How to spot a good restaurant

[fresco]

You're in a strange city. You don't know the restaurants and you don't have a guidebook, or don't trust guidebooks. You're peckish. Using just your powers of observation and rules that you've formulated from years of dining out, how do you pick a winner?

(Damon Runyon's rule: "Never eat at a place called Ma's, never play cards with a man named Doc.")

[Belmont3]

Is the parking lot full or empty, does it seem like the place is busy, you know people waiting around outside.

[MatthewB]

Is the parking lot full or empty, does it seem like the place is busy, you know people waiting around outside.

With that criteria, you're going to end up at the Olive Garden or the Cheesecake Factory.

[Belmont3]

Is the parking lot full or empty, does it seem like the place is busy, you know people waiting around outside.

With that criteria, you're going to end up at the Olive Garden or the Cheesecake Factory.

Nice reply!!

[Andrew Fenton]

Look for a short menu. I always have better luck at a place with a few specialties than at one that tries for everything under the sun.

[fresco]

Belmont3,

Good points, although restaurant parking lots (or parking lots, period) are pretty thin on the ground in many big cities.

[Lyle]

Is the parking lot full or empty, does it seem like the place is busy, you know people waiting around outside.

With that criteria, you're going to end up at the Olive Garden or the Cheesecake Factory.

Depending on the city, those may be your best bets.

[Belmont3]

Belmont3,

Good points, although  restaurant parking lots  (or parking lots, period) are pretty thin on the ground in many big cities.

After I posted that, it crossed my mind that, that would be an issue for you "Big City Folks"

[MatthewB]

With that criteria, you're going to end up at the Olive Garden or the Cheesecake Factory.

Depending on the city, those may be your best bets.

Agreed.

At that point I'd head to the gas station & pick up peanuts and beer.

[MatthewB]

On a less cranky note . . .

I'd find Chinatown, check out the spots off the main boulevard & eat with the locals.

[tommy]

avoid neon signs.

[fresco]

"avoid neon signs."

Guess that means starvation in Las Vegas.

[tommy]

"avoid neon signs."

Guess that means starvation in Las Vegas.

i highly recommend NobHill and Lotus of Siam, each being neon-free.

edit: i see that b*stard bigbear has just changed my avatar to a neon sign. nicely done.

Edited June 6, 2003 by tommy (log)

[fresco]

Tommy,

No neon? Thought that would be a hanging offence in Las Vegas. (Somehow, I have managed to avoid ever visiting the place...)

[Busboy]

I've had good luck just casing the outside of restaurants. Design reveals a lot. Once you eliminate the chains, search out signs, front windows, patio decor etc. that avoid the cute and obvious, and the over- or mass-produced. Laminated menus are a bad sign, as is any kind of "theme". Beware hanging nets, mock-rustic furniture and the words "family dining." Do not romanticize small-town local diners; most of them suck.

Check out the cars and people. There's always a danger in stereotyping, but look for the kind of people you'd expect to see in the kind of places you'd want to go, be they yuppies, business folks, ethnic types or hipsters.

When in doubt, walk in and pretend you're looking for someone, and check out the food on the table. If you have time and a strong liver, get a drink at the bar and watch the food as it comes out.

Ask the locals but be careful...one of the reasons there's an Olive Garden every where you go is that the locals like it.

[zilla369]

Recently we were on the way home from Cleveland and stopped in the Cincinnati suburbs to visit Jungle Jim's International Market. We asked the checkout clerk for a suggestion on a good place to eat, and she enthusiastically pointed out the Golden Corral up the street... "It's soooo good, and all you can eat," she said, foaming at the mouth.

[fresco]

zilla369.

Isn't there a hoary old joke where one person carps that the food in a restaurant is terrible and her friend chimes in, "Yes, and the portions are so small."

[tommy]

Recently we were on the way home from Cleveland and stopped in the Cincinnati suburbs to visit Jungle Jim's International Market.  We asked the checkout clerk for a suggestion on a good place to eat, and she enthusiastically pointed out the Golden Corral up the street... "It's soooo good, and all you can eat," she said, foaming at the mouth.

one sure-fired way to end up at a horrible restaurant is to ask a complete stranger.

[sammy]

I usually look for people drinking AND eating at the bar. Maybe its just me but I think the food tends to be pretty good at restaurants where people are actually eating things other than nuts at the bar.

[fresco]

Sammy,

Not a good sign: people sleeping at the bar.

[KNorthrup]

Has anyone ever tested the cliches about eat where the cops and/or truckers eat? Realizing that that wouldn't be about fine dining per se.

[Busboy]

I usually look for people drinking AND eating at the bar. Maybe its just me but I think the food tends to be pretty good at restaurants where people are actually eating things other than nuts at the bar.

Fallback position in a strange city with no fine dining in site: spend enough time at the bar that the peanuts are all you need. Go to back to the hotel early, preferrably not with a local. Fly home the next morning at get dinner there, pleased that you actually lost weight on a business trip.

[fresco]

Knorthrup,

Could lead to heartache (and heartburn). In Montreal, the French slang for cop is, essentially, "donut." In other places, I suspect cops hang out where they can eat free or at a heavy discount. Don't know about truckers, but "18-wheeler" and "fine palate" aren't often heard in the same sentence.

[Lyle]

Really, assuming you know nothing of the town, have to stay away from chains and local burger joints, and don't want to spend all night at the bar, the regional cuisine is what I would attempt. In areas where there is no definable regional cuisine am I allowed to go to a steakhouse?

[fresco]

Lyle,

I think there are parts of the world where steakhouses ARE regional cuisine. And not too shabby regional cuisine, either.