Local restaurant reviewer Bernard Jacobson recently gave high ratings to Burrata Bistro, an Italian-focused restaurant on Front Street in Poulsbo.
I tend to leave much of the local food reviewing to him or to you readers because as I’ve said before, I’m still learning about food and taking you along for the ride. It might be a little presumptuous of me for now. Plus, I’ve recently been reading a lot about restaurant reviewing ethics.
There’s rules to this thing, and recently a group of bloggers have set up — what else? — a blog about food reviewing ethics. Many newspaper and magazine restaurant reviewers, “food journalists,” have adhered to most of these rules for a long time, both to be fair to the restaurants and fair to the readers.
The guidelines suggest that reviewers give new establishments at least a month (sometimes six months the Kitsap Sun and some other papers used to require six months) to refine their recipes, atmosphere and service before being judged. They also say reviewers should eat there several times and sample all or at least multiple items from the menu, which also can make the job a pretty expensive one.
Knowing some of Bernard Jacbson’s background and from the reviews I’ve read, I consider him to be a fairly knowledgeable and ethical source of food reviews for our local restaurants.
Who are some of your favorite food reviewers? Do you prefer sites with regular eater reviews, such as Yelp or UrbanSpoon?
Interesting take on the Food Blog Code of Ethics. We reference the American Food Journalists guidelines when referring to restaurant reviews. In it the AFJ suggest reviewers give new restaurants “at least one month after the restaurant starts serving before visiting.” These few weeks give the restaurant the needed time to work out the kinks. Where you found six months in their guidelines, I’m not sure. That is clearly more time than necessary.
Also, to clear up any misconceptions The Food Blog Code of Ethics, we suggest our five-point code are a set of personal guidelines that we think food bloggers could consider when writing their blog and reviews. Specifically, in terms of reviewing, we think that if you don’t visit a restaurant more than once that is fine if you mention that fact in the review.
We think it is important that people reporting on subjects do due diligence, read up on the subjects they’re referring to and make sure what they’re talking about is factual. Because in this big world of blogs, things written for personal nature (like the Food Blog Code of Ethics, for example) can–if read by enough people–be considered an official document with a larger purpose.
foodwolf,
Thanks for more background on the ethics. Regarding the “six months,” that was a bit of sloppy writing on my part. Six months used to be the guideline for Kitsap Sun and some other newspaper food reviews, and I didn’t make that clear (post update will reflect this).
– Angela
After having been to Burrata, I would not recommend it to a friend. The food we ordered was lasagna adn a risotto ball with presciutto inside. The lasagna was almost flavorless and the appetizer was still frozen in the middle. If a new eating estblishment wished to succeed, I would hope they would be more mindful of their servings. Mor Mor is another place I would never recommend after to visits to cold food there.
The food ordered was lasagna and the risotto ball. Mor Mor was visited two times, not to times as mispelled, sorry. The visit to Burrata was after their first month in business. I absolutely love the newer Whiskey Creek Ranch Grill with their veggie plate.
I definitely love Yelp/Urbanspoon and use both regularly. Also, I’ve definitely gotten some great restaurant reviews from food bloggers, since we are quite a neurotic bunch when it comes to what we eat! 😉