Writing restaurant reviews can be fun!
Have you discovered the most amazing new restaurant and want to leave them an equally amazing review? Maybe you’re traveling and you want to help your fellow travelers discover that charming little gem of a diner you happened to stumble across.
There are a lot of reasons you might want to leave a review, but it won’t help anyone if it doesn’t grab attention and get bumped up by people who appreciate your suggestion.
My 3 Best Tips for Writing Restaurant Reviews
1. Give Them a Good Appetizer
Let your readers know right away if the review will be worth reading. Think of one descriptive word which might encompass your entire visit. Something like “amazing” might be a little too vague, but “delicious!” or “authentic!” are great words.
Now use that word to write your title, or the first line of your review if the review site doesn’t support titles. “Wow! This is real authentic Japanese ramen!”
2. Give Them a Little Background
In one or two lines, give them a little background on how you ended up in this restaurant. You might want to include whether you were in a group or on a date with your special person or even what time of day or night you visited.
“My boyfriend and I just got in from a long flight and didn’t know the area very well. This place was open late, so we didn’t have high expectations, but boy were we surprised!”
3. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Here’s where you will describe the food, the service, and the atmosphere or feel of the place. Make sure you’re not just saying that the food was great, but that you describe why. Give an example of why the service was good or bad. Describe notable things about the decoration or the atmosphere inside.
“I had the Shoyu Ramen, and it came in a large bowl, absolutely loaded with toppings. The broth was richly seasoned, the meat was tender and delicious, and the noodles were perfectly cooked, not mushy or clumped together. The waitress was so sweet and kept our glasses full the entire meal, we never had to ask for anything. I loved the traditional Japanese décor and the warm, welcoming ‘irasshaimase!’ as we entered. This was such a memorable experience. I highly recommend you visit!”
The goal is to keep the review brief but still cover all the important details in a way that people can relate to. The meat was tender, not chewy. The noodles were cooked well, not mushy. The waitress was attentive.
Think of things that matter to you when you’re dining out and that will give you an idea of what people want to know, but don’t get too longwinded because nobody has time to read an entire novel of a review when they’re hungry.
Bonus Tips:
Take pictures! Almost everyone has a camera on their phone now. Take a few snapshots of your meals and the restaurant.
Also, be fair, we’ve all had to suffer through that new waitress who is just learning the job and bungles up the drink order. You can mention that the waitress mixed up your drink order but remember that by the time your review is read, she will likely have skilled up. Don’t let her mistake influence what you tell others, they may get a totally different version of her.
Writing something like, “Worst Restaurant Ever” might make you feel a little better in the moment, but it doesn’t offer anyone any insight as to why. It really speaks more about your temper than it does the restaurant. If you need to leave a bad review warning people off, give your reasons why. If you want an example, ask me about a restaurant I visited in Nazca, Peru and the wretched days which followed. 🤢
Lastly, check your spelling and grammar! If you’re in doubt, copy and paste the whole review into a Word doc and run an editing check on it. If your review is full of spelling or grammatical errors, people might skip past your reviews or misunderstand it completely.
