Frequently Asked Questions

We're not sure our opinions are any better than anybody's else's. We invite our readers to decide for themselves how much our opinions are worth. Each of our reviewers has his or her own qualifications, but we don't require strict training, experience, or credentials. Our restaurant reviews are not declarations of a restaurant's fitness, but only an account of our experience at that restaurant. When it comes to describing our own experiences, we are the world's foremost experts.

We try to review restaurants across a variety of price points. However, we tend to avoid the cheapest restaurants (fast food and other budget eateries) because there often isn't much to say that you couldn't already guess. Also, we believe that dining out can be a great experience, of which the food is only one part. While we believe that great experiences can be found at all restaurant tiers, we have found a strong correlation between price and quality. That's the "you get what you pay for" effect. It doesn't always hold true, and when we find an exceptional value (or a poor one), we'll let you know about it, at any price point.

Also, your restaurant bill may be different from ours. It will depend on your dining patterns. Do you order appetizers? Do you order desserts? Do you order fancy drinks? We tend to order these things more often when we write reviews. It allows us to share more about the experience with our readers, to give them a better idea of what to expect from the restaurant. That tends to run up our bill a bit.

There are a couple of reasons why our reviews tend to be favorable. First, we believe that people generally open restaurants to provide good food and service. The nature of any business is to please its customers. So, we aren't surprised that we enjoy many of the restaurants we visit.

Second, the restaurants we review are not random. We self-select the restaurants we review, and we choose the ones we think we will enjoy. Though this may at first seem unduly biased, it actually reflects the needs of our readers. Our readers will also wish to patronize restaurants they think they will enjoy. If our impressions align, then they may find our reviews useful in confirming (or challenging) their impressions.

No, we are not bragging. We would probably like the privacy of withholding our spending patterns. However, we believe that a restaurant's prices can often affect one's enjoyment of that restaurant. It's hard to enjoy a meal when worried about how to pay for it. We believe that knowing a restaurant's prices in advance can and should be a determining factor of whether to even visit the restaurant or not. We'd hate for our readers to visit a restaurant on the strength of our review, only to to have an anxiety-filled experience due to worry about the bill.

Tipping can be a touchy subject, partly because the rules seem to be changing, but nobody ever consults us before moving the tipping target. Sometimes we don't like our tipping culture, but we still participate because we understand the social contract we're expected to follow. Someday, perhaps we'll see a change to this culture, but in the meantime, we know that the advertised prices are not the whole story. We generally try to tip between 19% and 20%.

We review our experience, and all that goes into it. The food is definitely a big part of that, but so is value. So quality and price work together. For example, if we find "pretty good" food at a good price, it could get a better score as great food that is too expensive. That is, our expectations rise along with the prices.

The dining environment is important, as well. Are the chairs comfortable, the tables large enough? Is the music so loud that we can't hear one another talk? Those are some basics, but then we get into ambiance. Design décor can help establish a theme, which can contribute to a vibe. These things affect our enjoyment.

And of course, there's service. Great restaurants make us feel welcome, even special. Good hosts and waitstaff make us feel important and valued. The best restaurants are efficient and accurate.

These are a few of the things we look for in a good restaurant.

We can't answer these questions without understanding the criteria behind them. For example, sometimes, we like food made with the finest ingredients. However, restaurants that serve this type of food tend to be expensive. We might only visit them on special occasions. Meanwhile, we might frequent restaurants with lesser-quality food because the price is attractive. Which of those is better? Which should be our favorite?

In our reviews, we try to describe all the aspects of the restaurants we visit. You can decide for yourself how our descriptions measure up to your personal criteria.