ottawa foodies

Ok, so we all love to eat. But do we all have a "yardstick" by which we judge a new restaurant? An expectation, where the place has to hit a certain "mark" to keep us impressed?

In general I'm really into service. As I've said before, my 3 pillars are atmosphere, food and service. And for whatever reason, service will win me out everytime.

That and clean bathrooms. LOL, God knows that if more restaurants paid more attention to their bathrooms, they could keep more customers coming back, even if the food was just average.

Do you have a "marker" for certain kinds of restaurants?

When it comes to Italian, "The Man" makes his decision on a restaurant based on the veal, I make it on the Caprese Salad.

Honestly, it's all about the food for me. I can withstand the majority of service issues, but if my meat is over-cooked, or my fish dry, I assume the person in the kitchen either doesn't care, ot doesn't know what they're doing. Yeah, maybe my "yardstick" is the fish; if the shrimp is rubbery, and the salmon is sawdust, I know there's problems. When it comes to Italian, for me, it's not the veal, it's the pasta, particularly the sauce. If a restaurant that claims to be Italian can't make a better pasta than I can at home, then it's very very difficult for me to justify spending my money there. I'm a particular stickler for red sauce; so few restaurants can make a decent, rich, deep, umami, tomato sauce.

Atmosphere, service, clean bathrooms, etc, are very nice to have but I'm willing to overlook them if the food is really good and/or really cheap. So for me, it's all about food quality and value.

My "yardstick" varies depending on type of cuisine. I typically order my favourite foods at a new restaurant and see how they turn out. How strictly I apply my yardstick is a direct function of the prices on the menu...

I'm like F-i-H, it's all about the food. Although, the more I pay, the more polished I expect the service to be. I do not care about atmosphere whatsoever, I've eaten in holes all over the world and I've had some of the best food in literal mud shacks.

For breakfast I judge a diner breakfast by the potatoes....bad potatoes=bad breakfast. For Indian food I guess Butter Chicken....I consider it the "gateway drug" of Indian food...that's how I got my extremely picky younger sister into eating it.
Sometimes at a nicer place I will use the butter knife test. Once at Social (during the reign of Benitz)we took the pork tenderloin special and tried to cut it with a butter knife, turned cutting edge up and cut off a piece. It passed the test...it was that tender.
Service is important, and it is something I take particular note of since I go a lot of places alone.
Those are my yardsticks.

Like FF said, it's all dependent on what kind of restaurant you're going to. If it's, say, Kelsey's-level, all I ask for is that the fries are crisp and not soggy. If it's, say, Beckta-level, you'd better believe I want smiles on faces, food that's cooked well, and a knowledgeable sommelier.

If my tounge has an orgasm, I'm happier than a pig in poop !!

Food quality and value for my dollar first and foremost. Surroundings and service count more if I'm paying for it in the cost of my meal - Momomoto summed this up nicely. I will say nothing irritates me more than paying "Beckta" prices and receiving "Kelsey's" quality :P

To add Food Is Hot's comment:

I absolutely agree, especially about fish, but how about this experience:

2 friends and I went to Bella's on Richmond Road (this was several years ago--I have no idea how good it is now--but we liked it then). 1 friend ordered a salmon steak or fillet and the server asked him which side of pasta he would like. Of course he requested a cream sauce-based pasta, but when it came, it was sided with a bolognese! The fish was perfect, but there was no way he was going to eat it with a meat sauce side, so he sent the plate back. The server behaved as if he had "changed his mind", not that she'd gotten it wrong. But get this:

When the plate came back 10 minutes later, it came back WITH THE SAME FISH. It had sat under the salamander until the new sauce was ready (or something). I urged him to return it, but he chose to eat it, since my other friend and I had long since finished ours and were on track to go to a movie or something.

Whether that food error was the cook's or the server's, or both (when I was a waitress I would have insisted the chef provide a new piece of fish), Bella's lost customers that day, and it appears to have been permanent. We've never been back.