Wednesday, September 7, 2011
review Second helpings: Why review Truffles Grill at all?
Posted by Besha Rodell @BeshaRodell on Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:07 PM
- James Camp
- The dining room at Truffles Grill
As usual, the commenters on my story are playing out the exact arguments I had with myself about the review. I considered not even writing it. As commenter Kelly W. said, "Change the name and you've just reviewed every O'Charlie's, Houstons, Cheesecake Factory, and so forth in the country."
But there are two reasons why I decided to review Truffles. The first is that it's slightly different from many other chain restaurants in that it's modeled after a well-liked restaurant in Hilton Head, one that many Atlantans may have visited and enjoyed. It's represented by a major Atlanta PR firm (Melissa Libby PR). It has an overall rating of four stars on Open Table. It has received a ton of fawning chatter on blogs around town. (One post, from Pretty Southern, curiously went up yesterday after my review came out and bears a striking, almost word-for-word resemblance to the press release about Truffles I received a few weeks back). Even John Kessler has some positive things to say in his one star review for the AJC.
Given all that, I thought it was possible someone might mistake this place for a bona fide quality establishment. In fact, before I visited, I thought it might be decent. I was genuinely shocked at how bad it was. Because of that, I figured it might be news to other diners as well.
The second reason is that it gave me the opportunity to say something bigger about dining in general. In a nutshell: fancy isn't always better. I can genuinely say that I'd rather eat at Ruby Tuesday than Truffles. But apart from that, I hate the marketing of the idea of upscale without the quality. It's dishonest in a way that regular chain restaurants, for the most part, are not.
I've been thinking recently though, that it would be nice to get some feedback about what restaurants y'all would most like to see reviewed. Is it worth pointing out what's truly bad? Or would you rather only hear about places you should go?
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Comments (10)
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To answer your question about what your readers want you to review: I personally am most interested in the new local places that I might want to check out, or might be dragged to by friends.
But I'm not interested in whether they are, on average, good or bad. What I look for in a review is how to make the best of an experience if I find myself there.
Don't get me wrong: I definitely want to know it's dreadful. And I want to know if it's worth extra effort to go there. But let's just say that forces bring me to Restaurant X for whatever reason. How do I make the most of the experience?
What dishes play on a chef's background, such that she/he might do an extraordinary job with them? What noteworthy option might I fail to notice in the middle of a busy menu? What do some of those unusual terms or ingredients refer to? How do I eat that usual dish that I might really want to try if I don't look like a fool doing it? In short, give me the schooling I need so that I don't order the hamburger.
And let me say that you generally do a good job with this. (And Cliff does a stellar job with it.) But that's what I want more of.
i like a balanced approach - good and bad. And let's not put Houston's on par with the Cheesecake Factory, for God's sake. I know Houston's is also a chain, but far better and more edited. Applese & oranges.
The restaurant reviews that I like the most are ones that identify restaurants that I might not have otherwise found. It is much harder to sift through the seemingly endless choices of ethnic food on Buford Highway than it is to realize that Cakes and Ale is better than Ruby Tuesdays. For example: Com and Stone Bowl House.
I think it's worth pointing out the bad stuff and I like your reasoning for reviewing Truffles. I don't think that some of this reasoning you've listed above, as a disclaimer, would have been out of place in the review.
Requests for restaurant reviews: revisits to previously reviewed spots. I get confused by all the chefs hopping from place to place and wonder if a review from a year and a half ago can still be useful if the chef (and whoever else) has moved on in that time.
Also: bar-stool reviews. I've gotten to where the experience of having a well-crafted cocktail and small plate at a bar is just as significant and rewarding (and often more so) than a table-service one.
"It's represented by a major Atlanta PR firm". Didn't they represent Saskatoon as well? We all know where that restaurant went. Money talks in PR, not quality of the establishment they represent. The real major PR firms do fast food restaurants, does that mean it's good? Not by a long shot.
I agree w/goldnuts13--Great establishments like Empire State South & Miller Union get lots and lots of press for good reason. We already know they're good, give us reviews on places we don't see & hear about every day.
And yes, please let us know if a restaurant is of low quality! Especially if the online reviews are good!
I think anybody with any perceptive capability whatsoever can take one look at this place, and realize it's garbage. You thought it was worth a column to do that?
If you wanted to stress the point that fancy isn't better, there are a LOT of options in this town that can help make that point - Barellhouse being one of the newest on the block, and far more deserving of a review than Truffles Grill (disclaimer: if you've already reviewed Barrelhouse, my bad).
Much of Atlanta is a superficial city - white tablecloths make a restaurant fancy, which by association makes the food good - even though it's not. That's what you get when your service industry has to cater to, in part, a massive population that comes in from Kennesaw for a "fancy night out in the city". Point is, this is supposed to be (or at least it gives off the impression) an in-town publication geared towards the independent and creative minded. Anyone who possesses those 2 qualities doesn't need to read a review, to know that Truffles Grill is fungi labeled shit. It's a waste of time to write it, and a waste of time to read it. Personally, I'd be happier if I opened your column one day and it said "sorry folks, no review this week. I've eaten everywhere worthwhile in Atlanta, and nothing worthwhile and new has opened. When it does, I'll be on it. However, in the meantime, I'm not going to waste your time by reviewing McDonalds, so enjoy this little video of some dude busting ass on a swingset. Thanks. B".
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