What Makes A Good Restaurant?

Eating out is an expensive business, so we really want to be sure of a good experience. Sadly this doesn't always happen.

Well, what makes us choose a restaurant? the food of course, but what about the location? The surroundings, how far apart the tables are, how fine the services are, the staff in general, the atmosphere, and of course the price?

Restaurants of course have to make us wants to go there, whether it's for a quick lunch, dinner with friends, or special occasion meal. But what makes one better than another? Successful restaurants offer a seamless dining experience, we only notice what a good restaurant do so well when you experience the same thing going wrong in a bad restaurant.

For me, the fun part of eating out is the fact that it's an unhurried social experience, with plenty of time to interact with your dining companions. A good restaurant settings should be able to encourages relaxed conversation and enjoyment of  the foods and drinks. 

First, the restaurant needs to be appropriately busy and the tables need to be spaced far enough apart so we don't feel we're being eavesdropped in our conversation. But indeed, some restaurant are so keen to squeeze in as many diners as possible that makes us sit so close that we eventually could have joined their conversations.

Talking on noise, it's quite a personal choice but background music has such an ability to colors the atmosphere of an evening too.

Moving on to the services, again it's a question of balance. Usually, we'll notice more if it's bad. Good service is not self conscious, not fussy and not attentive. We don't want the waiter hovering around, being so anxious to interrupt on our single nod, but then again, we don't want to wait for over 20 minutes before we can get someone to bring another glass of tea. 

We don't want the staff to engage too much in our conversations or being ingratiating. I personally can't bear it when a staff or the proprietor comes out and pretends i'm his most loyal customers. It's a bit mean but it's true.

Well our number one complain actually is about the timing, the restaurant staff have a major effect on the success of an evening by getting the timing right or wrong. We of course want a gap between courses, but it's got to be right or things will feel hurried or drawn out. Restaurants has a frustrating habits of slowing things down, like it'd take half an hour just to order a coffee. 

The last is the most important aspect of experience with the restaurant. The food. Everyone have different matter of taste. But whatever the style, we tend to value simple cooking with good quality ingredients over fuzzy and over-elaborate food. 

Most chef mistakes novelty for innovation, mixing in bizarre combinations of flavors.We don't want our food to be too much or not enough. Some restaurants try to impress us with tiny, prettily dressed portions with large expanses of white plate, others go for opposite extreme fill as much as they can on the plate.Our plates should look "Just Fine".

Not many of us really care about this, but authenticity is a must, we don't want to eat a fake Italian stylized food with not genuine ingredients.  

Most of all, we want to go to a restaurant where the staff is passionate about food and whose primary goal is excellence, not making a fortune.

Image Courtesy : We Heart It (Fish Tacos and Summer Dishes)