Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating insider's look at restaurant reviewing.
Review: I became intrigued by the life of restaurant critics after reading former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl's wonderful memoirs "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me With Apples" and wanted to learn more about the ultimate profession for people who love to eat (but don't necessarily love to cook). Ruth appears on the cover of "Dining Out" (wearing a beautiful black hat whose brim covers most of her lovely face), and there are lots of photographs of her on the inside as well where she shares some of her hilarious experiences reviewing restaurants. There is probably more about Ruth in this book than any other critic interviewed. One of the authors (Andrew Dorneburg) is a chef who has cooked for Ruth and writes about how nerve-wracking it was when she came in to eat at the restaurant where he was working at the time and she was recognized (despite the fact that she went on to buy numerous wigs and wore various disguises on other visits to other restaurants in order to remain anonymous). I never realized how much a critic's opinion can sometimes make or break a restaurant. I also enjoyed reading Ruth's list of her favorite restaurants across the United States (the back of the book is kind of a restaurant guide, and mentions different critics favorite restaurants in cities across the US) and hope that someday I can eat at every one of them! "Dining Out" is a fascinating book that I would highly recommend to anyone who loves dining out in restaurants and/or is curious about what it's like for Ruth Reichl and other restaurant critics who do so on a regular basis. It is an informative, funny, and touching journey through life in and around the restaurant business.
Rating:
Summary: Nominated for two major book awards in 1999.
Review: I saw that Dining Out was nominated for both the 1999 James Beard Book Award *and* the 1999 Julia Child Book Award earlier this year, and finally picked up a copy. It's an absolutely ground-breaking look at restaurant criticism in America today, with enough delicious stories (and sense of humor!) to make it a very enjoyable read. My fantasy now is to visit all the restaurants mentioned by critics as their favorites across the country!
Rating:
Summary: A tour de force!
Review: I snapped up DINING OUT in the DC area a few weeks ago and have been reading -- or should I say savoring -- it ever since. It's a tour de force, and the capstone for a wonderful trio of books (with BECOMING A CHEF and CULINARY ARTISTRY). The writers-chefs relationship may be the main subject of the book, but I'm finding a treasure trove of useful culinary information throughout the book, too -- interviews with top sommeliers about selecting wines for meals, for example, or how different chefs handle special customer requests or complaints.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing to get excited about
Review: In college we all sit around late, drinking, and complaining. This volume shows that chefs do that too. I found very few secrets or even good ideas. But I did find a lot of chefs crying about being misunderstood by the public and the reviewers. I guess speaking with the authors was cheaper than getting a therapist. But the authors' style is consistent. Still that uncritical idol worship.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn the secrets of a great restaurant experience!
Review: Just as food has become a national obsession, so has dining out virtually become its own sport -- with dining enthusiasts turning to restaurant critics and their discerning palates for guidance. Who are these influential critics who often dine incognito and whose public judgments can make or break a restaurant or chef? How did they get their coveted jobs? How do they evaluate a restaurant? What advice do they have for us on getting the most out of a dining experience? Drawing on extensive interviews with dozens of the country's leading restaurant critics (including Gael Greene of New York, John Mariani of Esquire, Ruth Reichl of The New York Times, Phyllis Richman of The Washington Post, David Rosengarten of Gourmet, S. Irene Virbila of The Los Angeles Times, and Dennis Ray Wheaton of Chicago), James Beard Award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page share the critics' occasionally outlandish strategies for remaining anonymous, their approaches to reviewing restaurants, and opinions on the star system. Then the authors turn the tables, sharing the sentiments of well-known chefs and restaurateurs across America as they review the critics -- from their credentials and rating systems to the impact of their reviews, while providing their own definitions of excellence in food, service and ambiance. For dining devotees everywhere, Dornenburg and Page reveal the experts' tips for securing the best possible dining experience, and provide a guide to critics' favorite restaurants across America as well as a comprehensive lising of restaurant review resources on the Internet.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks a strong narrative voice and guiding intelligence
Review: Kind of interesting, but I missed a real sense of the whole foodie thing as a cultural phenomenon per se. And I kept wishing that Jane and Michael Sterne or Jeffrey Steingarten would bring their formidable acumen and wit to bear on this topic. The authors are thorough, dutiful, informative, and so dang serious about it all.
