As I've gone through The Sun's archives for tomorrow's Top Ten Tuesday -- The Best Places I've Been So Far This Year -- I'm struck by the fact that I gave a few more 3 stars for food than usual. I also gave three restaurants 3 1/2 stars, although one of them was Abacrombie, under a chef who has now left.

Then there were the 11 restaurants that got 2 or 2 1/2 stars -- fair or uneven. Some of the food at those was pedestrian, but some showed promise. Assigning stars is never an exact science.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun Photographer)