Dining Out Rules
- Customer traffic is important. Even if a restaurant has good food, consistently low traffic during peak lunch and dinner hours can sometimes be a concern. Steady customer turnover generally helps ensure better food rotation, freshness, and overall consistency.
- When exploring different cuisines, I’ve found that some of the best experiences often come from restaurants serving the communities and cultures they represent. Don’t be afraid to venture outside your comfort zone or beyond the trendiest neighborhoods.
- Be mindful of established restaurants that rely heavily on Groupon deals or constant deep discounts. While promotions can be a useful way for newer businesses to build awareness, long-running restaurants that frequently depend on steep discounts may sometimes be struggling with consistency, reputation, or customer retention.
- Pay attention to overall cleanliness and maintenance. While no restaurant is perfect, details like dining areas and restrooms can sometimes reflect how much care is being put into the operation as a whole.
- Expensive does not always guarantee a better meal. Location alone can significantly affect pricing, as rent and operating costs vary widely across the city. For example, a bowl of pho at a restaurant inside the Loop in a prime location will naturally cost more than pho served outside Beltway 8, where overhead tends to be lower.
- Quality versus quantity. Know the target audience of a restaurant and adjust expectations accordingly. While quality is ultimately subjective and dependent on personal taste, simple economics still apply. Grade A cuts of beef generally cannot be served at the same price point as a McDonald’s combo meal. Inexpensive buffets, for example, are often designed around value and volume rather than premium ingredients.
When prices seem unusually low, it’s fair to consider where those savings are coming from — whether that’s ingredient sourcing, portion quality, staffing, or overall operating costs. At the end of the day, there’s a cost to everything.
- Extremely cheap happy hour menus can sometimes prioritize value over quality, though there are certainly exceptions.
- Every restaurant has an off day — even some of my favorites around town. Whether it’s a poorly prepared dish, less-than-fresh food, or disappointing service, one bad experience doesn’t always tell the full story. In most cases, I believe restaurants deserve at least two visits before being written off completely.
- Online reviews can be helpful, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.
- Be civil to the waitstaff and always tip appropriately. Hospitality work is demanding, and a little kindness and patience goes a long way.