Local food blog Varmint Bites covers N&O food critic Greg Cox's top restaurants list for 2009. I've been to 12 of the top 25 (as noted in the blog post, it's actually now a top 24, as Fins has closed). And, of course, all lists like this are just excuses to debate. Breaking with standard internets protocol, I don't offer any opinion on the half of the list I haven't tried yet. Of the places where I have eaten, I'd probably drop Elaine's and Second Empire and possibly il Palio (altho I hear they've got a new chef so they probably deserve another visit before they get kicked to the curb). I'd probably sub in Jujube and Piedmont in those spots.
Noticed in comments, both at Varmint Bites and over on Chowhound, that there's support for Rue Cler as being deserving of a spot in the top 25. Several people whose opinions I respect (including some who might actually be among the theoretical readers of this blog) really like Rue Cler. But it's never clicked for me. The food's good but not enough to get past the service issues. I wouldn't say it's bad service (I mean, we've been back several times) but there's often something that's just not quite right. Plus I don't really dig the space all that much. And, yes, I'm aware that this is largely idiosyncratic. I know I've read people complaining about problems at places where I've never had anything other than great experiences and sometimes wondered how they managed to have such a bad time when I never do. It is (as the cliché goes, what it is). Anyway, when I'm in the mood for French bistro food, I think of Vin Rouge. YMMV