Harden's guides now online

[malcolmwilliamson]

The 2007 Harden's guides are at http://www.hardens.com/restaurants/uk/index.php and http://www.hardens.com/restaurants/london/index.php.

The 2006 guides were, and the 2007 are, accessible via the Waitrose site. The advantage of Harden's own site is that there are useful search facilities.

[SpikeyD]

Thanks for the tip... Hardens is a really useful resource.

[Matthew Grant]

Can anybody tell me what the "UK Style rating" is in the printed guide? I have a copy but can't find any reference to what that rating refers to or how it is calculated. If I remember correctly it is mainly applied to restaurants outside of London.

I like the guide in general and is a good pointer if you are in an area you don't know well but I sometimes feel that the ratings are easily swayed by regulars at a particular place.

[Basildog]

If you try serarching for a place with a 1,1,1 score, you get a message"Sorry no matches,There is no such thing as perfection" Nice touch

[BertieWooster]

And the online version would be even more useful if there was ANY key to which numbers mean what. I suppose you're meant to buy the guides, but having it online in this state is just frustrating.

*wanders off muttering*

[ravelda]

If you look on the left hand side towards the bottom it allows you to search by rating, and from this you can figure what the numbers mean. The ratings go from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best and 5 being the worst, the first of the three numbers is for the food, the second is for service and the third for atmosphere. Hope this helps Bertie.

Best,

David

[Matthew Grant]

But what is the "UK Style" rating in the book?

[Basildog]

Bertie, when you click on the box to select the level of resturant your looking for, it drops down with the scores and what they mean (1) Exceptional (2) Very Good etc.

Matthew...As for the style thing,i really don't know what your on about.Where does it appear in the book?

[BertieWooster]

Bertie, when you click on the box to select the level of resturant your looking for, it drops down with the scores and what they mean (1) Exceptional (2) Very Good etc.

Hmm, but that wasn't the way I went into it, so its not exactly intuitive that you have to look at a search form to the left to see what the figures in front of you on the main pane mean.

Hardens online guides, meet Jakob Nielsen

(oh and thanks Basildog and Ravelda for explaining it to me--Jeeves is off today)

Edited January 18, 2007 by BertieWooster (log)

[Matthew Grant]

Matthew...As for the style thing,i really don't know what your on about.Where does it appear in the book?

←

Have a look at some of the restaurants outside of London, some of them have a star with a UK Style rating in the middle of it. This is in the printed edition, I have a reporters copy if that makes any difference?

[Basildog]

I don't have the reporters edition.The only symbols in mine are stars for cooking and red "A"s for atmospheric places.

[Gary Marshall]

basildog is also being very modest here with regards to hardens, his bistro has one of the highest ratings in the guide

(and well deserved naturally!)

[Basildog]

Naturally

but would i swop it for a Bib? tough call

[Matthew Grant]

I don't have the reporters edition.The only symbols in mine are stars for cooking and red "A"s for atmospheric places.

←

Hey B-Dog (I thought I'd restyle you into some sort of Padstow Hip-Hop Gangster chef), you'll be pleased to know that you get a UK-style rating of A**

Of course you may also be completely unthrilled as none of us knows what it actually means!

I'm sure that Richard Harden is on here sometimes, please can you let me know what it actually means and how it is judged?

Edited January 26, 2007 by Matthew Grant (log)

[Basildog]

The A is for atmospheric places the 2 *s are for cooking, but i could be wrong

[Matthew Grant]

1 for food, 1 for service, 2 for ambience an a UK style rating of A**

Not many places with better scores than that B-Dog

[bakerestates]

they are also now giveing places a big black star with no other ABC/123 rating which signfies they have recieved a lot of negative feedback about an establishment. I noticed this as one of my neighbouring establishments has it!

bakerestates