Enjoy a Treasure Hunt for Your Tastebuds

In order to answer that question, I try to find out what people mean by the phrase "a great restaurant." Just because I like one restaurant, doesn't mean that someone else will like it. One diner's feast can be a fiasco for another, so it's important to match people with the restaurants that will meet their expectations.

For some, dining out means being seen in the trendiest places, being surrounded by-and being willing to pay for-lots of style and panache, and nibbling on the latest designer food. If that's what people want, I tell them to read the critics' reviews and follow the crowds.

But following the advice of restaurant critics does not necessarily guarantee that you'll enjoy the cuisine. While many dining critics are true professionals, offering customers valuable advice to help them make wise choices, some are on egotistical trips and feel that it's necessary to be ultra critical to show their knowledge. This is not helpful to the person in search of a restaurant.

If it's not important to you to be seen in the trendy new spots, you can have a lot of fun discovering your own restaurants. True, there is trial and error involved, but I think that it's much more fun, I feel, to swim upstream and find the restaurants that you really love yourself-rather then going to ones that you're supposed to enjoy.

Finding the restaurant that is right for you is like looking at art or drinking wine. While you can listen to the opinions of others, if you want a meaningful experience, you need to be honest with yourself and zero in on what you like. Besides, it's just more fun to discover a delightful restaurant on your own. It's like a treasure hunt for the taste buds. And, of course, when searching for the right restaurant, it's important to think about your current mood. If you're have visions of a spicy Pad Thai in your head, then you won't want to go to a steakhouse.

My definition of a great restaurant is similar to James Beard's philosophy of "gourmet food." It doesn't have to be exotic or fancy. To prove his point, he used a simple baked potato as an example. Properly prepared, he said, a baked potato could be considered a gourmet food.

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