork, but what about the Chork? Panda Express announced that it will soon be offering a new hybrid utensil that combines a fork with a set of chopsticks. Now, whatever your skill level with chopsticks may be, you have the option of scooping, grabbing, or poking your food. We tested them out to see how well this crazy pointed tool works.

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Every year, Taste Talks holds a giant three-day conference in Brooklyn, wrapping it up with the epic Taste Talks All-Star BBQ.

The event features restaurants and chefs collaborating with celebrities and musicians to create tasty barbecue-themed dishes.

I've been going for a few years now, and generally there are hits and misses, but this year the event outdid itself — I can't say that I ate one thing that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. I went to each booth, chowing down on everything from spicy Korean pork to grilled eggplant.

Here's what I ate:

Blue Smoke's brisket was out-of-control good.

Their Alabama white wings, made with a mayo-based barbecue sauce, were even better. Where have Alabama white wings been all my life?

After I got this beautiful plate of Blue Smoke meats, people were literally walking up to me asking me where I got it, and the line quickly grew. I lucked out stopping here first!

Olive Garden's never-ending pasta passes are back.

For $100, the passes provide seven weeks of unlimited pasta, sauces and other toppings, soup or salad, breadsticks, and Coca-Cola soft drinks.

Last year, Olive Garden sold all 2,000 pasta passes in a matter of seconds online.

So this year, the company is increasing the number of passes available to 21,000.

The passes go on sale Thursday, September 15 at 2 p.m. They will be available for purchase for one hour at www.OliveGarden.com/PastaPass.

The pasta passes were so popular two years ago — which was the first time they were offered — that Olive Garden's website crashed right before they went on sale.

"Within seconds of last year’s Pasta Pass sale beginning, our most enthusiastic fans clicked 'purchase,' becoming part of an exclusive club and the envy of pasta lovers everywhere," Jose Duenas, executive vice president of marketing for Olive Garden, said in a news release. "We know there are more fans than there were Pasta Passes so we’re expanding the club tenfold to give more guests an all-access pass to our most popular promotion of the year."

Pasta Pass holders will get to take advantage of the promotion from October 3 to November 20.

SEE ALSO: Woman hospitalized after eating Chipotle sues chain for free burritos

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NOW WATCH: Starbucks is hoping this new fall drink will be their next Pumpkin Spice Latte

If you're going to spend your hard-earned money on a restaurant, you want to be sure it's good. And between an endless number of mouthwatering cuisines and great new restaurants opening left and right, it can be hard to find one that's just right.

Lucky for us and anyone asking you for a recommendation in the near future, OpenTable just released its list of 100 Best Restaurants for Foodies in America. The list is based on over five million restaurant reviews for more than 20,000 restaurants in all 50 states, as well as DC.

The list of winners spans 30 states, with California as a foodie frontrunner, featuring 17 winning restaurants. New York is next, with nine, Pennsylvania hot on its heels with eight, and Virginia with six. Illinois and New Jersey have five winners each.

Here's the full list: 

A Toute Heure– Cranford, New Jersey

Acquerello– San Francisco, California

Addison Restaurant– San Diego, California

Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen– Memphis, Tennessee

Angelini Osteria– Los Angeles, California

Antebellum– Flowery Branch, Georgia

Arethusa al Tavolo– Bantam, Connecticut

Artisanal Restaurant– Banner Elk, North Carolina

bha! bha! Persian Bistro– Naples, Florida

Bibou– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Bida Manda Restaurant and Bar– Raleigh, North Carolina

Bistro L’Hermitage– Woodbridge, Virginia

Bliss Restaurant– San Antonio, Texas

Blue Hill– New York, New York

Bluestem– Kansas City, Missouri

Boka– Chicago, Illinois

Bolete Restaurant– Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Bouchard Restaurant and Inn– Newport, Rhode Island

