Our Standards · Chattanooga, TN
This score
isn't for sale.
A lot of food content around Chattanooga comes in the form of free promotion, and it shows. We do things a little different. Here, we pay for our own food, show up unannounced, and use the whole scale from 1 to 10. We're not content creators; we're food critics.
The house rules
Five rules. No exceptions.
- 01
We pay for every meal.
Full price, plus tip. If a restaurant sends something free, we send it back or pay for it.
- 02
We show up unannounced.
No reservations under the site's name. We want the meal you'd get, not the one they'd stage.
- 03
Two visits before a low score.
Anyone can have a bad Tuesday. A score under 5 means we came back and it happened again.
- 04
No money from who we review.
No ads, affiliate deals or paid features from any restaurant we cover. Ever.
- 05
We fix our mistakes in public.
Got a fact wrong? We correct it at the top of the review, dated, not quietly edited.
The scale goes to ten.
We use all of it.
Most food content lives between 8 and 10, which means it tells you nothing. Here, 5 is a perfectly fine meal. It's not an insult. It's the middle.
- 1AvoidSomething went badly wrong. Twice.
- 2PoorHard to recommend to anyone.
- 3WeakMore misses than hits.
- 4UnevenA dish worth it, a meal that isn't.
- 5FineDoes the job. Nothing to chase.
- 6GoodWorth going if you're nearby.
- 7Very goodWorth going out of your way.
- 8ExcellentAmong the best in town.
- 9DestinationWorth the drive from Atlanta.
- 10RareWe may never give one.
Reading the ticket
Every review ends with the restaurant's ticket: four categories, each scored and explained, then rung up into one weighted total. A great room can't save a bad plate.
Flavor, execution, consistency across visits.
Timing, knowledge, how problems get handled.
What you got for what you paid.
Room, noise, comfort. Matters, just less.
From behind the bar
Written by people who've worked the rush.
With over four decades of industry experience from all over the country, our small team of two knows exactly what a good dining experience is. We make a living being in restaurants and bars, and that means we notice things that most diners can't. We can see a menu too big for its kitchen, prices that don't add up, service problems that are really staffing problems, or unexpected equipment issues because we've dealt with these things ourselves.
Conflicts, disclosed
Industry insider. Not industry friend.
We never review a place we work at or have a stake in. If we know the owner, the chef or the staff, we say so at the top of the review, or we don't write it.
Restaurants get a say, too.
Owners can send us a response to any review. If it's factual and civil, we publish it under the review, unedited. Scores don't change because someone's upset. They change when we come back and the meal is different.