Now that the first Scrumptious Scran restaurant review has appeared on the blog, I thought I would just put up a wee post to explain my own approach to scoring the venues I have dined in. For each revue, I score them out of 10 in four areas:
- Food – let’s be honest, it’s the primary reason that most of us dine out.
- Atmosphere – The food itself could come from a kitchen with two Michelin Stars, but would you truly appreciate it when consumed in a freezing shipping container?
- Service – Not just about bringing food and drink to the table, but also about providing essential information on what is being served, and providing a welcoming dining experience.
- Value for money – Whether it’s simply a burger or an haute cuisine indulgence, if you pay over the odds for what is served, it is sure to take the shine off a meal when the bill finally comes.
I think that these categories are fairly sensible yardsticks by which to judge how good – or not – a dining experience is. Yet I also think anticipation and ambience has a lot to do with how a dining experience is perceived. After all, a casual pie and a pint after work with one’s mates is obviously going to be a different experience from that of going to a top end restaurant with one’s partner.
So I have decided to add a category, but not a score, identifying the venue’s “ambience” or, if you work in marketing, its “segment”. This helps to contextualise how the revue is framed and what it’s comparable to. Otherwise, I think it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges; or mangos and pomegranates… Well what sort of analogy were you expecting from a food blogger!