Writing a Restaurant Review
The job of a food reviewer is to accurately convey the taste, texture, smell, and presentation of a restaurant's food. You not only comment on the food but also on the atmosphere, staff knowledge and attentiveness, the speed of service, the general impression of the restaurant or cafe. A great food review puts the reader at your table with you, allowing them to decide whether or not they want to visit the restaurant when they're done reading.
Do some background researchfirst. Once you've had your meal and taken your notes, take a little time to see what the restaurant's history is. These kind of details are a great way to add some color to your review. For example, you might find that the head chef trained in France or used to work at another well-loved restaurant in the area, and you can use these connections to make people interested in the food.
- Start by reading the restaurant's website. Look up the owner and executive chef to get an idea of their training, style, and past ventures.
Open your review with a compelling hook. The first sentence of the review should make people want to read more. Remember, you are giving them a reason to either spend their money at this restaurant or skip ahead to another spot, but you're also trying to get them to read your writing. Some tips for a good hook include:
- Promise a story or surprise, such as "it may have taken a while to get to my mouth, but I've found the best paella on the planet." Make sure, however, that you deliver on the promise later!
- Give an interesting, tangential fact, like "Chef Zurlo only started cooking 2 years ago, yet she's quickly risen through the ranks to operate Oakland's best new bagel shop."
- Describe a particularly captivating or compelling part of the ambiance, good or bad, like a great view or a funny smell from the kitchen.
Describe 3-5 dishes that you sampled, not all of them. No one wants to read a laundry list of foods, so pick the foods that made the greatest impression on you (good or bad) and focus your writing on these dishes. Don't just say if they were good or bad. Strive to give details and reasons, naming each specific dish. As an outline, you should try and talk about the following three things in every food review:
- Presentation: How'd the dish look when it arrived, and how did it make you feel? Excited? Hungry? Like royalty? Like you were in your family's kitchen again?
- Taste: The big, obvious one, but that is only because it is so important. Use descriptive language, metaphor, and simile to put your reader in your shoes, or mouth. Name spices or flavors when you can.
- Texture:This usually includes cooking process as well. Did it melt in your mouth? Was it still hot when it arrived? Was it juicy and tender or tough and brittle? Were their multiple textures (such as something soft with a crunchy crust), and did they work well together?
Use big, colorful adjectives when writing. Remember that, above all, you're selling the experience here, not just the food. Feel free to get poetic with your writing in places, using 1-2 well-placed adjectives to let the reader know exactly what they should expect at the restaurant. You can think of it, in some ways, as the short story of your trip -- give details and colorful additions that make the restaurant stand out and feel unique.
- This includes the atmosphere, the surface, and the location. The more specific details, the better. Try for one good detail about every interaction/part of the restaurant.
Think about a restaurant's intentions, not just your personal preferences. A good food review is about helping other people find the restaurant, not just a platform to tell everyone your likes and dislikes. For example, if you go to a restaurant with retro art on the walls and roller skating dancers, it is not fair to judge the restaurant for specializing in burgers and fries instead of oysters. A good reviewer is as unbiased as possible, evaluating the restaurant as a whole.
- What kind of atmosphere are they going for here? Do they pull it off?
- How do your preferences match the restaurants? If you hate seafood, but that is the restaurant's specialty, you may want to tone down the negative reviews of the salmon or tell your readers that you aren't generally a fan of fish.
Final Restaurant Review will be typed and printed using Pages Newsletter template “Today’s News”.
Must include:
-Restaurant Review Title and written by “your name”
-One photo of restaurant
-I-2 photos of food items you are writing about.
DUE: April 10
Presentations that week. (2-3 min summary)