Monday, November 19, 2012

THE HISTORY OF RESTAURANT REVIEWS:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html?_r=1


from Jules Older in San Francisco


As a restaurant review, myself, I occasionally feel the need to spill a little red wine on the white tablecloth. In our San Francisco Restaurants app, we describe the city's best-loved restaurant this way:
Every lunchtime, businessmen, politicians, glitterati and out-of-towners fill the enormous room, happily chowing down on shaking beef and thanking their lucky stars that they could get a reservation.       
Great story. Wish I liked the restaurant as much.         
But I don't. I find The Slanted Door underdelicious and overpriced. Portions are small, prices are... $7 for green tea, $11 for that jicama salad, $24 for a nicely cooked but Lilliputian black cod, and $36 for a rather bland shaking beef.  
I don't get it. What I do get is that your tastebuds will be better served at a hundred neighborhood Asian restaurants throughout San Francisco. No view, no politicians at the next table, but way better tastes at a way better price.
 

And here's my favorite review from one of the Olders' favorite films, The Ref:    
                   
"It wasn’t one bad review in one lousy magazine. It was the Restaurant Guide Book of New 
York. And, when the Restaurant Guide Book recommends you to Hindus looking for a fun 
night out of fasting, what did you expect me to do, change the menus?"

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