Assignment #3 — Restaurant Review Guidelines and Tips

Due Date end of day 11/26/19 (10% will be deducted per day for late submission)

Total Mark: 25% of Final Grade

Brochettes with Hodo tofu, fingerling potatoes, yam, cherry tomatoes and cipollini onions ($28), served with a quinoa-dominant tabbouleh and roasted garlic cashew tahini sauce, is the only thing on the menu that doesn’t feel polished. Tabbouleh seems like a flower without petals when it’s as thin on mint and parsley as Greens’ version, and it seems strange for that particular element to be lacking in the dish when locally grown herbs are so prominent throughout the rest of the menu. The skewered part of the dish is also susceptible to the eternal struggle of vegetable kabobs: The various elements can be unevenly cooked, giving you both raw potato and mushy yam in the same bite. — Soleil Ho, The San Francisco Chronicle, October 3, 2019

Based on the examples we read and analysed in class, you will write a 500-600 word restaurant review, based on our dining experience. Some of you may want to pitch this idea to media outlets in the future, or use this as content for your blog. You may even want to use this as a caption for your Instagram post or Instastory. Maybe you want to do this for a living in the future. This is practice for that. Get your reviewer hat on!

Using the material we discussed in class, formulate your own opinions about the restaurant and the food. Think of this as a proposal or pitch to a local newspaper. Please refer to the Lesson Plan for the day to see guidelines for how to write a restaurant review and the dos and don’ts. Here is some guidance on what you should think about when penning your review:

1) Don’t be general, use specifics. Write about the ambiance of the restaurant—is it casual, formal, family-friendly, kid-friendly, good for a date? Which Toronto neighbourhood is the restaurant in? What is around it? “The restaurant was atop a building which overlooked fire engine-red street cars. From the window I could see women selling leafy green vegetables on the corner. This is the beauty of Chinatown.” Details, details, details!

2) What is the genre of food they are making? Remember to write respectfully about cuisine from a culture which may be different than your own, and avoid using words like “cheap eats”, “ethnic”, “exotic” or “authentic”, as discussed in class (you can refer to this piece by Soleil Ho). Write clearly about the food you ate or drank.

3) A review should be like a story: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Remember, you want to connect with your readers, and if you are writing for a media outlet, a magazine or an e-zine, they want you to captivate the attention of their readers. Write in a way that is engaging, and similar to the way you would speak to a friend. Get personal.

4) As always, show, don’t tell. As Anton Chekhov said, Don't Tell Me the Moon Is Shining; Show Me the Glint of Light on Broken Glass. Describe the table, the plants (if any) the colour of the uniforms worn by the servers, the dish, the saffron pudding you ordered, for example is it egg-yolk yellow, like the sun in your hometown?

5) Use your 5 senses to describe the dish: How did it taste? How did it feel in your mouth or on your hands? Was there a crunch? How did it smell? What did it look like? (taste, touch, sound, smell, sight.)

6) Find and use your own voice—be honest and natural, write like you are talking to a friend, or a confidante. Convey your feelings.

7) Talk about the price point, but respectfully, and refrain from calling a place a “cheap eat” (again, refer to Soleil Ho’s article in the SF Chronicle, and the Lesson Plan from the day).

8) Talk about the “why”, as we discussed in class. Why would someone else want to eat there? What was special about it? Did you feel it was not worth the time and money you spent? Respectfully share what you think was wrong with the place. Remember, reviewers like Soleil Ho and AA Gill have also written negative reviews; reviews will not always be stellar. But to do it with care, respect and humility, that is what makes you a good restaurant reviewer, and writer in general. Give specifics, don’t write, “the steak was awful”. Use descriptors, “the steak was overcooked; it should have been candy-pink from inside, since I ordered medium-rare. However, it was a muddy brown and too chewy to eat.”