How to Write a Food Review

Writing Your Review

Do some background research. Once you've had your meal and taken your notes, take a little time to see what the restaurant's history is. These kind of details are a great way to add some color to your review. For example, you might find that the head chef trained in France or used to work at another well-loved restaurant in the area, and you can use these connections to make people interested in the food. Start by reading the restaurant's website. Look up the owner and executive chef to get an idea of their training, style, and past ventures.

Open your review with a compelling hook. The first sentence of the review should make people want to read more. Remember, you are giving them a reason to either spend their money at this restaurant or skip ahead to another spot, but you're also trying to get them to read your writing. Some tips for a good hook include: Promise a story or surprise, such as "it may have taken a while to get to my mouth, but I've found the best paella on the planet." Make sure, however, that you deliver on the promise later! Give an interesting, tangential fact, like "Chef Zurlo only started cooking 2 years ago, yet she's quickly risen through the ranks to operate Oakland's best new bagel shop." Describe a particularly captivating or compelling part of the ambiance, good or bad, like a great view or a funny smell from the kitchen.

Describe 3-5 dishes that you sampled, not all of them. No one wants to read a laundry list of foods, so pick the foods that made the greatest impression on you (good or bad) and focus your writing on these dishes. Don't just say if they were good or bad. Strive to give details and reasons, naming each specific dish. As an outline, you should try and talk about the following three things in every food review: Presentation: How'd the dish look when it arrived, and how did it make you feel? Excited? Hungry? Like royalty? Like you were in your family's kitchen again? Taste: The big, obvious one, but that is only because it is so important. Use descriptive language, metaphor, and simile to put your reader in your shoes, or mouth. Name spices or flavors when you can. Texture:This usually includes cooking process as well. Did it melt in your mouth? Was it still hot when it arrived? Was it juicy and tender or tough and brittle? Were their multiple textures (such as something soft with a crunchy crust), and did they work well together?

Use big, colorful adjectives when writing. Remember that, above all, you're selling the experience here, not just the food. Feel free to get poetic with your writing in places, using 1-2 well-placed adjectives to let the reader know exactly what they should expect at the restaurant. You can think of it, in some ways, as the short story of your trip -- give details and colorful additions that make the restaurant stand out and feel unique. This includes the atmosphere, the surface, and the location. The more specific details, the better. Try for one good detail about every interaction/part of the restaurant.

Think about a restaurant's intentions, not just your personal preferences. A good food review is about helping other people find the restaurant, not just a platform to tell everyone your likes and dislikes. For example, if you go to a restaurant with retro art on the walls and rollerskating dancers, it is not fair to judge the restaurant for specializing in burgers and fries instead of oysters. A good reviewer is as unbiased as possible, evaluating the restaurant as a whole. What kind of atmosphere are they going for here? Do they pull it off? How do your preferences match the restaurants? If you hate seafood, but that is the restaurant's specialty, you may want to tone down the negative reviews of the salmon or tell your readers that you aren't generally a fan of fish.

Write a mixture of pros and cons. Unless it is either the very best restaurant you've ever eaten at or the very worst, it is not fair to write a review that is either all good or all bad. Try and give your audience the complete picture. This ultimately allows the reader to make their own decision based on your advice, which seems much more reasonable when it considers both the pros and cons. "While my servers were incredibly kind and accommodating, it doesn't change the fact that the food was a bit cold when it came out." "Head chef Mathew Tucci has designed an amazing menu, and it's a shame that he only has 10 tables to serve to in his small little restaurant."

Make a recommendation. Ultimately, people want your advice on the food. What to order, what to skip, and what restaurants to go to depending on their mood. You should feel free to suggest certain dishes, recommending that someone should skip dessert, or mention if it seems like a great place to take a date. These make your review compelling and useful. If there is little of merit in the restaurant and you firmly believe is should be avoided, feel free to write a negative review. However, you should usually try a restaurant a second time, making sure that you didn't try out a fluke of a dish, before attacking it.

Fill in the essential details of the restaurant in the beginning or end of the review. This is where you put in the average cost of a meal, the reservations time, and the address. You could also add a rating, such 3 out of 4 stars, if you wanted. Many reviewers put this at the very end of the article, in it's own separate paragraph, but some also put it at the top, on a separate column on the side, or worked into one of the first paragraphs.

