October 12, 2008

  • Restaurants

    I love eating great food, so I go to nice restaurants all the time. I usually try to take pics and write about my dining experiences because I've noticed that I just can't trust the Zagat, Tripadvisor.com, or most other online food reviews. I think it's because different people look for different things when it comes to dining. I was a bit irritated when I read that Nobu Malibu and Melisse were the top LA restaurants in the most recent Zagat, when they really aren't all that great. I've reviewed them in the past. I really want to give Melisse another try, and maybe I will some day, but I know that Nobu Malibu just isn't good enough to ever return to.

    When I go to a restaurant, I look for these things in this order starting with the most important- 1. Food flavor, presentation, and freshness. 2. Service 3. An extensive/creative cocktail/wine menu 4. Restaurant Ambiance/Decor. 5. I also expect most fine dining restaurants to have flexible menus to accommodate my picky date's requests. A well balanced tasting menu option is also a huge plus because I absolutely love not having to think about what to order sometimes. It's a nice way to sample the chef's bests, and I like the idea of trusting an expert to satisfy my appetite. 5. Price doesn't affect the way a judge a restaurant the way that I've seen in other reviews because I know that you do have to pay a bit more for the ambiance and location of some places. Most of the time a nice place gets bashed because a person is automatically turned off by the prices of a place. I know that most reviews will have no value to me, if they knock the price of a restaurant right off the bat. I'm not saying that it's alright to waste money on food, if you don't think it's worth it. I've been to enough great restaurants to know what's exceptional and what's not. There are plenty of joints that just aren't up to par with what I would label as fine dining. I just don't go into a restaurant thinking that "it's too expensive" and that "it better be worth the price", like I've noticed in the attitudes of many reviewers.

    I'll be posting some of my thoughts about the restaurants that I've been going to. Mainly because I've been going to so many that I tend to forget some of my favorite dishes at certain places.