What makes a good restaurant, a "good restaurant"?

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
There has always been this nice restaurant in a nearby suburb ever since I can remember. Well, the owner got remarried a year ago and now his new wife is in charge of the menu, the cooks, the decor (apparently), etc. and she formerly ran a diner. Now it's more like a diner.

But I can't put my finger on why. There are booths in addition to tables; they're "nice", padded booths, but maybe that is part of it. They also took away the salad bar - one of the place's best features, claiming that salad bars were soon to be phased out in the county... uh, what? There are plenty of salad bars left here!

My fish was too thick and blah, the baked potato was waxy, the biscuits under the strawberry shortcake were hard.

The service was good, as always, but it just felt like a diner with diner food. Your thoughts on what makes a "good restaurant"?

 
In my opinion the best restaurants have a very limited menu with 6 to 8 appetizers,

6 to 8 main courses and 4 or 5 dessert choices. The menu should change with the seasons.

 
Friendly staff, prompt service, good dependable and consistent food, occasional additions to menu,

and high on the list is a manager who comes by the table to ask how everything is and actually CARES - will go out of his or her way to be sure you are happy.

 
A good restaurant is one that listens to long-time customers' feedback! smileys/wink.gif

Also:

-invests in quality ingredients and staff
-is still open 6-12 months after launching

 
There are many things I look for, but basically I feel that a good restaurant must know what it..

wants to be and excels at that level. I look at location and price point and then judge how well the establishment fits into those criterea.

 
In general. I won't even consider going to a restaurant during 1st 6 mos. of operation

It's just not fair. I mean, even when I get a new job, it takes 6 months to get in the groove of things. Now take 20+ people who have never worked together before and expect them to be fabulous. Not going to happen.

I went to a launch of a new restaurant and it was so bad. 3 courses took nearly 3 hours. Good thing there was plenty of wine. Even though I work in the restaurant biz, and have a deep understanding of all the things that can go wrong, I never went back on my own dime to figure out whether they got it together.

 
Now this wouldn't be a complaint for me.

In South Africa, when we went out to dinner, especially to a "good restaurant", we expected the meal to last the whole evening, so 3 hours for 3 courses sounds about right to me. We seldom go out to eat now, and one of the reasons is that we hate being rushed through our meal. It has been explained to me that this has to be done so that the servers can get more tips because they don't earn a living wage. Well, they don't get *any* tips from me now, because I don't go there. Maybe I'm just an old fogy. When we go out to eat now, it's just to eat, it doesn't work as a 'date night'.

 
Side dishes tailored to the entree. .

Not sauteed summer squash and carrots with garlic mashed for everybody

 
I agree, I like a slower pace too, but this was uncalled for--especially in a casual eatery.

If I'm at a fancy-pants resto, fine. I'll happily be there and enjoy the staff ballet, but at a casual place? No, I'd rather take a pass. I suppose I wouldn't mind if a) the food was delicious or b) if we didn't have to stop for burgers afterwards.

 
I do, but no matter how good or bad it is, I will always give it a second chance later

I'm aware there are always lots of kinks to work out.

 
If something goes wrong and the manager/waiter does not charge for the dish, I'll always go back.

Again, so much of the success of a restaurant is how it is managed and how much they care.

 
Agreed. I'd rather have a few good choices than a gazillion so-so offerings.

I just don't want to have to think that hard when reading a menu and making my selection. And usually a restaurant that has too many selections does not have a chance in heck of making them all well.

 
I think you have to back up a notch for that question. A "gourmet" is a person who...

...enjoys food with discrimination and appreciates the subtleties of fine ingredients, talented preparation and artful presentation.

So, I think practically any food that is made up of the best quality ingredients and prepared by a cook who can bring the dish together with every nuance attended to, and get it served in a manner pleasing to the eye becomes "gourmet" food.

My $.02.

Michael

 
I would say it is attention to the details. In this case, seasoning the fish properly, baking the

potatoes just so, making sure the shortcake is always fresh. It may require tossing out some potatoes and biscuits, but that's a small price to pay for happy customers.

You can tell so much about a restaurant just by the salad and bread. If the salad is soggy and the bread is doughy, I'm already turned off before the main course comes.

It sounds like this restaurant is cutting corners, thinking no one will notice.

 
LOL, we went the first weekend a new seafood place opened

The proprietors have another restaurant that we love so we were looking forward to the opening. It was so bad. They had one menu for the entire restaurant and apparently no one thought to go get a dry erase board while waiting for the menus to come in.

They sat us in at two round tables in the corner with no lighting so we had to take turns in the light to read the menu. They didn't have enough glass glasses so half our table had styrofoam cups. They also hadn't had the AC balanced yet, so the vent we were under was blowing full blast on us.

The food was very good, tho, and thankfully, they quickly got their act together and we have had lovely, well lit service in an ambient temperature, ever since.

We don't mind going at the beginning, and taking my lumps for it, since that first six months is do or die for most new places. If with each visit they aren't getting remarkably better (or the food is just bad) then we don't go back.

 
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