Bouley– New York, New York

Brindille– Chicago, Illinois

Café Juanita– Kirkland, Washington

Café Provence– Prairie Village, Kansas

Carlos’ Bistro– Colorado Springs, Colorado

Castagna– Portland, Oregon

Charleston– Baltimore, Maryland

Charleston Grill– Charleston, South Carolina

Costa Brava Bistro– Bellaire, Texas

The Crossing– Clayton, Missouri

Degustation– New York, New York

Del Posto– New York, New York

Erling Jensen The Restaurant– Memphis, Tennessee

Fat Canary– Williamsburg, Virginia

Fearrington House Restaurant– Pittsboro, North Carolina

Fishing With Dynamite– Manhattan Beach, California

The French Room– Dallas Texas

Fruition– Denver, Colorado

Gabriel Kreuther– New York, New York

Geronimo– Santa Fe, New Mexico

Girl & the Goat– Chicago, Illinois

The Goodstone Inn & Estate Restaurant– Middleburg, Virginia

goosefoot– Chicago, Illinois

Gramercy Tavern– New York, New York

GW Fins– New Orleans, Louisiana

Highlands Bar & Grill– Birmingham, Alabama

Hostaria Piave– Redondo Beach, California

Il Terrazzo Carmine– Seattle, Washington

Jacques’ Brasserie at L’Auberge Chez Francois– Great Falls, Virginia

joan’s in the Park– Saint Paul, Minnesota

Kai – Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass Resort– Chandler, Arizona

Keiko à Nob Hill– San Francisco, California

The Kitchen Restaurant– Sacramento, California

L’Auberge Chez François– Great Falls, Virginia

L’Opossum– Richmond, Virginia

La Nouvelle Maison– Boca Raton, Florida

Lahaina Grill– Lahaina, Hawaii

Le Cirque-Bellagio– Las Vegas, Nevada

Le Vallauris– Palm Springs, California

Les Nomades– Chicago, Illinois

Linwoods– Owings Mill, Maryland

Maison Blanche– Longboat Key, Florida

Mama’s Fish House– Paia, Hawaii

Manresa– Los Gatos, California

Marcel’s by Robert Wiedmaier– Washington, D.C.

Marché Moderne– Costa Mesa, California

Market Restaurant and Bar– Del Mar, California

The Modern-Dining Room– New York, New York

Monarch– Scottsdale, Arizona

o ya– Boston, Massachusetts

Orchids at Palm Court– Cincinnati, Ohio

The Oxford House Inn– Fryeburg, Maine

Plume at the Jefferson Hotel– Washington, D.C.

Providence– Los Angeles, California

Quince Restaurant– San Francisco, California

Rasika– Washington, D.C.

Restaurant August– New Orleans, Louisiana

The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge– Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Restaurant Lorena’s– Maplewood, New Jersey

Rich Table– San Francisco, California

Roe– Portland, Oregon

The Saddle River Inn– Saddle River, New Jersey

Sette– Bernardsville, New Jersey

Shaya– New Orleans, Louisiana

Ski Tip Lodge– Keystone, Colorado

Sotto– Cincinnati, Ohio

St. Francis Winery & Vineyards– Santa Rosa, California

The Table at Season To Taste– Cambridge, Massachusetts

Talula’s Daily-Secret Supper Club– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Talula’s Garden– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Terra Restaurant– St. Helena, California

Terrapin Creek Café & Restaurant– Bodega Bay, California

Thomas Henkelmann-Homestead Inn– Greenwich, Connecticut

Toscano Ristorante– Bordentown, New Jersey

Townsend– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Trattoria– Saint James, New York

Trattoria L’incontro– Astoria, New York

Uchi– Dallas, Texas

Vernick Food & Drink– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Vetri– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Zahav– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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Pizza chains are looking more and more at tech to help grow their businesses, with smartphone apps and even delivery drones. Now a startup is using robots in the kitchen to help speed up the cooking.

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Americans are downsizing their meal (location) choices.

Lagging sales at major restaurant chains have recently set off worries for the industry and the economy at large. According to Michelle Meyer, a US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, it may be less about personal economic situations or the election and more about consumers' taste preferences.

Using data from millions of Bank of America debit and credit cards, Meyer noted that the weakness in restaurant spending isn't as alarming as other people make it seem.

"A particular focus for us over the past several months has been on the performance of restaurants," Meyer wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. "As we noted last month, spending has slowed over the past year, but continues to run close to the average pace over the recovery. This contrasts with reports of weakness from the public restaurants and data aggregators such as Knapp-Track."

