Ratings
Ratings Used on Messy Cuisine
When reviewing something, we can compare a lot of qualities. Most valuable, I think, are the descriptions and details about we experienced. We also attempt to quantify the experience with two ratings, looking at price and value.
Dining Experience Rating
Like a newspaper or magazine review, we give a “star” rating to restaurants, on a 5-point scale.
The 5-star rating is reserved for truly exceptional dining experiences. Things for a 5-star just go “right,” looking at great service and excellent food quality and presentation at the restaurant’s price level. We will award 5 stars for exceptional meals, no matter the price-level of the establishment.
A 4 is a good restaurant. They serve excellent food and match it with great service. There will be moments of the experience, however, that leave room for improvements. Both “4”s and “5”s are at the top of the heap!
A 3 rating is reserved for so-called typical restaurants. These are the places we choose to go as regular customers. They may not offer anything special, but they do have some favorite dishes we come back for, and the service is good to great.
This restaurant was a disappointment. It lacked something either because of food quality, service, or both. While your experience may vary, we wouldn’t recommend on coming back to this place.
This is our lowest rating, reserved for restaurants that we’d never dream of returning to. Something so bad happened that we can’t recommend it to anyone. To be fair, some of our restaurants are only reviewed after one visit—so take our warning with a “grain of salt.” While some places simply have a bad day, we also use this rating as sparingly as our “5.”
Price/Value Rating
We reserve three levels to denote the price and value of a restaurant.
We use this symbol to denote the most expensive restaurants. We don’t use hard rules to say that the average entrée price must be over $25, but this level includes places where a final bill for 2 may range from $90-250. This includes celebration locations and the like.
This mid-level rating is given to restaurants where the prices are average, and typical. Final bills for parties of 2 will fit between $35-85. These can still be nice places reserved for special occasions, but aren’t ulta-premium when it comes to price.
We use this rating for the cheaper establishments… an entire meal for 2 may hover around $15-20, or go as high as around $30. Please note that when this symbol is used in conjunction with a high-star rating, a real value is awaiting the next visitor.