How to read restaurant reviews like a critic

Most restaurant reviews tell you less than they seem to. A four-star score can mean the critic loved the tasting menu while you'd hate the two-hour pace. A five-star pile-up on an app can mean the place opened last month and the chef's friends have phones. Reading restaurant reviews like a critic means asking three questions of every review you meet: who wrote this, what did they actually order, and what would this meal have been like on a different night? The answer-first version: trust reviews that describe specific dishes, name the circumstances of the visit, and admit trade-offs. Distrust reviews that deal only in adjectives, punish a place for things outside its control, or read like the writer wanted a different restaurant entirely. That's the whole skill, and the rest of this piece is how to do it in practice. There's a reason the word "read" earns its place here.

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