Instead of overall weakness, Meyer said that the card data show a preference for local restaurants or small chains, like Shake Shack, instead of large chains such as Cheesecake Factory or Olive Garden (as an example of restaurants in this category; neither of these particular firms are experiencing a sales decrease). Meyer has the breakdown (emphasis added):

"Another theory — which we test in this note — is that our data are more representative of the local or small-chain restaurants which have performed better than the large public chains. To test this hypothesis, we isolated the large public restaurant chains from our aggregate of 'eating places' (which exclude fast food establishments).

"We find that sales of the big chain restaurants, which make up 18% of the aggregate, have been decidedly slower than the rest of the composite. This is indicative of a market shift away from large chain restaurants."

In general, restaurant sales have been lagging because of the increasing cost of eating away from home, while prices for food at home (groceries, etc.) have stayed lower. Thus, more people are opting to eat at home.

It does appear that, in addition to that shift, when people do decide to go out, they're choosing smaller companies.

(h/t @NickatFP)

SEE ALSO: The 'ghost fleet' of cargo ships with nowhere to go is going to hurt a lot of US companies

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Earlier this year, Dwyane Wade's personal chef, Richard Ingraham, told First We Feast that every time LeBron James came over to visit his buddy, the duo would eat a special batch of chocolate chip cookies together. It was an amusing anecdote that fit with the former Miami Heat players' long, well-documented bromance, but little did we know just how close the two stars had become during those four magical years in South Beach.

In an interview with Food & Wine on Monday, Wade — a notoriously picky eater — revealed that he trusts James with his life when it comes to ordering at restaurants, often seeking his counsel over that of his wife, Gabrielle Union. Apparently, LeBron has a preternatural ability to guess exactly what Wade is in the mood for at any given moment.

“LeBron is one of my best friends. When we eat out he's like, ‘You should try this,’ and he knows exactly what to order for me,” Wade explained. “This might get me in trouble, but I would have LeBron order for me before I would let my wife [actress Gabrielle Union]. She'd get me nine different things to be sure there's something I like. LeBron just knows.”

Wade is known for having a sweet tooth, as well as an aversion to seafood and vegetables. Over the course of the last 12 years, it's been an uphill battle for Ingraham to get the 34-year-old guard to pick at a salad or try a piece of fish. When the two first met, Ingraham prepared a massive spread of smothered turkey wings, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, fettuccine alfredo, cornbread, and candied yams.

With that it mind, it's possible that LeBron just sticks to the classic when ordering for Wade, right? Guess again.

As Complex notes, Union once told ESPN that James was the only person who could get Wade to eat bass.

“Two years ago, at just such a dinner in New Orleans, Union could only watch, deeply confused, as James unilaterally picked seabass for a man who'd expressed a lifelong distaste for fish,” ESPN wrote earlier this year. “‘It's what I wanted,’ her husband would later explain, shrugging. ‘Bron got me on seabass.’”

We're hoping LeBron at least let Dwyane pick out the wine pairing.

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If you're even remotely interested in barbecue (and really, who isn't?), you've probably heard of legendary Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas.

Franklin, which is regularly named one of the best barbecue spots in the U.S., is best known for its moist brisket. It's also well known for its hellish line. The barbecue joint opens daily at 11am (except Mondays, when it's closed) and the line starts forming in the early morning hours. It's not unusual for diners to wait up to five hours for food.

Last year, the restaurant shut down a burgeoning cottage industry of "professional" place holders. There's even a (not very active) Twitter account dedicating to tweeting out line pics.

Sound daunting? Fear not: There's actually an easy way to eat at Franklin Barbecue without waiting on the dreaded line.

Just place a preorder, pick up your meat, and go to town. Here's the deal:

• Franklin takes orders six weeks ahead of time. A new day of advance orders opens up each day.
• There's a 5-pound minimum and 30-pound maximum. That includes sliced meats, side dishes, and desserts.
• Preorders require a $75 deposit. Most meats are $19 per pound (brisket is $22, and sausage is $14).
• You must pick up your order within a 30-minute time window. There are even special parking spots for pickup.
• Preorders can't be eaten on the premises. But that's OK, because with 5+ pounds of meat, you're going to want to invite a whole bunch of friends to your feast.

You can find the preorder form here. 

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The future is here — in our restaurants.

The standard order, dine, pay and tip model we're used to in American eateries is being upended by innovative chefs and restaurateurs around the country. 

Some are experimenting with radical pricing models, others are making better use of their food waste, and some are subverting diner expectations in ways never seen before.

