Restaurant reviewing: seeking suggestions/samples

[dimsumfan]

Hoping for some help. I've been asked to consider writing reviews for a publication with no real budget (okay, that's a problem, but unavoidable for now).

Concept: They will ask a few restaurants a month to donate meals based on a theme, then in reviewing them I need to choose a winner. Each restaurant gets feature space, but only one wins.

Anyone have examples of publications that do "simultaneous," competitive-style reviews? Or ideas for how to do this in the fairest way possible?

Thanks!

[Chris Amirault]

Can you explain a bit more? Donate meals? What's the budget? Where are they prepared? Where are they eaten?

I've never heard of anything like this, so it's hard to think of examples.

[David Ross]

Hoping for some help. I've been asked to consider writing reviews for a publication with no real budget (okay, that's a problem, but unavoidable for now).

Concept: They will ask a few restaurants a month to donate meals based on a theme, then in reviewing them I need to choose a winner. Each restaurant gets feature space, but only one wins.

Anyone have examples of publications that do "simultaneous," competitive-style reviews? Or ideas for how to do this in the fairest way possible?

Thanks!

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I don't know of any publications out there who do a competitive type of review, but it should be pretty easy for you.

I would break your judging criteria into a few different areas to make it easier for you and for the judging to be fair. Categories like Flavor, Presentation and Appropriate to Theme, come to mind. Then assign a point value to each category. That's the basic judging criteria behind Iron Chef.

For the concept to really work, and be fair, the publication should ask the restaurants to do exactly the same dishes. For example, Risotto. While each restaurant may do a different version of Risotto-one might be classic and the other might incorporate shellfish-your judging would be based on fair criteria for what makes a great risotto-creamy rice cooked to just the right texture.

If they just set a theme of say "Italian" that wouldn't be as fair. One chef might do a Roman pasta dish while another chef would do a seafood dish from Venice. It would be hard to judge between the two in that case.

[dimsumfan]

In the short history they've done this, it's a true restaurant experience, except the restaurant know the reviewer is there. To pick up on the example of the previous poster, the theme might be Italian, but there are no further constraints. The restaurant is told to simply offer their best Italian food experience. Problem has been that a high-end Italian restaurant might be competing against something like Olive Garden. Sort of like having a sushi theme, with the competitors consisting of restaurants ranging from kaiten sushi to high-end sushi bar.

Can you explain a bit more? Donate meals? What's the budget? Where are they prepared? Where are they eaten?

I've never heard of anything like this, so it's hard to think of examples.

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