Rating:
Summary: A Nourishing Dish--Even Tho Not Reduced, Skimmed, Clarified
Review: Okay, does it matter if good content is muddied by bad presentation? Only 2-3 of 18 reviews so far score DINING OUT down for the very unclear elucidation which I, also, find truly mars it. That obscurity is indeed a shame, because the book does contain fine key concepts about responding to food, plus alternative stands on each of the concepts. Trouble is, the writers didn't finish "cooking" the book. They formatted it via interview-after-interview. They never distilled out the valuable content into a reduced sauce, so to speak. The book is not as clear as l6 reviewers implied, but it is more valuable than 2 reviewers suggested. If you can sift and strain out the nuggets. Which I did, taking a full hour to do so. MY SUGGESTION: buy the book and savor its marinated morsels of wisdom of responding to food. But see if my own "clarifying of its stew," below, can help guide you in and through it. Here then are the KEY ISSUES I wish the authors had forefronted more, the better to access their good material on the book's key issue, "How to rank or rate a dish?": (1) Chef and reviewer should know the classic basic recipe. Then they can alter it knowingly. Of course, some innovations work, others don't. (2) Surely a basic criterion for all food is "balance" of tastes, instead of flavors either muddied or fighting. (Whether one flavor dominates, or several blend.) A corollary is "bad food is obvious, good food is trickier to know." (3) Reviewers have personal taste-preferences, but the better critics know these, identify them for the reader, and don't let them bias their fair judgments. (4) Still, reviewers' criteria vary--some are rigorous and demanding, others more "relaxed," even lax or lenient. (5) Another criterion is the chef's own goals. S/he may like elegant-gourmet, or just "big sloppy relaxed flavors." Good reviewers are fair here. (6) The "star" rating-system may exclude some good types of food; a superb hot-dog stand may warrant five stars in its class, but it isn't in the system. (7) Yet another variable: different national-cultural cuisines hold different standards and methods (for cooking fish, for instance), and the reviewer should know them and evaluate by their own goals. .....and there you have my distillation of the rich "soup-bone stock" of DINING OUT. Of course, I had to omit the juicy examples, which enrich the book. I hope this pre-vue helps your experience of "tasting" this multi-course book which, although conceptually-unfinished, nevertheless can satisfy our hungry interest in how to respond to food. Good reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Whats all the fuss ????
Review: Sorry folks, but I really had a hard time getting through this one. I got Dining Out and The Making of a Chef(not Becoming A Chef) for Christmas. I found Dining Out to be slow, difficult to read, and mostly boring. I love cooking, I love Dining out, but I felt like I was reading a high school text book. The lay out was jerky, and the writing matched. The content was bad as well.. oh those poor reviewers. I knew I was in trouble when I went to the list of Seattle spots, only to find "Ettas" a wonderful place, written up as "Eddas". Then early on a glaring typo of New Yrok. Life is to short for bad wine and bad books, stay away from this one... Cheers John Maltman
Rating:
Summary: Very well done.
Review: The great and revered restaurateur Savarin is reputed to have said, "An animal swallows its food; a man eats it -- but only a man of intelligence knows how to dine." Fine dining has been a great interest of gourmets and gourmands for centuries, and the distinctions between what is considered to be good and what is not is often set forth by critics, who state their views in newspapers, magazines and books, and now even on radio, television, or the World Wide Web. Since the establishment of the first restaurant, as we now know them, in Paris in about 1765, the views of critics have played an important role in the success of a restaurant; indeed, they can even "make or break" an establishment. The wife and husband team of Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page has set out to make use of their skills and experiences as "restaurant insiders" to examine the processes and the people involved in the restaurant review process in different cities and different extablishments in the United States. Dornenburg and Page have adopted the paradigm set forth by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996), whose Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention refers to three considerations necessary for examining the role of creativity in enterprises such as fine dining. The elements involve (a) the individual person or talent, (b) the domain and discipline in which the work occurs, and (c) the field that renders the judgment. Dining Out builds on those three areas in examining the role of the restaurant critic. Critical reviews of dining establishments different significantly from critical reviews of creative or artistic works such as theater, musical performances, visual art, and related fields. In assessing and critiquing a meal, the reviewer must judge the food, service decor, ambiance, and other factors that may change from day to day, meal to meal, and moment to moment. Typically, only one reviewer will prepare an analysis of the event, and typically, no two events will be exactly alike. Because restaurant reviewers see different presentations, have different educational backgrounds and experiences, and present their views in different ways, an examination of the overall efforts of those who evaluate the quality of an establishment is valuable; Dornenburg and Page set out to examine these processes from the viewpoints of critics, chefs and restaurateurs. Dornenburg, a trained chef, has cooked in some of the most renowned establishments in New York and Boston. Page, his wife and coauthor, is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and Northwestern University. Their earlier collaborations resulted in the James Beard Award-winning Becoming a Chef: With Recipes and Reflections from America's Leading Chefs (1995) and Culinary Artistry (1996). This third book in the trilogy makes a very interesting and important contribution to the understanding of fine dining and the ways in which it is examined for guests and customers. Dining Out might well find its way onto a food afficianado's reading table, into the office of a restaurateur or budding food critic, or into a classroom. The material is good and can be applied to a wide range of settings. When taken with Becoming a Chef and Culinary Artistry, Dornenburg and Page have compiled more than 1100 pages of material useful for serious chefs and restaurateurs, teachers and students, or just plain "foodies." --William N. Chernish, Associate Professor in the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston
Rating:
Summary: Finding the Good Things in the Mixed Buffet
Review: There is a lot to like about this book-- if you can find it! Between layout, verbiage, and sidebars, there is no flow of language at all-- this is simply a huge buffet of interviews roughly (emphasis on "roughly") organized along thematic lines. The text may be interrupted by two of three pages of a topical commentary by another critic or restaurateur; long quotations related to the topic may be found in the margins; thumbnail reviews of some restaurants in some cities may be found in the back. But curiously, for a book that wants to explore the role, place, function, and substance of the food critic in our society, this book fails to offer many examples of "good criticism." For instance, we learn that other critics love the writing of Gael Greene or Ruth Reichl, but we are not given excerpts from their supposedly noteworthy reviews. Instead, what we have is a real mishmash of text that appears to be the result of standard interviews, cut and pasted into wherever the editors feel it fits. That's three stars... as in average. With higher expectations. Oh well, as Johann Killeen of Al Forno in Providence, RI, says, "any publicity is good publicity." True for Al Forno; less so for this book.
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