Lay it on the table
I liked reading this on Andrew Sullivan’s blog recently.
A classic from the NYT in the form of an open letter to the restaurant owner, Guy Fieri. Money quote:
Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret — a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers — called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson? …
Hey, did you try that blue drink, the one that glows like nuclear waste? The watermelon margarita? Any idea why it tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde? …
And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?”
It’s great to read a literate rant in a review section. It should happen more often. Crankiness is way more readable than gussied-up p.r.
In Zimbabwe, being the scared of any kind of criticism country that we are, I’m really tired of “gussied-up p.r.” masquerading as restaurant reviews. For the most part our country’s restaurants offer up uninspired and overpriced food. Our reviewers need to stop being polite and start saying it like it is and maybe our standards would improve.