Here are some innovative restaurants around the United States that you should check out.

SEE ALSO: 27 bizarre restaurants to eat at in your lifetime

The Perennial (San Francisco, California)

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The Perennial is aggressively sustainable — an Eater feature described the restaurant as "progressive agrarian cuisine." 

The restaurant runs its own sustainable fish farm. The fish are fed composted waste from the restaurant, mixed with worms and black soldier fly larvae. The fish then poop out ammonia-rich fecal matter that gets converted into nitrates by bacteria. The nitrate-rich water is used to feed lettuces and other crops that the restaurant grows in its greenhouse, which are eventually served in its dishes. Then the cycle starts over again.

Kitchenette (Memphis, Tennessee)

Kimbal Musk (yes, he's Elon's brother) has a plan to create a chain of grab-and-go restaurants called Kitchenette, which will serve sandwiches, soups, and salads. The first will open in Memphis' Shelby Farms Park. 

The big catch is that everything will be under $5. The restaurants will get to that price point by being located close to the farms they source from. Musk is hoping the restaurants will encourage diners to become more involved in their local communities and eat healthier. Offering cheaply priced lunch is certainly a good way to do that.

Mosaics Community Cafe (Bartow, Florida)

For unemployed folks who find it easier to give away labor than money, this community cafe in Bartow, Florida is a boon. 

At the restaurant, each item has a suggested price — Today reports that around 60% of diners pay it. But if they don't have enough money, they can instead choose to volunteer their time by working at Mosaics or at a local community center down the road, where they help feed the hungry. 

Fast-food chains have watched their sales growth drop off a cliff.

Executives advance plenty of reasons for the slowdown — or, in the case of some brands, the outright decline in sales. Some blame politics, others blame the oil crash, and so on.

The real reason may be a bit simpler: It's getting cheaper for Americans to eat at home.

The price of food at grocery stores has actually been on the decline since the end of 2015, based on the Consumer Price Index for food at home. In fact, in July (the most recent data available), the cost of food at home declined 1.55% from the same month a year ago.

On the other hand, the cost of food away from home — what you pay at restaurants — is still on the rise. In July, prices for food away from home rose 2.79% from same month last year.

According to David Palmer at RBC Capital Markets, this is also a good thing for fast-food restaurants, as ingredient prices have fallen for them, lowering costs and boosting profit margins. But the drop in food prices is also hurting sales.

"Food cost relief has been a boon to restaurant-level margins in 2016, with many fast food operators generating their best gross margins since 2012," Palmer wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. "That said, lower food costs have historically been a constraint to industry sales and food deflation should last through at least 2Q17."

It appears that as long as grocery bills are shrinking, Americans are going to make their burgers instead of buying them.

SEE ALSO: Americans are ditching giant restaurant chains

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McDonald's is rolling out a new kind of restaurant in Paris that doesn't sell burgers or fries.

The restaurant, called McCafé, more closely resembles an upscale coffee and dessert shop than a McDonald's restaurant.

It has an open kitchen and 30 seats for dining in, Le Figaro reports.

On its website, it says it's dedicated to selling "coffee and delicacies."

The McCafé sells treats and desserts like macaroons, cupcakes, tiramisu, flan, muffins, marshmallow bars, and brownies, as well as a variety of plain and flavored coffee drinks including espressos, macchiatos, and lattes.

There are no Golden Arches or signage related to McDonald's on the outside of the building. Inside, there's a refrigerated bar of to-go items like yogurt and sandwiches.

It looks a lot like the inside of a Starbucks store.

Here's a closer look at some of the desserts:

There are also heartier dishes like bagels toasted with salmon and pastrami, Grub Street reports.

The decor is all coffee-themed; it looks nothing like a regular McDonald's.

These markers appear to be used for table service.

McCafé is the name of McDonald's coffee brand. The company started opening standalone McCafés in urban areas of Canada last year.

The Canadian McCafés serve coffee, Danish, breakfast sandwiches, and croissants, as well as heartier meals like quinoa-edamame-mandarin salad, a kale-and-Brussels-sprouts salad with mixed veggies, classic grilled cheese on stoneground multigrain bread, and an apple-and-Brie croissant with honey.

