Monday, September 26, 2011

Restaurant rating system for my reviews

People often ask what restaurant rating system I use for my reviews. They are one of the more popular topics on this blog. My other articles appear on the Yahoo Contributor Network.

I developed my own restaurant rating system for my reviews to try to be fair to all types of restaurants. Let's face it. Good service is good service but not all restaurants are created the same.  To me, it doesn't seem fair to award more stars to a higher priced restaurant simply because the meals cost more.

Expectations of full service eateries are different from quick service dining. Here are two examples:

A few months ago, I dined at a high end special occasion restaurant. I went in expecting a great meal with impressive service that we did not receive. Instead, the food was bland, each refill had to be requested and taking care of the check took awhile.

Later that week I met a colleague for lunch. The place she chose had a lunch menu or buffet to choose from. I expected that the food would be good and that the service would be acceptable. Although the food was good the service was unbeatable. Dirty plates were cleared promptly, tea refills appeared as if by magic and I didn't have to wave the server down once.

Under this restaurant review rating system the first restaurant would have received three stars. The second eatery received four stars. It doesn't matter if the food costs $150 per plate or $5.00. The outcome is based on the quality of the dining experience no matter. 

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