Getting The Right Details

Avoid telling staff members that you are a food critic or reviewer. You want to get the same experience as any other patron, as many restaurants will give you special treatment that may change your review if they know you're a critic. Instead of telling them you are there to review their food, simply head inside and take a table, acting like any other customer. The Association of Food Journalists even suggest that you avoid large culinary events (grand openings, staff parties, etc.) so you don't risk being approached by chefs looking for a good review. If you are an established reviewer you should make reservations under a different name. You should still bring a notebook or small recorder with you to take notes, though you can also take them on your phone. To write a great review, you should be taking notes.

Make some notes of the restaurant's logistics. Did you need a reservation, and how far in advance was it set up? Where is the restaurant, and what is the neighborhood like? How was the parking? These facts will make up a very small part of your review, but this information is essential to help potential customers find the perfect restaurant for their night.

Describe the atmosphere and ambiance when you walked in. Give your reader a feel for your experience. Does the wait staff treat you like family or an old friend, or is the place elegant and classy? What is the dress code like? What kind of atmosphere is in the restaurant? Be creative in the description -- a good food review is not just about the menu, it is about the entire experience. Do the decorations create an appealing ambiance? How are people enjoying their meals? At large, talkative tables or many small, intimate dates?

Make some notes on the service. Avoid thing like, "the service was good/bad." You want specifics. The best way to get them is by asking questions. While you don't want to pester people, a good waitstaff will know what foods go well together, if there are any allergens in the dish, and the basic presentation of the dish. Most importantly, a good waitstaff is there when you need it -- when water glasses get low, when a fork is dropped, and when you're ready to order your next course.

Order from a wide swath of the menu. You will not be able to eat everything on the menu. You should, however, touch as many sections of it as you can. Be sure to get a drink, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert to get a sense of the kitchen's full capabilities. If you can, come with a group of people and have everyone order something different (beef/fish, the soup/salad, sauteed/simmered) to get a good idea how the kitchen handles the entire restaurant. As a food reviewer, you need to try everything you can to get a good idea of the restaurant. What you order is, of course, a matter of personal preference. However, asking the servers for recommendations is a great way to see what the kitchen and staff are proudest off. Most servers have tasted everything on the menu with the chef's guidance, so they should be able to help you order and determine what you're eating.

Eating Like a Food Critic

Note the presentation of the dish. As soon as the food reaches your table, make some notes on the appearance. Is it clean and beautiful or messy and tired? Remember, a food review is about the experience, not just the taste, so you need to capture all of these details. If you are at a restaurant that allows it, try and snap a quick picture with your phone. This will make it much easier to write about the appearance later.

Enjoy your first few bites. Savor the first few bites, sampling everything on the plate before writing anything else down. Eat slowly and enjoy the meal before trying to get too critical. Make sure you eat the dish the way it was intended first-- don't pick out any ingredients or try things separately until later.

Write down your initial impressions with specific detail. Use adjectives and clear language when making your notes. "I liked the use of rosemary" is not as helpful as "the rosemary crust was light and herbal and perfect complemented the soft, fluffy potatoes." That said, this is just the time to take notes, so don't worry about getting the language perfect. Writing down specific details now about why you liked/disliked a dish will make your writing much, much easier later.

Sample the individual parts of the meal. This is where you start to get into the specifics of a good food review. Try each part of the meal separately, checking for the following criteria: Texture. How does the food feel in your mouth? Again, be specific, as there is a variety of textures, all of which can be good or bad. Spices: Are the spices consistent throughout the meal? Can you tell what some of the spices are? Complexity: A hard one to describe, complexity is a measure of the variety of flavors in a food. A good cook doesn't just go for "lemon-flavored" or "garlic & pepper," they go for a nuanced, unique taste to their food. Do the individual parts of the dish come together to make something new or better than the sum of their parts?

Sample everything on the table. If you're with other people, make sure you taste their dishes as well and make a couple of quick notes. This is the best way to get a full idea of the menu and the restaurants strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to write down the exact name of each dish for later reference. Your reader will want to know what to order or avoid.

Make specific notes as you eat. A good review is rooted in fact, so make sure you're armed with facts. Of course, all food reviewing is inherently subjective, but that doesn't mean should only comment on what you liked and didn't like. It might be easiest to make your notes after you finish the course or as you eat, depending on your company. Either way, you should not rely on your memory to remember everything -- true food critics write notes.

Ask questions as they arise. If you're curious what was in a sauce, how something was prepared, or where certain high-profile foods (meats, expensive cheeses, etc.) came from, feel free to ask. At high-class restaurants the waitstaff is trained to know about the food they serve, so they should be happy to give you an answer.