Restaurant opinions - what's your criteria? [General]

2012 Jul 24
Just out of curiousity, what is everyone's weighting of criteria when they patronize an eating establishment?

How does decor, food value, service staff attitude or ethics weigh in on one's opinion of a place? For instance, if an establishment has excellent food value and service, how far would one go to over-look their decor?

What would your rating be out of 100? And then anything over 75 pts would be worth patronizing?

decor/ambiance - 20 pts?
service - 20 pts?
food value - 20 pts?
ethics - 20 pts? (ie supports local growers or a particular political opinion)
food originality - 20 pts?

For me, if a place has a nice ambiance and ethics, could overlook the food value. Alternatively, if a place has extremely rude service, no matter how good the food is, I would not go back.

2012 Jul 24
I like the Zagat rating method where they rate food, service and ambiance separately. If a place has an excellent food rating, but not so hot on service or ambiance I would probably still choose it for a quick lunch but maybe not for a date. I'm not always eating out for the same reason, so look for different features at different times.

2012 Jul 24
service, then food, then ambience...

definetly in that order, however, im more likely to try a place again if the food was ok, than if the service was only ok...

2012 Jul 24
Decor only seems to matter to me when it is really bad - like the post-fire Siam Bistro with a row of tables down each side and no privacy whatsoever. But I guess that depends on the sort of place I am visiting and how much the food costs. If it is a higher end place I expect more. Lower end, not so much.

Wait staff don't need to go out of their way to be friendly, but they should be attentive. I've had wait staff too friendly and it gets clingy. Had a great experience on Canada day at a place on Sparks - is it called Tuesday's maybe? The waiter was very attentive - was on top of our needs but was not in our faces and invading our privacy.

Really for me it is cost/value and the food itself. Ethics I would not rate on because I'd have a good idea going into a place whether or not they were serving anything local. If they were not and I went in there in the first place it was for another reason.

And service is a close 2nd.

2012 Jul 24
The reason why I ask this is because of the Chick-fil-A story. Can a place that has such a strong political stance survive? Do people really care about a restaurant's ethics if it is clean, the food is fairly priced and the service is nice? I just wonder how far people will go before they decide not to patronize an establishment.


2012 Jul 24
re:Chick Fil-A - when a restaurant takes such a polarizing political stance, there will likely be customers on both sides of the issue. Politics doesn't usually come into it when I'm deciding where to eat, but most restaurateurs don't advertise their political ideology. In the case of Chick Fil-A, they have proudly stated that they are "guilty as charged" and give money to fight causes that I believe in and work for. I can not therefore patronize them. I'm not sure I would feel the same if they simply took a position that disagreed with mine, but when they are funding their fight, and as much as daring me not to eat their crap chicken, I'm going to their competition.

Here is a video from someone who is fighting back by showing you how to make their sandwich at home LOL.


2012 Jul 24
I care about a restaurants ethics and the causes that they support. Which in essence I end up contributing to based upon spending my money in that restaurant.
It would be a hot January day in Iqualit before I spend any money at Chick Fil-A.

If I know a restaurant (or store/business) engages in discriminatory practices or unethical business practices, then yes I will, in general not patronize that business. Mind you, I was involved in organizing the Coke boycott on US Campuses in the early 80's and I have not eaten Domino's Pizza since then either.

If a local restaurant displays a campaign sign for a candidate that I don't agree with or hosts a political event for that party, I figure that is their choice and has nothing to do with me. But if a corporation funnels $$$$$ of corporate profits into funding discriminatory groups, then heck yes, that is my business.


2012 Jul 25
Yes I care about a business's ethics too, but what I was saying is that this won't go into a rating for the place like 20% or whatever. Because it will be a major factor in whether or not I'll go in the door in the first place. So if I'm in there at all, it does not make sense to use that in a rating. Not sure if you get what I mean.

2012 Jul 25
If I know the restaurant is promoting something I find ethically or morally against my own beliefs, I won't eat there. There is no 20% mark. I don't care how special or great their food is, there are an equal number of restaurants that will have equally good food elsewhere.


2012 Jul 25
Not necessarily in this order:

1) food
2) food
3) food

A lot of the other negative factors like ambience, decor, and service can be mitigated by take out.

As for any objectionable politics, that's just bad business and a simple deal breaker.

2012 Jul 25
Food
Food
Food
Service
Cleanliness
Ambience/decor/'look'/noise-level
Location/parking

On the ethics point, i'm a lazy absolutist. It would take a hell of a position on something for me to forego a restaurant entirely, ie: Chik-fil-A, but i don't make a habit of actively checking the associations of every place i eat and those of its execs and employees.

2012 Jul 25
I love Chick-Fil-A's food, although it's been years , literally, since I've had any. My travels usually take me by them on Sunday, when they are closed.

For a long time, I wouldn't eat at Cracker Barrel, because of rumors of similar discrimination against the LBGTQ community. But they didn't go as public about it then as Chick Fil A has now, and I did eat there a few times to warm up on a cold day, or when I was pregnant and craving their stuff.

Now since I don't travel in the US nearly as much as I used to, both of these restaurants hardly matter to me any more. But I also won't go out of my way to find either or eat at them.

As for my ratings, USUALLY I go

1) service
2) value for quality of food
3) ambience

Bad service? I don't care HOW good the food is, I won't be back. Too expensive for what you get? Won't be back either.

2012 Jul 27
Agree with all of the previous posts on ethics. Even without the funding piece, if a business takes an political or ethical position with which I disagree, they'll lose my business; I'm not prepared to support an organisation that publicly espouses views with which I'm in disagreement.

I can live with mediocre service more easily than I can live with mediocre food, so for me it's in this order:

- Ethics (assuming that this is a moot point until and unless the restaurant takes an ethical position on a topic, and therefore while the most important point, rarely actually in play)
- Food
- Service
- Ambience

Here's me now desperately hoping that John Taylor doesn't out himself as a warmongering anti-gay right wing nutbar, it would kill me not to be able go to his restaurants!