Monday, July 28, 2008

Restaurant rating explanation

I'm going to give each restaurant I review a rating out of 10, which is going to be very selective. Somewhere might have fine food, for example, but get a lower rating for their prices. Generally I find "fine dining" restaurants in Perth charge like wounded bulls for food that's not great - just ok. Given what you get for similar prices in Sydney for example (can't comment on Melbourne, as I only worked in hospitality in Sydney) I think there are quite a few places with overinflated prices and exggerated concepts of how edgy and stylish their food is. I'll try and explain why I've given the score I have.
1-5. Basically, if this is the score I've given, I'd rather eat at home. I take the following into account:
Relly bad service - I've worked in hospitality and I know waitresses and waiters have many reasons to be unhappy, but service here is bad enough that I've complained to a manager. Service in this category will usually involve rudeness or sulkiness from staff, as well as stuff that usually indicates a kitchen/ front of house disconnect. An example of this would be the overblown snootiness that the staff at the Raffles get into. This is esp. uncool when they charge $40 / main.
Food - I don't mind going out and paying for average or ok-ish food as long as it's not overpriced. Food in the 1-5 category is either awful, like the Saint in Doubleview, or overpriced, like Meads. I also really don't like unfocused menus. If you're going to have Thai, have Thai. If you're doing curry, be a curry restaurant. Steak= steakhouse. Having steak and thai green chicken curry and chili mussels on a menu means you're tying to be everything to everybody, which I know some people think is a sign of versatility. To me, I think it means you should stick to making caesar salad for plebs, because either you don't get good food or your boss had made you do a centrally-ordered menu. Example: ALH pubs.
Wine list - bad wine doesn't usually matter too much for me when reviewing, unless they have a bad wine list and also won't let me bring my own. Anywhere that has Brown Bros. Crouchen Riesling on the list usually has bad wine.

6-10. I'd be happy to go here again. In some cases, I want to go once a week.
The service will be acceptable by Perth (ie low hospitality wages, students as waitstaff, mining boom on) standards and may even be good. Also a lot of the restaurants in this category will be the sort where I have no expectation of good service - somewhere that charges $7-10 for mains, I'm not fussed as to how the food gets to me. More expensive food will have good service attached.
The food will be good - fresh ingredients, well cooked, tasty.
The menu will be meaningful - it will all be Indian if it's Indian, will all be Vietnamese if it's Vietnamese etc.
Good winelist, or they let me bring my own.

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