How to Choose a Good Restaurant When You’re in a Place Where There Are Few or No Reviews and You Don’t Know Anyone to Ask
Aiming to Make Every Meal Count
IT’S NOT EASY TO RECOMMEND a restaurant successfully, so that people go and are happy. People sometimes ask me for restaurant recommendations and then don’t make any effort to follow them. Once, someone went to a place they were told to avoid and without apology reported back. I don’t give individual advice often, but when I do give advice, I think about the person and the kind of place. If I’m not up to date or don’t know the city or area, I’ve sometimes imposed on a friend whose knowledge and palate I trust. A name by itself doesn’t convey anything, so I include the briefest comments. When someone knowledgeable gives me advice, I’m grateful and I act on it, so I was surprised at first and confused when someone didn’t follow my advice. This spring I gave a list of restaurants to friends who were headed to a part of the world I happened to know. They didn’t go to any of my places, but they followed the recommendation of some people they met and ate in a place that turned out to have a long menu (the classic red flag, because so many things can’t all be prepared fresh or well), and they were highly disappointed (they texted my wife and me mid-meal). That got me pondering, What are people really looking for? And can I explain what I do in choosing restaurants, in a way that other people would find useful?