Do you read restaurant reviews before eating out?

Restaurant reviews – we love and hate them and chefs are no different.

They love food writers when they write something nice about them and their food and hate them if they feel they have been treated unfairly.

I tend to read restaurant reviews, especially when I have been already to the eatery in question - just to see if I agree with the writer, but I get quite offended if a Cork restaurant has been slated.

Writing reviews is a big responsibility and shouldn’t be taken lightly. A lot of food bloggers – especially beginners – think they have to find faults and set standards that might not be achievable in the type of restaurant they have decided to review.

Also, food, service and ambience is a matter of personal taste.

Once I read a review that sounded angry and the reason was that a hen night was present at the restaurant while the reviewer was there (he was rather annoyed by the noise). That can’t be avoided and shouldn’t have been part of the review at all as chefs can’t turn away paying guests (this was during the economic downturn).

I was so offended that I wrote to the editor and asked him to let this particular writer only write about sport or the weather (I was angry when I wrote this) – it didn’t help that the chef and restaurant owner was a friend of mine!

A Killarney chef has banned food writers from his restaurant – not sure if he is doing himself any service as these writers are ignoring a good restaurant.

The relationship between chefs and food writers is a delicate one and needs to be cherished from both sides.

Some of my favourite food writers are Matthew Fort and Nigel Slater – both are excellent writers with very different styles. Both have soft styles, almost poetic at times – Nigel Slater doesn’t really write reviews while Matthew Fort does – but even negative reviews sound tender written by him.

I don’t enjoy writers with a sharp tongue I have to say – the pen is mightier than the sword is very true.

Writers and bloggers have a responsibility as a review can break or make a restaurant if it is based on a bad personal mood by the writer. Dishes should be judged on execution, presentation and flavour – for example if a dish contains aubergine but you don’t like aubergine, it would be unfair to slate the dish based on that alone.

Yet, it is very difficult to leave personal preferences out from a review as ‘normal’ diners would judge it based on their preferences as well but we do expect more from writers. A few years ago, I conducted a survey and asked how people choose a restaurant and the majority of people said that they trust a personal recommendation from family and friends more than any reviews by professional writers. And that’s the best recommendation a chef can get.