Have you ever been to a restaurant, where you opened the menu and found 5 menu items that look absolutely perfect and you feel agonized by the decision of choosing one? How do you know what to choose? Or how about when you return to a restaurant in one year and cannot remember anything you ate there last year? Or how about that time you wanted to try this restaurant in “downtown” but cannot for the life of you remember where or what it was called?
These scenarios happened to me countless times until one day, until I decided to take matters into my own hands.
What I used to do:
Step 1: Wander randomly and enter random restaurants. (while this is fun, I don’t always find good restaurants)
Step 2: Order randomly off the menu.
What I do now:
Step 1: On arrival to chosen restaurant, open google maps and start reading reviews and browsing through photos.
Step 2: If I can’t find a good review, I check Yelp.
Step 3: If I still haven’t found what I want, I ask the waiter for recommendations.
Step 4: All else fails, “use the restroom” and stare at everyone’s food. Or outright ask him/her if it tastes great J
Step 5: After ordering and eating, I now upload photos and review everything on google maps! Not only does this document my own adventures (so I can remember next time I’m there), it also helps other poor souls similar to myself who search for that perfect menu item, they can have a place to start with.
In another similar scenario where a friend makes a recommendation or I see an instagram post about a yummy food place, I save it on my “want to go” list and make a note about the dish I want to order. That way when I’m browsing for a nearby place to eat, I will see all these tags and I can easily choose one! I will also have my note ready to know what to order. Honestly, this feature has changed my life and it is so easy now to find a place that I already have marked.
Why do I do this?
I have a strong belief that restaurants have top menu items and lower menu items. Some restaurants make it clear which items are most “popular” with a star, but this is not always the case and I struggle to find the best item on their list. Its almost a lottery system for me, if I don’t manage to find their best item and instead order something inferior, my experience is so tainted that I never go back even if all my friends tell me its amazing.
Case in point, my fiance and I went to a ramen store and I ordered their most popular ramen whereas he ordered a spicy ramen that was not on their “popular” list. He did not like his at all but I loved mine. I keep requesting to return to the restaurant, but because he had a bad experience he never wants to go back… and he’s usually the driver.
Sometimes, I can tell that the restaurant has a lot of potential and I just have not found their star dish. For example I ended up going to the same restaurant two times in a row for brunch with different groups of friends because I had this gut feeling that they would be really really good. The first time I went I had a mediocre dish and I tried all my friends’ dishes, which were all mediocre. But I could taste that this restaurant was trying hard to knock it out of the park. So I went again the next day with my boyfriend, and we ordered two different dishes and we found our winner. As we were leaving, my fiance was already talking about how much he loved that salmon benny we ordered and he wanted to go again next weekend. Score.
Thus, because I love to discover the best food item in a restaurant and I want to help other lost souls like myself, whenever I review restaurants I ensure that I will 1) name the dish my photo is featuring, and a one liner recommendation (it was eggcellent!) and 2) post detailed review about the menu items specifically to aid others in deciding the perfect dish for them.
I hope this spreads the love of reviewing each dish separately at restaurants! Please do this so we can all help each other order the best dish at a restaurant!
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