"We’re putting the café in McCafé and making the brand a destination in its own right," John Betts, president and CEO of McDonald’s Canada, told Business Insider last year. "The new standalone McCafé locations allow us to build on our strong coffee credentials and create even stronger connections with our brand by offering our guests the more complete cafe menu they’ve been asking us for."

SEE ALSO: The hidden costs of running a McDonald's restaurant

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Plenty of London venues made it into the Waitrose Good Food Guide's UK's 50 best restaurants ranking, but they were all beaten by L'Enclume — a small, riverside eatery in Cumbria serving locally sourced ingredients.

It is owned by award-winning chef Simon Rogan, who has a passion for organic produce.

L'Enclume has retained its title as the UK's best restaurant for four consecutive years.

In a statement on the guide's website, Good Food Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said she loved that its rustic exterior and discreet entrance "makes you feel you’re in on a secret."

Despite L'Enclume's modest appearance, Rogan is "restlessly inventing and pushing his ingredients to extract maximum flavour and interest."

Like a lot of organic food, the dishes here come with a big price tag. Both the lunch and dinner menu have a set price of £130 per head, and that's before you've ordered wine. A wine pairing with dinner costs £200.

Take a look at some of L'Enclumes most inventive dishes, the restaurant, and its farm.

This is L'Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria. It has an "unassuming appearance from the outside," according to the Good Food Guide. It was founded in 2002 in an old farmhouse that looks inconspicuous next to the neighbouring cottages.

Most of the food at the restaurant is grown on its own 12-acre organic farm.

The restaurant retained its top spot in the Good Food Guide for the fourth year running. The dining area is minimalist and rustic, with no tablecloths and exposed brick walls.

Ever wonder why McDonald's McNuggets are shaped the way they are?

Well, we did.

In a video produced by McDonald's Canada that shows exactly how Chicken McNuggets are made, we learned that the nuggets come in four distinct shapes: The bell, the ball, the boot, and the bow tie (also called the bone). 

We went digging for the reasoning behind the shapes and here's what we found out.

The shapes are all the same width and they are "pressed out with a rolling cookie cutter," according to McDonald's Canada.

Here's a picture of the nuggets after they have been formed. The bottom row is the bow tie, followed by a row of boots, then balls, and the bells:

The reason why they are all a standard shape and size is to ensure consistent cooking times for food safety in all McDonald’s restaurants, the company wrote on its Q&A page.

But the varying shapes are also geared toward kids. 

"Our Chicken McNuggets are shaped uniquely for kids and kids at heart  — it makes dipping more fun!" the company wrote. 

So why just four shapes?

According to the company, "three would've been too few. Five would've been, like, wacky."

After the nuggets are shaped, they are smothered in a two layers of batter and then sent to the fryers, where they are partially cooked.

They come out of the fryer looking like this:

Finally, the nuggets are frozen and packaged for shipping to McDonald's restaurants, where they should be fully cooked through for consumption.

SEE ALSO: McDonald's is making a major change to its most popular item

SEE ALSO: Panera Bread CEO slams McDonald's for new McNuggets commercial that left him furious

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After a scary weekend during which multiple bombs were found throughout the tristate area, a suspect was named and taken into custody on Monday in connection with the bomb incidents.

Now angry Yelpers are taking their frustration out on the suspect's family. Ahmad Khan Rahami's family owns a restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, called First American Fried Chicken.

Here's a sample of the some of the comments, many of which are unfair and borderline racist:

Considering that Rahami has not yet been convicted of anything, these Yelp posts seem to be in poor taste.

In the last few hours, Yelp flagged the page. While it still allows you to post and read other posts, it now presents you with a "Active Cleanup Alert" warning.

SEE ALSO: Who is Ahmad Khan Rahami?

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Walk into any restaurant around the world and you’ll notice — in some more than others — that the dining scene is more connected and high-tech than it’s ever been.

Travelers play with their smartphones and pay for their meals through mobile apps and servers take orders and reservations on iPads. The dining experience extends far beyond the actual meal and travelers interact with technology throughout the courses, from reading Yelp reviews to taking photos of their dishes. Restaurant dining, however, is only one of many layers that travelers want to peel away to interact with a destination’s food.

