Fredric said it well.

Personally, I have never interpreted a star system to rate good or bad. Rather a ranking of the range of good.

I understood years ago that no bad reviews are printed in the paper.

In a way we are all food critics. The Fred’s and Fredric’s of the world may be a little more skilled, but none the less have no less effective input than the Jennifer’s and the No Sluggo Dave’s of the world.

There are things I abhor in a restaurant that lower a score that does not include the food. Poor Service, lighting, decor, and access are a few things I look at.

The adventure of reading reviews is to go to a restaurant and compare observations and tastes with Fredric and Jennifer. Usually I can see what both of our favorite food reviewers base their assessment, but it does not keep me from going to the establishment.

Part of the confusion in the ’star’ ratings is that the movie reviewer of this same paper uses a star rating as well.

When 1 star for a movie is considered a don’t bother rating it is easy to interpret it the same way for restaurant reviews.

its not your skills, Jennifer. The reality is that the Fred’s rule the world!

Ok, I have got to say something here. Each of these “star” ratings has an accompanying review. I learn more from the review that I do from the “star”. Reading the reviews, and over a period of time developing an understanding of how that reviewer works (i.e. tastes, service expectations, decor, service) you can assign your own rating to a restaurant by measuring you standards against the reviewers. How many of us have gone to a movie that was panned only to find it absolutely delightful.

Frederic and Jennifer, I admire both of your work, but a review is, in fact, a very personal thing, and should serve as guidance to your readers rather than an “eat here, don’t eat” here report.

I have to agree with your anonymous blogger. If the star system is ambiguous to your readers why do you persist is using and defending it? Who doesn’t get the message? You or your readers?

Brenda, I believe No Sluggo Dave has taken himself and the missus to New Mexico to live.

Jennifer - When I saw this thread, I wanted to read your review of Kaloum so I could be up to speed on the discussion. But despite paying for a subscription to the Digital CA so I could read the paper while out of town, the Playbook section is missing from the digital version - a huge disappointment. I wanted to see the review in the same layout as the paper along with whatever blog postings you typically include. I had to make do with clicking around the CA site to find it.

I thought the review was very fair. I’d like to go to Kaloum and now I know what to expect.

Any rating system is going to have issues. A one-star Michelin rating is great but a one-star Mobil review is bad. You have said several times that you don’t like the current star system - so why don’t you change it? If you think it is confusing and you don’t like it, why do you keep using it?

I don’t know where No Sluggo Dave is living but he still posts to Leslie’s Whining and Dining Blog at http://lesliekellywhininganddining.blogspot.com/

What Jennifer means (and we have talked about this) is that I feel she should work with the rating system as we have it now and get used to it before we start changing things. That said, I think it’s probably inevitable that we will move to a tiered system of stars because that system (tiered) is seen favorably by our editors. Still, I like the star summation of a restaurant, backed up, of course, supplemented and explained by the review itself. So many people have told me that if a restaurants doesn’t get at least two and a half stars, they don’t even read the review. What folly! the real information is in our narrative; the star is a quick hit.
I don’t know exactly what Fred means by “understanding years ago” that we don’t publish negative reviews in the CA: that policy was implemented only four years ago. before that, when I did all the restaurant reviews, I was allowed to write ANYTHING about a restaurant, to the extent that I even received a death threat, which the paper took very seriously.
And to everyone puzzled over the discrepency between the restaurant star rating system and the movie star rating system, I agree. I have never understood why the movie system has two levels for, basically, “this movie sucks” or “this movie sucks not quite so much.” In fact, I have always maintained that a star (a symbol of even the smallest reward) should not carry a negatiove meaning, diminsihed perhaps, but not “bad.” As Jennifer and I say over and over, one star means “good.”

Many of the major food writers at city news papers do not use a star / rating system. The writer gives his or her opinion in the review and allows the reader to determine whether or not it would be a restaurant she or he would visit. This would seem to me a logical direction to take for the CA to take seeing as though the current rating system seems to confuse more than clarify. Just one gal’s opinion.

What I meant is that Leslie covered the issue of no bad reviews quite a while ago.

I guess in a converse sort of way, if we don’t see a review on a restaurant, we can let our imagination run wild.

Anyway, both of you are like artists, and its up to us to interpret what we see in your work. So I go to a place and see how accurate both of you are on describing the place.

