Yes, and one that temps the response: Those who can’t do (any better), review.
Feel the same way and I’m reluctant to give a negative review unless it was a service issue that was just inexcusable. Even then I usually just move on with no review. There are a lot of people that love resturants I find marginal food wise
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I started skimming after a couple of paragraphs and then stopped entirely. Just too much. It would probably make me WANT to go there 
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I’m with you- how can something be THIS bad?
However, if you read MoL on a regular basis you will find she raves about as many places as she pans. What makes her reviews so good (apart from the quality of her writing) is that you can see she really understands good food, she appreciates great cooking and ingredients and so when she is negative it comes from a position of established credibility.
If you read her reviews on a regular basis you would see that she does understand food, cooking and restaurant dining. But even with those qualities, without her fine writing skills, and wit she wouldn’t be a successful food critic for the Guardian. Much like Jay Rayner in the Observer (the related newspaper) they are first and foremost great writers with a wonderful turn of phrase, and a deep love and knowledge of food.
To be a critic you don’t need to play like Hendrix or sing like Bieber to have a valid and insightful opinion.
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I don’t know Marina’s professional background (not least as she now writes under an assumed name) but Rayner was a successful journalist before taking the job of restaurant reviewer. I think it gives him a writing edge over some others who are not professional wordsmiths.
From my experience, and IMO, popular TV chefs often have less than great restaurants…especially the more mainstream and loved TV celebs. And it seems to me there is a correlation with whose restaurant empires grew after TV stardom rather than before i.e. compare Ramsay to Oliver or Stein to Roux, or Wallace to Wareing.
I love Tony Singh on TV and had expected him to run a very authentic modern Indian. Disappointed but not surprised to hear about this one.
Agreed. I really enjoy James Martin on TV and he cooks the sort of food I like eating. But his Manchester restaurant was only so-so. And the desserts were particularly disappointing, not least as his backgound was as a pastry chef. Of course, he doesnt actually cook there and like others, it’s just a name over the door.
Long ago and near to you, I took music courses taught by an esteemed critic for the London Times. The man could play with the best of them, and knew all of the major English composers, from Elgar to Britten.
I’m not seeing comparable authorities in food criticism.
Oh, I agree with you about TV chefs and restaurants. I’m not super familiar with the British celeb. chefs so I didn’t realize this guy was from TV. Even still, 1/10 for food blows my mind a bit.
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I suggest different things require different skills to critic or review (apart from the universal beed for excellent writing skills). Some require great technical insight, others are an appreciation of the end result.
I assume classical music requires a high degree of insight as well as an appreciation of the end result to critic well. However, I note at least two of the UK’s famed classical music critics of recent years, Edward Greenfield and Michael Kennedy were not musicians (from their recent obituaries)…I wonder what percentage of esteemed music critics are accomplished musician and how many are not…?
I would argue the criticism of food requires a good understanding of what it should taste like, an understanding of the end result of cooking techniques and a palate that is broad enough to appreciate lots of different foods Does the critic need to be able to cook it - I think not.
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…of what it should taste like,
does this not imply - were it perfectly implemented - we would still be eating exactly the same preparation(s) as in the 1x00’s?
it needs to taste good, and as the cost goes up - more gooder. here’s the problem: there is no accounting for taste. you can take a vegetarian to the best steak house in the universe and they will pan the place because the salad was so bad…
some people dislike fish. some people dislike organ meats. it does not matter if a 20 star chef prepares the liver&onion - there’s a lot of people who will never like it.
there’s stuff I have a very low appreciation for - a slice of fruit topped by two cups of nitrogen blasted mini-micro-beaded watermelon foam just does not excite me, for example. it may be a wonderful / spectacular / you can’t do this at home technical feat, but as in so many other industries / endeavors, making it different does not mean it’s better.
I’d also mention, a fair number of celebrity chefs could open a branded fast food joint and do equally as well as those with multiple restaurants. we’ve been to Lagasse’s Delmonico / NOLA, the LV Steakhouse, and the LV Fish House. His LV Steakhouse was not worth the drive to get there from the strip - the Delmonico was outstanding, and the Fish House (more casual dining than ‘fine’ dining) also excellent. Bobby Flay’s LV Mesa Grill, although not overly expensive - was awful. very poorly prepared food slung by surly staff - from the front door to the busboy who insisted on cleaning off the table while we had to hold our coffee cups in the air… Thomas Keller’s NYC Per Se recently took one in the chops - and prepping for a vacation I spent weeks trying to get in touch with The French Laundry with a reservation inquiry - no response to phone calls (if they even answered) emails or snail mail. while there is no accounting for taste, some places are over-living their reputation.
Restaurants are run by humans, and I understand that not every dish can be absolutely perfect, and that every chef/server can have an off night, or that there’s a million factors involved in a mediocre experience for a diner, so I tend to be extremely forgiving of ‘meh’ experiences, especially when something’s prepared and served exactly like it’s meant to be but it’s just not to my tastes. I never complain about little quibbles or errors, or get angry at servers for things that are kitchen mistakes, etc.
When I go to the trouble of publicly criticizing a restaurant is when there’s major errors that I bring up to the restaurant and they refuse to admit that it’s an error. I posted an angry review once on CH about a local place who didn’t serve all of the food we ordered, served things bizarrely incorrectly, and essentially screwed up our meal, and the server got huffy and impatient with us when we complained. The restaurant saw my review, contacted me privately, and apologized & refunded me. That was very much an outlier.
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To succeed in the service business, your mantra has to be; “I don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.”
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Yep. We really wanted this place to be better than ‘meh.’ It didn’t have to be REALLY good. I’m glad I asked this question.
Well, LOL, then we’re all critics.
And the vegetarian sommelier can carry on.
For me its easy to write a review if a place was excellent or terrible but harder if it was in the middle or meh. I have been striving to be much more descriptive and less emotional in my reviews and try to nail down exactly why I liked or did not like something. So less of “the dish was amazing” or “the dish was terrible” and more of “the use of ginger elevated the flavor of the fresh fish” or “the dish lacked flavor compared to other versions I have tried”. BUT, its much harder to write those reviews so I have been writing much fewer reviews lately.
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I don’t think it’s fair to write a negative review about a restaurant based on a single visit, but since I’m not paid to be a restaurant critic it’s highly unlikely that I’ll return to a restaurant that I didn’t lke on the first visit just to see if it’s really as bad as I thought it was. If someone asks me about a place I’ll give my opinion, but if I’ve only had one experience there I’ll add that as a disclaimer. I’d much rather share places that I like than bash places that I don’t.
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It’s funny - I agree about the “one visit” thing but oddly I’m not sure I’m so reluctant to post if I had a single great experience . . . I mean the great experience could have been as much of an anomaly as the single bad experience. I’ll have to think about that for me . . .
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