Fifth, there are more mediocre restaurants than their are 4-star ones, and they, too, have their place in the restaurant spectrum. They should be judged for what they are, not what they aren't. There is a real need for convenient, affordable and unpretentious restaurants.

bra1nchild's comment brings to mind Sen. Roman Hruska's infamous defense of mediocrity, made in support of one of Nixon's worst Supreme Court nominees. That said, however, "unpretentious" doesn't necessarily mean mediocre. There is a need for places of the kind bra1nchild describes. The real problem, as EL noted, is with those places that take themselves to be more than what they really are, onlt to be sorely disappointed when the obvious is pointed out to them via a less than flattering review.

This past week's New Yorker is the food issue - Calvin Trillin writes a great piece about a mediocre food - poutine. And at the other extreme, the first interview I've ever read with a Michilin restaurant reviewer in New York. You get great glimpses of both sides of dining - mediocre and the high end.

Whoa! Poutine, mediocre? As someone born not 15 min. from the Canadian border, I can't let that stand! Poutine can be very nice, indeed, although bad poutine is an abomination.

Au Pied du Couchon does a foie gras poutine. That couldn't be mediocre!

$10,436,000 buffalos. Wow, they must be pretty tasty for that price.

Wah wah wah wah. Canada is great and America sucks. Maybe you should read the article before trotting out your tired self-righteous ironically self-loathing judgmental knee-jerk 70s liberalism. Yes, i don't know you and everything I think and say is wrong. Now I will go back to my grotto and sulk.
;-P

If I have learned anything on this blog, EL, it is that there are no rhetorical questions!

You know, there isn't enough coffee in the world to help me make sense of snarky attacks on certain commenters, especially when one is just stating an opinion, not bullying or saying anything approaching offensive.

Be an adult and play nicely.

Let's get back on track here. Why review mediocre restaurants? Because there's no way to know that they're mediocre before you sit down and dine. Behind that strip mall exterior may be a gifted chef waiting to shine. Down that dim sidestreet, you may find a memorable ethnic meal you'd never have sampled otherwise. The reviewer's job is to lead you to those pleasures -- as well as to be candid when the food, sadly, is as undistinguished as its surroundings.

Sorry. I thought the winky-tongue out symbol would signal my absurdity. I guess I've lost my touch. You can force me to play nice, little Yum, but be an adult? I don't know. When pigs fly.

The diamond-in-the-rough phenomenon, or as MG puts it, the "memorable ethnic meal" discovered "down that dim sidestreet" is largely but not wholly illusory in these parts, which makes finding one all the more exciting and a pleasure to tell readers about.

On a side note, I vow to one day nail down and fully explain the distinction I have in my head between nugatory ambience and negative amibence, which can look like the same thing but fundamentally aren't.

Mediocre does have it's place. When you don't know where to go, but need to leave the house. But I think, at least in Baltimore, mediocraty breads complacency.
Example, wanted to head out for a burger, nothing fancy. Went to Alonso's. Ordered,"just a cheeseburger". I ordered it "medium rare". (Hey they asked!) After about 25 minutes I worried that perhaps they were bringing us those pounder jobs. The waiter did apologize and say that he did put in the larger burger order and should have asked specifically which size we wanted. He also mentioned that they kitchen was VERY backed up. When the burgers came mine was VERY well done. I don't send food back (that's for another blog) unless it's the wrong order or completely unedible. I thought for sure that after 2 mishaps that perhaps the bottle of wine we ordered would be comp'ed or maybe even my burger. But alas, neither was done. An example of mediocre creeping into horrible. I won't go back to Alonso's. There are too many other mediocre places to go.

Michael wrote: "Because there's no way to know that they're mediocre before you sit down and dine"

So true, so true. And yet, there are so many people that contribute to this blog who have no problem judging a place before they try it, or merely perpetuating an opinion they heard.

Many comments here have proven to me that many people prefer having their own opinions issued to them, rather than trying a bit of self-discovery.

Kenneth, would you care to say exactly who has been judging which places they haven't eaten in, or do you just prefer to sling innuendo around?

Kenneth, assuming that Nobu is awesome is an all together different assumption than deciding that The Harryman House is good based on someone's experience.

Nobu has been the recipient of internation praise and aclaim. It is a restaurant that is in a differnt relm of that which you are speaking, and if you cannot fathom that, then your theory of self-discovery is worthless.

captcha: ignore simon

that's "international" and "different". typos!

While I didn't see the original conversation, the conceit of an argument that says you shouldn't review mediocre restaurants is just confusing. How do you know they're mediocre?

There are a few restaurants that I love in town that I'm sure others would deem as mediocre...and restaurants that others love that I was disappointed by. Had I gone by mere reputation, I would've missed some great meals. Is it wrong to say you should make your own judgements sometimes? If so, I apologize.

Well, the snippet that EL provides adds one qualifier to the definition of "mediocre" that I think important. Formulaic.

To me, the epitome is the chain restaurant. There are some lovely chain restaurants, some of which have been lovingly reviewed by EL and others. More than a few of the newer restaurants throughout Harbor East are chains, albeit upmarket ones.

I somehow suspect what we're talking about are the legion chain restaurants in strip malls and outparcels ringing the city. Not that there's anything wrong with Olive Garden, or Applebees, or Chili's.

It's just that the more penetration a chain has into a market, the more we're reminded that one of the reasons they're so popular is that they vary little from location to location in terms of atmosphere, menu and quality by design.

The Cheesecake Factory dining experience isn't really so different from Columbia to Tyson's Corner to Pasadena, CA. And that's part of what keeps lines out the door. It's also why there's just less to write about; if the subtext of an establishment is that it's pretty much like all the other restaurants under a franchise banner, what can you really say about it?

What's the frequency Kenneth?
Captcha: sister mounting --- just weird

RayRay, ewww!