I’ve heard people comment for years about the “number of stars” a particular restaurant received. It’s clear most readers associate a one star rating as bad. Why not eliminate the star rating and let people form their own opinion? Many of the restaurants are non chain restaurants owned by hard working, dedicated individuals with families.

I went to Kaloum TWICE today ( because of Jennifer’sarticle). There’s my review. It’s not a restaurant for everybody but the food was great. I am so sick of fast food and this was a welcome change as well as affordable. I got takeout though because my whitebread self needed more air-conditioning than Kaloum could provide. I gave my 80 year old mother (who hates take out food usually)some of my beef & fried rice and she loved it.

Talbot, I am so glad to hear you like Memphis more & more every day - we like it too, or we wouldn’t be here! The heat gets tougher on me every year, but the usually mild winters are worth it in the long run. It has been my experience that people who constantly belittle, whine, & fuss about how backward we are will be the first ones to miss us when they leave. Hang in there & you are really going to love it when fall finally arrives. It’s not Vermont caliber, but take a spin by Rhodes College campus & down Belvedere between Union & Central & you’ll see some really nice fall foliage. Then you can enjoy some restaurant patios when it’s comfortable enough to sit outside without the heat & bugs to spoil your meal. If we’re lucky, this might happen in time for Halloween

If you can’t take the heat…………

dang people…just go eat somewhere. i will look in to Kaloum too because of this (and because indigenous cuisine is hard to beat).

FWIW the pork tamales at Los Tortugas Deli Mexicana (another indigenous cook) is one of the best dishes I’ve eaten in Memphis.

O.K., Ben is obviously asking for the impossible. He wants people to be able to pick up what the gist of the review without reading it AND without reading the legend that explains the star system.

The writer should do all she can to communicate effectively with the reader, but at some point the reader has to take a little responsibility. And I think that responsibility starts with actually reading the article. Or at least some of the article. If you have the impression that one star is bad, and the first couple of paragraphs give the impression that the restaurant is somewhat less pleasant than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, then you can stop reading. But if the first couple of paragraphs give a more balanced opinion, then maybe you can start to modify your preconceptions.

If the reader doesn’t read, then it’s not effective communication. But that’s the reader’s fault. If I read the first sentence of Ben’s last post and then stop reading because I don’t like goose, then I’m being ignorant. And that’s not Ben’s fault.

I’m sure Ben didn’t mean to champion slovenly reading and complacent ignorance, but honestly!

Maybe the whole star problem could be solved if you switched to emoticons:

= don’t bother

= worth visiting

:) = better than average

etc.

The reviews would look more a little more like a fifth-grader’s blog, but why would anybody object to that?

There are many interesting articles about the role of a restaurant critic. Check out similar discussions in the SF Chronicle and the NYT,among others. Otherwise, it is really not that critical. I would imagine that everyone forgets the review after a few days or weeks (except the chef, of course.)

Whoa, Ben, “is there any component of accuracy in a restaurant review?” That’s certainly a loaded and biased “question”! The whole point of any review is that its judgments are based on accurate observation, reporting and writing. In the newsroom, we have shelves of cookbooks and reference books to check about ingredients, techniques and ethnic cuisines. We call chefs and managers and ask questions. If you have seen “lots of misinformation” in any of our reviews, you need to be specific and not level vague accusations.
It’s always an issue, at least in the background of writing a restaurant review, that we are writing about, mainly, local businesses into which people have put a great deal of time, effort and money, and it has been incumbent on me for almost 20 years and now on Jennifer that we don’t write in a way that is harsh or sarcastic or that seems to be having fun saying negative things. But we are also obligated to tell the truth about a restaurant as we perceive it. Yes, circumspect and judicial are the ideals.
A bit of history: When I started reviewing restaurants in January 1988 the CA did not use a star rating system. We talked for years about it and finally adopted the NYTimes four-star rating system in 1997. It took me a year or so to understand how to balance all of the elements of the dining experience (always keeping food and service as the most important) and express the overall rating with the stars. Even now, those thinsg must be tested and thought about.

