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What makes a Restaurant Great
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| It is never easy to judge an aesthetic experience (broadly speaking of an experience "of the senses") without going back into the easy binomial "I like it/I do not like it". In a field as the wine and food one, then, it may be even more difficult, because experiences of the palate are literally limited by personal taste. Here are then, a few fundamental criteria that must be kept in mind when evaluating a restaurant. |
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First of all food: the choice of the raw materials must be very rigorous: freshness and genuineness. An educated and trained palate immediately senses poor quality of foods. Then you must evaluate human factors: practically taking for granted technical skills, selection and performances which are for all chefs the true test of their talents, which becomes concrete in the enogastronomical offer that makes the numbers in a restaurant. Obviously these skills are influenced by the variable weight of creativity andloyalty towards traditions that you'll obtain, moving along the line included these last two extreme points, a cuisine which is more or less characterized by the chef's personality, and is placed within good habits. It is clear that in order to feel a true emotion a dish must be characterized by calibrated and harmonious ingredients: you need but a little to "play a false note".
Obviously, an important place is occupied by the wine chart. A restaurant that wants to be of a certain level, must have a cellar where the best names in both the national and foreign wine-making, as well as labels within everybody's means. From here, the growing importance that the sommelier is acquiring, his role decisive and essential as much as the chef's.
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SERVICE AND LITTLE ATTENTIONS |
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Besides genuineness and choice of products, ideal fulcrum of a good kitchen, several factors rotate that weigh in a more or less consistent measure in the evaluation. Among these the >dining room, reception and service are those that are most important. We do not mean here the elegance and the refinement of the dining room, but the fact that the customer may feel at ease in a pleasant room. This means a comfortable temperature (it is difficult to taste a dish with cold feet), tables not crowded and apart from each other (the customer likes his own privacy), breathable air (smokers will forgive us).
The room personnel, then, makes the difference. It is important that the service be characterized by cordiality, without falling into intrusiveness, by sobriety and by promptness in answering to the customers needs.
Last but not least, are details and the minor attentions toward the patrons that complete the picture of a pleasant evening. More and more the welcoming (which is more and more appreciated) the aperitifs and the hors d'oeuvre offered before starting the meal, the sorbets between two important dishes, the pastries that complement either the coffee or the liqueurs. The possibility, then, to choose from a list of distillates the liqueur that we best prefer, a herbal drink or tea, or being able to appreciate a rare Jamaican coffee, undoubtedly represents a bonus.Then,the quality/price relation becomes insignificant. Certainly, basic quality food is expensive, professionalism and the service too, but it needn't be that one has to pay a very high price for a meal in an excellent restaurant.
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