Restaurant critic reveals incredibly simple way to tell if a restaurant serves good food
An award-winning food critic has revealed the best tips for determining where to enjoy a pleasant dining experience. Some of the tips you can even apply before you even step foot in the restaurant.
Tom Sietsema, who won a 2015 James Beard Foundation award for his ’10 Best Food Cities in America’ series, has revealed how to efficiently spot a great eatery.
In his last Washington P.In the first article, the veteran restaurant guest revealed his safe ways to screen restaurants before booking a table, including…
1. License plates and the type of car in the parking lot…
Food critic Tom Sietsema says the most surefire way to tell if a restaurant serves good food is to look at the cars parked right outside the door
According to Sietsema, the best way to determine whether a restaurant serves good food is to check the cars parked in front of it.
If most restaurants have a license plate that comes from their home state, it means that the restaurant is popular with the locals. Usually, this is a sign that it is good.
On the other hand, if you see a lot of tour buses outside, it could be a sign that the restaurant is a tourist trap. Standards are lower because there are so many passers-by.
He also said that the mix of expensive and cheap cars in the parking lot indicates that it is a good establishment, as both the rich and the not so rich line up to eat there.
2. Size of the menus
Not every restaurant has a parking lot, so there are other ways to weed out the bad ones. If a restaurant doesn’t have a parking lot, Sietsema suggests checking to see if they have huge menus displayed outside.
According to the critic, it can be dangerous to eat dishes if the menu contains a lot of typos or exclamation marks, or if it says that a dish is “prepared to perfection.”
He also advises against restaurants that offer a diverse range of dishes from around the world. A smaller, more focused menu usually means better food.
According to the critic, a restaurant with menus full of typos, exclamation points or claims that a dish is prepared “to perfection” may be unsafe to eat at.
3. The smell of the cafe
When a restaurant passes the parking lot and checks the menu, Sietsema advises guests to take a breath of the air.
He said a steakhouse should smell like beef, an Italian should have the smell of garlic in the air, and a Korean restaurant should have a hint of chili in the atmosphere.
Sietsema warns that if there is no smell at all — or worse, the smell of bleach — this could be a warning sign that the restaurant is not worthy of your business.
“An unpleasant odor — or sometimes worse, a blast of bleach or ammonia from cleaning products — should send you back to the curb,” he suggested.
4. First impressions
Calling to reserve a table and being greeted by a rude employee? Chances are you’ll also get terrible personal service.
He did offer a caveat to this advice: if you call a restaurant at a busy time, you’re more likely to end up with a stressed-out employee.
Sietsema also noted that it is a sign of sloppiness if a website does not list prices or advertises holidays that have already passed.
He also warned against restaurants where attractive waiters stand on the street with menus and try to lure you in. A decent restaurant, he said, has no need for such “tricks.”
5. Happy service and a busy kitchen
Sietsema also noted that if the website doesn’t list prices or continues to post the holiday specials in a different season, the restaurant has “fallen asleep”
If you enter a restaurant and see a group of happy waiters and a busy kitchen full of people, that’s probably a good sign.
As Sietsema explains: ‘In a restaurant, look for waiters who look cheerful (proud to work there) and for some liveliness (guests who are willing to wait for a table).
‘You want a busy counter and a lot of turnover.’
6. How old are the online reviews?
First, it is important to pay attention to how clean a restaurant is, especially the countertops, floors and the chef’s clothing.
When searching online for reviews of new locations, check when and for how long they were posted.
According to Sietsema, reviews that are only a year old are also a good description, because ‘restaurants are like live theater, with the possibility of changing the cast and the script’.
This means that a place that was rated well a year or two ago may have declined since then, while a place that had a poor rating in the past has gotten its act together and improved.
7. Beauty
Finally, it is important to pay attention to how clean a restaurant is, especially the countertops, floors and the chef’s clothing.
