my critical analysis of a place starts with the actual menu itself. Most restaurants have these generic formulated menus comprised of frozen and canned, ready to serve Food Service items from Sysco or US Foods. I am a competent cook and don't need to eat from someone else's freezer and drink their alcohol at a 500 times cost.
For instance, Indian Restaurants. It's a sorry state of affairs concerning the quality of Indian Restaurants. I can name 80 percent of most menus before even reading the menu. So, if a restaurant has the same generic butter and tomato sauce bullshit menu, I won't even try it. I too can buy a jar of sauce at the store. And I know my chicken won't have been from some house of horrors.
If if a pizza place sells Gyros, I won't eat there.
If a Mexican place has pastor on the menu and I don't see a wheel. If a Mexican place has canned beans on display or if it's the same generic menu that every other shitty Mexican place has, I'm not eating there.
If a Thai place has the same generic menu, Pad Thai and a couple of curries and one or two papaya salads, I am not eating there. If a place has crab Rangoon on the menu, I'm not eating there.
If an Italian Restaurant Claims to be Piedmontese or some other regional style cooking and they are serving a bunch of generic non region specific crap, I'm not eating there.
I live in Brooklyn and every "American" restaurant here has brussel sprouts, kale and burrata on the menu. If there are too many of these generic buzz words and catchy dishes, I'm not going to eat there or I am because I'm meeting friends but, am not surprised when it sucks.
I dont eat Chinese American Food. I tend to stick to regional Chinese places. I am pretty good at determining whether the food will be good by the menu as well.
i don't think I have ever been surprised in the positive way. I have often times been disappointed by a menu that reads well but, not the other way around.
Oh, wait, If a bar has potato skins, I'm most likely going to order them.
Didn't answer the question I guess.
