What makes a restaurant good?

What makes a restaurant good is so much more than the quality of the food. Don’t get me wrong, the food should cause a party in your tummy, but the atmosphere of the restaurant is also very important. The articles that I chose to analyze all look at the atmosphere as a key factor to the enjoyability of a restaurant experience. Through creative writing, the authors are able to convey their experience of the restaurant (complete with their feelings and concerns) to you through their diction.

Formal elements:

• description of atmosphere
• what type of food the restaurant serves
• price range
• recommended dishes
• location of restaurant
• rating
• provides pictures of restaurant and food

Who is reading these reviews? People who like good food and want to try new things, people who want to recommend tasty places when their friends ask them where they want to eat, people who don’t want to waste time or money, people who want to pick the right restaurant the first time.

Functional Purposes:

• help the reader decide if it is a place they would enjoy
• tells a story, provides a snapshot of their experience through the imagery they use in their writing (not all reviews tell a story, but the articles that I chose to emulate provide clear pictures or analogies to help you understand the environment)

 

Texts:

As Not Seen on TV Restaurant Review: Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square by Pete Wells (New York Times)

REVIEW:Hillside Farmacy by Chelsea Bucklew (The Infatuation – Austin)

Slurping Solo, in Sweet Isolation, at Ichiran in Brooklyn by Pete Wells (New York Times)

Review: Hart’s by Bryan Kim (The Infatuation – New York)