Ben, it’s my understanding that if a restaurant is given what they perceive to be unfair ratings, both by reviewers & the health department, they are free to correct the deficiencies & ask for a follow-up review. Please correct me if I am wrong, Fredric & Jennifer. If restaurant mgmt. feels its business is going to be adversely affected & its reputation is on the line, it might be the wake-up call needed to improve & go forward. So a critical review might be just what they need to point out some of the glaring problems that might otherwise go unnoticed. If Jennifer & Fredric think the service is lousy, chances are others think the same thing. They don’t always call the mgr. to complaint, but might choose to express it with poor or no tipping. I have seen Jennifer & Fredric mention items like things that were ordered but never served, food that was sent back & served again with the same problems, but they have overlooked it. So I think they are both being fair. Not everyone reads the restaurant reviews anyway, but they are still free to make their own decisions if they try or avoid a place based on a review.

Ben has a right to his opinion. I understand where he is coming from. I’ve been reading Fredic’s reviews for years and have a lot of respect for his opinions and comments regarding food and service. He obviously know what he’s talking about. I have to admit, however, sometimes I feel kinda sorry for the restaurant owners if they receive only 1 star. Until I read this blog, I didn’t realize only good reviews were printed. Fredric - maybe this should be communicated to the readers more often, especially since we have so many transients in Memphis who may not be familiar with your history.

The CA should tell its readers about bad restaurants. Years ago Frederick wrote a zero star review for IHOP that was and still is completely deserved. I know many Memphians would have never taken a chance on a non-local breakfast place like The Barksdale or Brother Juniper’s and instead of paying for horrible food and service at IHOP. That bad review certainly helped me to become a better critic for myself. Not only doe the reviews help diners get a better value for their dining dollar, it instructs them on how to critique a restaurant, the vast majority of which are never reviewed by a publication. So many people out there really don’t know good food, and they are missing out on life. And I’m getting tired of being dragged to Chili’s and Applebee’s by people that don’t know good food. Maybe some zero star reviews of these places would open peoples eyes.

About the stars, I think a tiered star system where several categories were given stars (or forks, to reduce the comparison to movie reviews), would reduce the emphasis on the stars and place more emphasis on the review itself.

Ben, I had a feeling you might have had an unpleasant experience that hit close to home with a bad restaurant review. But at least we’re exploring this subject from many angles & points of view. I happen to really like The Barksdale & Brother Juniper’s, rough around the edges though they are. I have gone with local friends & taken out of town friends there or recommended they go. A friend enroute from Miami to Seattle was still raving about breakfast at The Barksdale when she got to her next stop at our friend’s home in St. Louis that night. Part of the deal with the chains is that they advertise on TV & everything they feature looks dazzling & wonderful. The reality is much like the squashed “have it your way” hamburger that you pull out of the bag when you get home, & not the picture perfect food stylist version on TV. You’d think people would realize that by now. Todd, I think it should be your turn to pick the place the next time your “chained to the chains” friends insist on going somewhere mediocre because it’s familiar & comfortable to them. I bet they would thank you.

Ok, the CA does not publish bad reviews. We know from this blog that the reviewer just pays and leaves and no review is written. But from the comments lots of readers want to know about the bad restaurants. So, Jennifer and Fredric, how about as a service to blog readers - post the list of restaurants that are too bad to review here?

Todd said, “And I’m getting tired of being dragged to Chili’s and Applebee’s by people that don’t know good food.”

Amen to that. Chili’s is fine for what it is, but don’t tell me you want to go out for a nice dinner and then ask me if Chili’s is okay.

I just returned from a trip to Memphis to visit my family. Unfortunately, due to a lack of transportation - I’m so spoiled by transit in SF - and the heat, I didn’t get to try a bunch of the places I’ve read so much about. I’m just going to have to come back again

Instead, my trip was filled with homemade fare - courtesy of my mom and dad - and a trip to Applebee’s, of all places.

I feel like a failure

At least I got my BBQ, fried catfish, fried chicken, turnip greens, and gumbo.

Jumping into the fray at a late stage. Interesting and legitimate points made by all. My only comment is that having been a longtime follower of the CA’s restaurant restaurant reviews, I find that Fredric is a very knowledgable critic with great insight into what makes a good dining experience in a restaurant. It wasn’t always the case with some of the paper’s reviews in the past couple of years. Read what you want to in the last comment.

Todd, next time you are in Texas try the Texas Land And Cattle Company’s smoked sirloin. Hate to steal a line from a Jim Cary movie, but they were “smokin’!”. And, on Monday nights, it’s all you can eat for the normal price of a 10 oz. portion.