An award-winning food critic has revealed the best tricks to help you choose a restaurant for an enjoyable dining experience – some of which you can put into practice before you even enter the restaurant.
Tom Sietsema, who was honored by the James Beard Foundation in 2015 for his series “America’s 10 Best Cities for Good Food,” has revealed the most efficient way to recognize a delicious restaurant.
In his latest article in the Washington Post, the veteran restaurateur revealed his surefire methods for checking out restaurants before booking a table, including…
1. License plates and vehicle type in the parking lot …
Food critic Tom Sietsema says the surest way to tell if a place serves good food is to check the cars parked right outside.
The surest way to find out if a restaurant serves good food, Sietsema says, is to check the cars parked right outside the door.
If most of them have license plates from that state, it means the restaurant is popular with the locals – usually a sign that it’s 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 with lower standards due to the large number of walk-in customers.
He also said that the mix of expensive and cheaper cars in the parking lot was another indication that it was a good place to eat, with both the rich and the less well-off lining up to eat there.
2. Size of the menus
Not every restaurant has parking, so there are other ways to weed out the bad restaurants. If a restaurant doesn’t have parking, Sietsema recommends checking to see if they have large menus posted outside.
According to the critic, eating in restaurants can be harmful if the menus contain many typos or exclamation marks or indicate that the dishes are “perfectly prepared”.
He also advises against restaurants whose menus span the four corners of the world, pointing out that a smaller, more focused menu usually indicates better food.
According to the reviewer, any place whose menu contains a lot of typos or exclamation points, or indicates that a dish is “perfectly prepared,” may be unsafe to eat.
3. The smell of the place
When a restaurant passes the parking and menu check, Sietsema advises guests to try to smell the air of the place.
He said a steakhouse should smell like beef, an Italian restaurant should have the scent of garlic in the air, and a Korean restaurant should have a slightly tingling chili atmosphere.
Sietsema warns that no smell at all – or worse, the smell of bleach – could be a sign that the restaurant is not worth your visit.
“A stale smell – or sometimes worse, a whiff of bleach or ammonia from cleaning products – should send you back to the sidewalk,” he suggested.
4. First impressions
If you call to reserve a table and are greeted by a rude employee, there is a good chance that you will also receive poor service when you get there.
However, he qualified that advice by saying that calling a restaurant during peak hours is more likely to result in speaking to a stressed employee.
Sietsema also noted that not listing prices on the website or advertising holidays that have already passed suggests a certain level of sloppiness.
He also warned against restaurants where attractive waiters stand around on the street, holding menus and trying to lure customers. A decent restaurant does not need such “jewels,” he said.
5. Happy waiters and a busy kitchen
Sietsema also noted that the restaurant is “sleeping at the counter” if the website does not display prices or continue to post its holiday specials into another season.
If you enter a restaurant and see a crowd of cheerful waiters and a busy kitchen full of people, that’s probably a good sign.
Sietsema explains: “In a restaurant, look for waiters who seem happy (proud to work there) and a little busy (customers willing to wait for a table).
“You want to see a busy counter and a lot of sales.”
6. How old are the online reviews?
Last but not least, one of the most important things to pay attention to is the cleanliness of a restaurant – especially the work surfaces, floors and the chef’s clothing.
When you look for reviews of new places online, check when they were published.
According to Sietsema, even reviews that are only a year old are considered accurate descriptions because “restaurants are like live theater, with the possibility of cast and script changes.”
This means that a place that was rated well a year or two ago may have slipped since then, while a place that performed poorly in the past may have pulled itself together and improved.
7. Cleanliness
Last but not least, you should pay special attention to the cleanliness of a restaurant – especially the work surfaces, floors and the chef’s clothing.
