I’m addicted to restaurant reviews. I think I’ve discovered an antidote.
The Jerusalem Post’s restaurant reviews have been going downhill for a while. The newspaper has no budget for reviews. In this country, a review is written exchange for a free meal from the restaurant. When the JPost started hiring college kids to write the reviews, the food section started sounding like a campus rag, heavy on the beer, hamburgers, and pretense. Lately the writing standards have slipped even lower.
Review of Toto in Billboard, Nov. 6, 2009:
Should have expected but nice to be caught off guard and very tasty. [I presume the reviewer is the subject of this sentence. Was he on the menu?] The veggie medley was sufficient but mundane and the mustard seemed out of place, though did suit the meat.
Gack.
We started with the Catalonian gazpacho … which was both tasty and spicy, an all-too-unique combination when dining.
Could this be the explanation?
We started with a glass of the 2008 Vitkin Riesling (40 NIS)… I had the Flam Sauvignan Blan/Chardonnay (NIS 35)…. I also had a martini cocktail (NIS 60).
But the cubed pineapple with yogurt ice cream [huh?] and a coconut twill [?] with mango sauce, cubed mango and raisins, which we took off the specials menu, was spectacular. We accompanied this final course with a round of grappas and finished with two short espressos.
The JPost should consider re-assigning this writer to the bar and pub circuit. His talents are wasted on mere food. If you’re a glutton for punishment and wish to read the entire review, the on-line version should be available for a little while.
Tonight is a good night to crack open M.F.K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating
