Elements of a Restaurant Review

Just like you used specific details in your Personal Narrative Essay, for the Restaurant Review Essay, describe the foods and restaurant using specific, sensory details!

The following list of elements may be considered, described, and evaluated when reviewing a restaurant:

Restaurant Elements

  • Location: Was it in a convenient location? Easy to access?
  • Parking: Was it a struggle to find a place to park?
  • Exterior: Did the restaurant’s building impress?
  • Crowds: Should diners expect to wait for seating?
  • Cleanliness
  • Comfort: Did the tables and seating make you feel comfortable? Awkward?
  • Atmosphere: Themed? Engaging? Appealing? Utilitarian? Boring?
  • Decor: Did the decorations match the restaurant’s mood?
  • Entertainment: Was there music, a TV, a live band, DJ, or dancing? Was the music or TV programming appropriate?

Menu Elements

  • Variety: What dishes seemed to be most popular? Does it have any signature dishes it is known for? Was there a wide variety to pick from?
  • Design and Layout: Was the menu organized well? Was it compelling or boring?
  • Pricing: Were the prices clear?
  • Descriptions: Were there adequate descriptions of the dishes?
  • What was available? Appetizers? Drinks? Desserts?
  • Were the menu’s offerings adventurous? Comforting? A mix of both? Was it wide-ranging, focused, or well-thought-out?

Food Elements

  • Proper Naming: Before dining, try to find the restaurant’s menu online. Try to choose the best items for your review. Then, use the proper title of the dish in your review, if it has one. For instance, if “a classic lasagna” is more a description of the dish than a title, the first letters wouldn’t be capitalized. However, “Lasagna Classico” would be capitalized, if that was the (proper noun) title of the dish. Also, you must spell and style the name of the restaurant properly. If you dare to review McDonald’s — and forget that apostrophe and the capital “D” — I’ll send it back! (Come on, guys! Live a little!)
  • Quality: Fresh? Frozen? Stale? Healthy? Did it leave you feeling better after dining? Refreshed? Sickened?
  • Quantity: Were you full afterward? Did you have leftovers? Was it worth it? (Gentlemen, FYI: There is more to a restaurant than how much food you get.)
  • Nutrition: Healthy choices? Did they have options for those on restricted diets?
  • Temperature: Were hot foods served warm? Were cold foods chilled?
  • Wait: Was the wait time appropriate?
  • Your Order: Describe what you ordered (and, to an extent, your party ordered). Choose carefully so you’ll have representative dishes to comment on, and so you’ll have lots to describe. (A student once went to a landmark BBQ restaurant and ordered… a stack of pancakes. After his first draft’s feedback, he went back to try the barbecue.) Did you ask them to customize your meal? Was the dish prepared as you asked?
  • Sensory Details: Don’t say it was “a fantastic meal.” “Delicious” just means “good.” Tell us why it was fantastic. What made it delicious? Find a thesaurus, and using engaging vocabulary, think creatively about what your readers can look forward to at this restaurant.
  • Taste: Flavorful? Bland? Varied? Complex? This is an important aspect of the Restaurant Review Essay. Try to articulate what the specific flavors are, in far more specific detail than “delicious.” Try to capture the experience of the foods using sensory details. What stands out about each dish? Try to include at least one adjective for each major component of the dish. For example, meats can be fried, deep-fried, blackened, slow-roasted, or grilled over an open flame. They may be dry, tough, tender, rich, greasy, or unctuous. They may be bland, flavorful, savory, plain, smokey, or “sweet.”
  • Textures: Crisp, tender, juicy, tough, crunchy, or what? Do the textures blend? Do they contrast nicely? Unpleasantly?
  • Preparation: Many critics opt to describe (1) the cooking techniques, (2) the appearance of the foods on the plate, or they simply list either (3) the specific ingredients or, more broadly, (4) the major components of the dish. Pick an approach.
  • Experience: Were the dishes easy to eat? Difficult? Confusing? Did you eat with your hands? Were there several forks to choose from? Chopsticks? Offer some tips for future diners — your readers! Was it comforting and relaxed eating there? Or surprising and exciting? Was it a clash of textures and flavors? Or was it all “one note” — in a comforting way? Or boring?
  • Presentation: How was the food served? What did it look like? What aromas do you remember? Were there side dishes served alongside the entree? What were they? What extras or sauces came with the dish? What about drinks? What did all of those look like?

Service Elements

  • Appropriate: Was the service appropriate to the kind of restaurant it was? Was a “quick service” restaurant fast and efficient? Describe what kind of restaurant it is and if it met expected service levels:
    • Fine Dining: Elegant, upscale restaurants with attentive service.
    • Casual Dining: Family-friendly, sit-down dining, like Applebee’s, Chili’s, or Olive Garden.
    • Fast-casual: Cafeteria style, like Chipotle, Costa Vida, Subway, or Panera Bread.
    • Quick Service Restaurants: Fast food (“QSR”), like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell. (Warning: It may be challenging to find enough to say about many larger QSR chains. Local landmark QSR’s may be a great little adventure, though!).
    • Buffet: Self-service restaurants, where diners fill their plates themselves from an array of available dishes and drinks.
    • Of course, there are many other kinds of restaurants, with different levels of service expected: Teppanyaki and Sushi bars (very high!), Steakhouse and Brasserie (formal), Bistro and Cafés (casual), Pizzerias and Food trucks (little to none?).
  • Kindness: Was the waitstaff kind?
  • Helpful: Did they explain any questions you asked? Daily specials?
  • Speed: Was the wait appropriate for the type of restaurant?
  • Consistency: Did they frequent the table to provide drink refills, more breadsticks, etc.?

Value Elements

  • Cost: How much was the meal?
  • Price: Was the price reasonable for what you received?
  • Amounts: Big, filling meals? A nice snack? Did you leave satisfied, or hungry and disappointed?
  • Tips: Are tips expected? No? Are tips requested when not expected?
  • Comparison: How did this restaurant compare to others within the same category?

Organization

  • Remember, this is NOT the story of this one time you went to that restaurant!
  • Instead, organize your Restaurant Review Essay to showcase the entire experience that your readers should expect: arrival, first impressions, service and menu, a focus on the foods, and a final summary and recommendation on the overall value of the experience.
  • The overall purpose of a restaurant review is to help future diners know whether they should go there, and what to expect if they do. Your readers offer you their attention, in hopes of reliable suggestions and tips from you — the expert restaurant critic — that will help them make the best of their experience.