Many destinations’ push towards food tourism, and people’s growing ability to discover restaurants and make mobile dining reservations in general, have made restaurants one of the pinnacles of the travel experience. These five startups are following this trend and want to make it easy for travelers to reserve tables, pay for meals, discover the best dishes and find a neighbor with some recipes and stories to share.

Fly Concierge

Fly Concierge is an on-demand text message based concierge service for restaurant and bar recommendations and reservations. Offered on a $5 monthly subscription basis or $3 weekly enrollment, the startup has so far launched in New York City and also runs a weekly email newsletter for subscribers.

SkiftTake: Messaging is already the principal form of communication in many parts of the developing world and growing in the U.S., making Fly Concierge’s expansion prospects brighter as they can meet travelers as they perform a natural function already very much a part of their lives.

VizEat

VizEat is a social dining mobile app in Europe connecting travelers and local hosts around authentic culinary experiences such as meals, cooking classes and food tours. It has about 20,000 hosts in 100 countries available on its app. It’s also acquired local meal booking app Cookening since it was founded in 2014.

SkiftTake: Companies like EatWith using a similar model to VizEat have had a lot of success with both travelers and locals booking private meals in people’s homes. But we have to ask: with a company like Airbnb becoming more popular with travelers and many hosts already cooking for travelers, will Airbnb go deeper into dining at some point?

Velocity

Velocity is a dining reservations app features a locally curated selection of restaurants in New York City, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. The 1,100-plus available restaurants include New York City’s Blue Hill and Toro restaurants and San Francisco’s Slanted Door and Cala restaurants.

SkiftTake: Affluent travelers will be drawn to something like this. Although OpenTable, for example, has also started curating restaurant lists from locals and includes thousands of other options on top of what Velocity currently offers.

McDonald's is making some long-awaited changes to its all-day breakfast menu.

On Wednesday, the fast-food chain is adding McGriddle sandwiches to the all-day menu and making both McMuffin and biscuit sandwiches available at all restaurants.

Prior to the changes, McDonald's restaurants served either McMuffin sandwiches or biscuit sandwiches— not both — as part of the all-day breakfast menu.

That caused some confusion and disappointment among many customers when the new menu first rolled out.

The newly expanded all-day breakfast menu will include: egg McMuffins; sausage McMuffins with egg; sausage McMuffins; bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits; sausage biscuits with egg; sausage biscuits; sausage biscuits, bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddles; sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddles; sausage McGriddles; Hotcakes; Hotcakes and sausage, sausage burritos; fruit and maple oatmeal, fruit and yogurt parfait; and in some restaurants, hash browns.

SEE ALSO: McDonald's newest restaurant is totally unrecognizable

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NOW WATCH: McDonald’s will be making some changes to their all-day breakfast menu

A Starbucks employee handed out free coffee and food to first responders at the scene of Saturday night's explosion in New York City.

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This week, Condé Nast Traveler released a list of 207 of the greatest restaurants around the globe, according to a panel of trustworthy experts including chefs, food critics, and renowned travellers.

The list is part of the publication's first Where in the World to Eat Awards, which celebrate restaurants that combine culinary excellence with local know-how.

Since we agree that travellers should never waste a meal, we've compiled Condé Nast Traveller's best restaurants in England below.

Market Bistro, King's Lynn

With a constantly changing menu of seasonal British food making the most of local Norfolk produce, the homemade bread is a must-try at this elegant restaurant.

The Clove Club, London

Located in Shoreditch Town Hall, which was built in 1865, The Clove Club claims to serve "an ambitious five course menu and an extended menu, featuring interesting and often overlooked British ingredients and produce"— think Yorkshire Suckling Pig with south Indian Spices.

Gymkhana, London

Inspired by Colonial Indian gymkhana clubs where members of high society socialise, dine, drink, and play sport, this elegant Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant serves classic and contemporary Indian cuisine with bold spices.

McDonald's has been benefitting from the E. coli outbreaks that sent Chipotle's sales tumbling, according to a Chipotle executive.

The burrito chain has been spending millions on free food offers and ads to lure customers back into its restaurants and assure them that Chipotle is safe to eat in the wake of the outbreaks.

But even some customers who trust that the food is safe aren't returning.

Instead, they have started going to restaurants like McDonald's and "Chipotle knockoffs," Chipotle marketing director Mark Crumpacker told the Associated Press' Candice Choi in a new interview.

