Forbes Travel Guide has released its annual hotel, restaurant and spa ratings, and Mélisse has received the highest rating, five stars.

Josiah Citrin's Santa Monica restaurant is one of only 28 restaurants nationally to receive the highest ranking, and one of four in California. What does the five-star rating mean? According to the website's star-rating explanation, “These top-of-the-line hotels, restaurants and spas are the best in the world.” Of Mélisse, the anonymous inspectors had to say this:

The dishes here are artfully presented and innovative but not overly intellectual, and ingredients are always fresh, as Citrin takes advantage of Southern California's year-round growing season and frequents local farmers markets to find the best produce to soothe those Westside foodies' ravenous appetites.

You can see the full listing here.

Other L.A. restaurants that came away with recognition from the Forbes Travel Guide: Providence and Wolfgang Puck at the Hotel Bel-Air received four stars, and Lucques received the “recommended” rating.

While these types of ratings that value luxury above all else are certainly helpful for a certain brand of business traveler (which is obviously Forbes' core audience), it's hard to see how they relate to the way the world is actually dining these days.

Regardless, congrats to Mélisse and the other L.A. award winners, we're glad to have such prestige in our midst.

You can see the full page of Forbes' rated restaurants here.

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