Restaurant Reviewer - Who I am

I never thought I'd be using my blog to review restaurants, but here we are. Over the past couple of months in the city of Toronto I have had some of the WORST service in my life, from all levels of restaurants. However that being said, today I am hoping that maybe things have turned around, and service is picking up. Twice now this week I have actually thanked my servers for not only being decent human beings, but for providing a service, which at the end of the day is why I am going to restaurants.

I have decided to blog about this so that maybe my experiences can make a difference. Whether it makes a difference in where you decide to eat tonight? Or maybe even with the restaurants themselves, if they actually give a sh*t that I am a paying customer who likes to spend money on food and service or that I talk to other paying customers who also like to spend money on food and service.

To start out, a little background information about me is only fair. I could simply be a raving lunatic looking for a forum. Who knows, maybe if you met me you WOULD think that...but I thought I would provide you with the following information, so that you can decide (if you've never actually met me) if you would actually care about what I have to say about dining. So, here are my qualifications as to why I think I should be allowed to review restaurants.

First - I LOVE food...adore FOOD...I can't explain how much I like to eat. Ask anyone who knows me. I HEART food. Good food, fast food, delicately flavoured foods, wafting aromas of food...garlic, salty, smooth, creamy, meaty, crunchy, sweet, textured, EVERYTHING...yummy yummy food. Note: I am not a huge SPICY fan, I don't mind a little spice, if it's backbone is FLAVOUR, but hot for the sake of burning your face off? No thanks. That being said, I do eat curries, Indian food and Mexican foods. Also, I will pretty much try anything once, AND if made to look and or sound wonderful, am willing to try something AGAIN that I didn't enjoy before, like soft goat cheese. As a side note: I had never been a fan of Swiss cheese, but now I put it in my sandwhich for lunch.

Second - I have worked in the restaurant industry, and I understand and appreciate the hard work put in by wait staff in restaurants. I don't think I was perfect, but I believe I appreciated and understood the paying customer and cared about my job, so I tried to provide my customers with the best experience I could. So in turn I do expect a basic level of service when dining out, from the kitchen staff to the hostess.

Third - I am a paying customer and I pay well for such service. I have and will always pay 15% if I get what I consider to be a basic level of service. To the extent that I will not sit down in a restaurant if I know I don't have access to enough cash to eat AND to tip (credit/debit card, cash, whatever). No, I'm not a warden, here is what I consider to be worth my 15%:
- greet me, seat me, take my drink order, take my meal order
- bring me my drink, bring me my meal
- check on me at least once...just in case I need something/want to spend more money/whatever
- clear the table & bring me my bill (heck...if I'm in a rush, you don't even have to clear the table before I leave)
- do this all without making me wait for an eternity between each step of the way
- treat me with respect (note: and I will do the same)

I consider the above basic level of service part of the cost of eating in a restaurant over and above the printed costs on a menu. There are many people that do not realize that almost all wait staff (in North America) DO NOT make the regular minimum wage, that their salaries are LESS than the lowest paid minimum wage worker, as restaurant industry minimum wage is indeed LESS per hour.

Needless to say, if I receive service above my basic level of expectation I will also tip above the 15%. And in reverse I have been known to tip LESS for receiving a lesser dining experience due to a lack of service. Please also note: I know that it's not always the servers fault, that a kitchen can ruin a servers evening, and that a drafty window (non-service related issues) has nothing to do with their service. I take this all into consideration...as a customer, it's easy to tell by opening your eyes and looking around to see if a kitchen sucks or if your waiter is just making excuses for their incompetence.

One last point of note...I find it interesting that even when we, as a society in general, get bad service...we still tip...even if we tip less...we still pay for this bad service. So if we are not complaining and are still tipping, how will anyone know that way they are doing is in any way bad, wrong, or unacceptable?

So...enjoy...as I start my journey of restaurant reveiwer...bear with me...it's a new venture for me. (But boy have I accumulated a lot to say in the past couple of weeks!)