The company is launching a new round of ads on Wednesday in another appeal to get customers to return. The ads will feature an open letter from Chipotle cofounder Steve Ells.

McDonald's same-store sales grew 3.6% in the most recent quarter. Meanwhile, Chipotle's same-store sales tumbled 23.6% in the second quarter. That's an improvement from the nearly 30% decline in the first quarter, but not enough of a gain to please Wall Street. 

Analysts have expressed some doubts recently over whether Chipotle will ever fully recover from the outbreaks.

In a note published earlier this month, BTIG analyst Peter Saleh said the company's marketing strategy has become "stale" in the minds of consumers and that its millions of dollars in free food offers aren't working.

"The multiple promotions run this year have seen little apparent success and we believe a new approach may be necessary to drive a quicker pace of sales recovery," Saleh wrote.

In a separate note, Morgan Stanley analysts said Chipotle appears to be running out of options.  

"We see no quick fix to what Chipotle really needs, a revitalization of top line, and activism's traditional tools for restaurants — spin offs, re-franchising, asset sales and cost cuts — don't appear to offer short term opportunities, leaving few obvious quick levers to pull."

Stifel analysts had an even more brutal reaction.

"We emphatically reiterate our sell rating on [Chipotle] shares following the news that Pershing Square has started a 9.9% activist position," Stifel analysts wrote in a note, referring to billionaire activist Bill Ackman taking a 9.9% stake in the company this month. "We cannot fathom Pershing's operational or mathematical investment thesis.

If you work at Chipotle and have a story to share, reach out to this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street has growing doubts about Chipotle's recovery

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Michelin stars are still the restaurant scene’s ultimate accolade, and London isn’t short of star-spangled establishments.

See below for a comprehensive list of London’s one, two, and three star restaurants, and view them on Michelin’s handy map.

At current count, London has 50 restaurants with one Michelin star (see our list of one star restaurants below), 11 restaurants with two Michelin stars and two restaurants with an almighty three stars.

You can also locate the restaurants on the map below. One-star restaurants are marked in yellow, two-star in orange and three-star in red.

The new Michelin guide will be released on Monday October 3, when it will be revealed which restaurants have gained, lost and retained stars.

One Michelin Star restaurants in London

Lyle’s, Shoreditch

Dining Room at The Goring, Belgravia

Portland, Fitzrovia

Bonham’s, Mayfair

Barrafina, Soho

Social Eating House, Soho

Trishna, Marylebone

Lima, Fitzrovia

Tamarind, Mayfair

Amaya, Belgravia

L’Autre Pied, Marylebone

Quilon, Belgravia

Yauatcha, Soho

Galvin La Chapelle, Spitalfields

Gymkhana, Mayfair

Murano, Mayfair

Texture, Marylebone

Club Gascon, Barbican

St John, Clerkenwell

Angler, City

Kitchen W8, Kensington

Harwood Arms, Fulham

Seven Park Place, Mayfair

HKK, Shoreditch

Outlaw’s at The Capital, Knightsbridge

Alyn Williams at The Westbury, Mayfair

Ametsa with Arzak Instruction, Belgravia

Pied à Terre, Fitzrovia

Dabbous, Fitzrovia

Chez Bruce, Wandsworth

La Trompette, Chiswick

The Glasshouse, Kew

Galvin at Windows, Mayfair

Wild Honey, Mayfair

Pollen Street Social, Mayfair

Launceston Place, Kensington

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Covent Garden

Hakkasan, Mayfair and Bloomsbury

Brasserie Chavot, Mayfair (now closed)

City Social, City

Benares, Mayfair

Pétrus, Belgravia

Locanda Locatelli, Marylebone

Story, Bermondsey

Clove Club, Shoreditch

Kai Mayfair, Mayfair

Hedone, Chiswick

River Café, Hammersmith

Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs, Fitzrovia

Fera at Claridge’s, Mayfair

Two Michelin Stars

Umu, Mayfair

The Araki, Mayfair

Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Mayfair

The Square, Mayfair

Sketch (The Lecture Room & Library), Mayfair

Greenhouse, Mayfair

Hibiscus, Mayfair

Marcus, Belgravia

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Knightsbridge, London

The Ledbury, Notting Hill

Le Gavroche, Mayfair

Three Michelin Stars

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Mayfair

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea

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