Some of the best restaurants are the ones that are hopelessly bad at this kind of marketing and instead get by with great cooking. Small towns sometimes have these gems hiding away if you can find them.
I've lived in a very expensive city and a medium cost of living city in the US and the lower quality of restaurants is the biggest difference for me.
There are some very famous and very expensive restaurants, but even those places have been disappointing too frequently. It's often something really basic like the food being too salty.
This wasn't as much of a problem in the very expensive city. It's unlikely that my taste buds have gotten more sensitive because I lived in the more expensive city at a younger age and taste buds get less sensitive as you get older to my knowledge.
Almost every attempt at finding a small town gem has not really worked out for me in the US.
In countries like France, I know that I can find small town gems just by checking the Michelin guide. I can go to Vonnas (population 3000) and find a great restaurant just by checking the Michelin guide. I would love to do that in the US.
Often the local subreddit is a great place to look. Also, old trip advisor Q&A threads if it is moderately touristy. (But not reviews)
I really like the Eater guide. Especially their posts where it is popular local chefs talking about their favorite restaurants. These posts aren't usually highlighted to you have to go digging a bit to find it.
Local youtubers are also great resources, if you know how to find them. The fewer subscribers the better.
Yelp can work sometimes. Yelp's top restaurants are usually 'mass appeal' places. If there is a top rated restaurant that looks totally out of place, it is very likely a local gem.
If nothing works then go for the classic combination: "Locally owned - Long queue - Fast service"
Special green-flags:
- Ethnic restaurant has more ethnic people than white people.
- Asian restaurant only has photos and no English menu
- Indian restaurant is full + a 3 star rating on Yelp
- Ethnic restaurant does not have the name of the home country or cuisine in it.
- American restaurant that's open for only half the day, or till supplies last
As a generalisation, I have found that high quality restaurants occur in towns where there is the demand for them. This requires that there is a significant population of customers who eat out enough, pay enough, and are discerning enough to keep restaurants up to standard.
My town (Christchurch) doesn’t really have the culture, so the quality of the majority of places isn’t great. Wellington has a similar population but it has much better restaurants (including in the city centre), because the demographics of Wellington tends towards more disposable income and more foodie culture, so the people that go out often really know what tastes good.
The other significant issue with New Zealand is that the majority of restaurants are delivered their produce and food by restaurant supplier companies; food which often is no better than what you may get at the supermarket. You can really notice the difference when you eat home grown veges or home kill meat - some of the most memorable meals I have had have been simple ones at people’s homes. There needs to be a food culture to care about taste enough for restaurants to seek out better tasting food ingredients.
Take care when asking locals for advice, including young people working in hospo. They are often not foodies so they don’t suggest something that is any good... instead they might mention a new place or a popular place (or even worse, a tourist place).
Southwestern, tacos, Boreal, tagine, American, sandwiches, Polish, sushi, Tamil, no cuisine. It's all good to me.
Some farms and wineries have restaurants out here, but they don't have too many reviews so it's hard to tell if they're good or not.
I think it's actually for some truth to it, and perhaps Berksons paradox is the explanation. If you either make good food or market well, and there's selection based on a frontier of a mix of the two, you end up creating a correlation even where none existed in the underlying set. So places with crap marketing that survive are likely to be doing so because the food makes up for it.
I personally have noticed an "uncanny valley" of restaurants, where I'd much rather eat cheaply (see Chick-fil-a, taco trucks, local pizza shops, or a lot of Asian spots) or expensively (locally renowned restaurants) and ignore most everything in between. It's hard to pay 25 dollars for an meal when it's going to be good but nothing special, when you could pay ~15 for something you'd enjoy just as much. The higher end resturants provide the "novel" experiences and flavors that make spending $35+ worth it.
I can understand why. Next time don't use that, is incorrect (would translate as a strange "an, other"). The correct way would be either just "otra" (another) or "una más" (one more), generally followed by a casual "por favor". Take in mind that beer is feminine in spanish so you have to use "otra" (not "otro").
Many other alcoholic drinks are masculine, but are often served in a coup or bottle, that are feminine nouns. You can ask for "otro vino" or "un vino" but "una copa de vino" (a glass of wine) is also common. To use "un más" instead the correct "uno más" (one more) would be also a common mistake.
When I was forced to travel for work now and again, my instincts were always to find a bar with a decent food menu. It's usually as good (better?) plus it was easier to buy a properly sized meal without all the extra filler.
Also, extra bonus points for things that are a hassle to make at home (typically sushi). Restaurants lose their sparkle as you age. The Sysco truck goes to practically all of them anyway.
There's something to be said for the super old school diners (typically Mexican restaurants in the places I grew up in), but those are towns that scarcely any HN readers would have wandered into.
"I'll go through life either first class or third, but never in second."