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Can You Trust Restaurant Reviews? · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:00
  Nancy - Food Critic: Hey, Sylvia, in 1975, the New York Times food
• 0:03
  critic won a dinner in Paris with a $300 bid to a public charity auction
• 0:09
  Sylvia France: $300 for dinner in Paris?
• 0:13
  Nancy - Food Critic: I know.
• 0:13
  I can't believe it.
• 0:14
  But the bill, listen to this one, came to $4,000.
• 0:19
  31 dishes, nine wines, and one of them was an 1835 Madeira
• 0:24
  Sylvia France: I wish I could have been the plus one for that dinner
• 0:28
  Nancy - Food Critic: For sure.
• 0:29
  but back then the food critic was just one person with a newspaper column, nothing fancy
• 0:34
  Sylvia France: But now, Yelp has over 330 million reviews
• 0:39
  Nancy - Food Critic: Whoa.
• 0:40
  So do stars still matter in that case?
• 0:43
  Sylvia France: Absolutely they do.
• 0:44
  A Harvard study found one or more stars on Yelp meant 5 to 9% more money, especially for independent restaurants
• 0:53
  Nancy - Food Critic: Whoa.
• 0:54
  Oh my God, that is really something.
• 0:57
  This season though, we're trying something a little bit new here.
• 1:00
  It's called Food Fights
• 1:02
  Sylvia France: Every episode, we pick an argument people have at the table and trace it back, that history and mystery
• 1:09
  Nancy - Food Critic: Mm, that's the part that I like.
• 1:10
  So Sylvia, do you remember the food fight in Fried Green Tomatoes?
• 1:15
  Sylvia France: I do, and I love that one.
• 1:17
  . Idgie and Ruth in the Whistle Stop Cafe with flour and blackberries flying,
• 1:22
  and the sheriff even gets hit with a big bowl of chocolate frosting.
• 1:28
  You know, as a good Southern girl, I love a good fried green tomato.
• 1:33
  . I actually make them
• 1:35
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I am not a fan.
• 1:37
  I have tried them however as a good New England girl, I will take a bowl
• 1:42
  of baked beans and a good homemade black bread anytime over that
• 1:46
  Sylvia France: Well, they're a great use for tomatoes left at the end of the
• 1:50
  season, which is not a big deal here in Florida, but in Omaha, Nebraska it was
• 1:55
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, my tomatoes usually just dried up and shriveled up at the end of the season on the windowsill.
• 2:00
  Sylvia France: I can only imagine
• 2:02
  Nancy - Food Critic: But take that image out of your mind, folks, and we
• 2:05
  wanna thank you for being here because we're glad that you're listening today
• 2:08
  Sylvia France: If you like what you hear, follow the show and leave a review.
• 2:11
  That's how other people find us
• 2:14
  Nancy - Food Critic: And so let's give a big shout-out to Norm Dempsey in Sarasota, Florida.
• 2:20
  What do you say, Sylvia?
• 2:22
  Sylvia France: Oh, I love Norman.
• 2:23
  He is a super fan.
• 2:26
  Not only does he comment on all of our episodes, he sends me food videos all the time.
• 2:33
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ah, that's my kind of guy.
• 2:34
  So we'd like to hear where you're listening from too
• 2:38
  Sylvia France: today's fight is ours.
• 2:39
  Nancy and I use reviews in completely different ways
• 2:43
  Nancy - Food Critic: So ever read a pile of reviews and still not know who to trust?
• 2:47
  Sylvia France: By the end, you'll know what to look for and why it matters more now that AI can write a review
• 2:54
  Nancy - Food Critic: Scandalous for sure.
• 2:56
  But first, speaking of scandal, I think we need to have a little bit of a toast
• 3:01
  In honor of Iggy and Ruth, tomato juice with a splash of something extra, I think
• 3:08
  Sylvia France: Oh, are you telling me a Bloody Mary again?
• 3:11
  Okay.
• 3:12
  Nancy - Food Critic: I'm not gonna stop on that one.
• 3:14
  Yes.
• 3:15
  Sylvia France: to every restaurant that ever got a star and fed us anyway
• 3:19
  Nancy - Food Critic: Cheers, and even those that didn't.
• 3:22
  Sylvia France: I check reviews for everyday meals.
• 3:25
  Google, Yelp, sometimes TripAdvisor
• 3:28
  Nancy - Food Critic: Everyday meals?
• 3:29
  Oh, come on, Sylvia
• 3:30
  Sylvia France: Hey, I love a good deal.
• 3:32
  I like the cost-effective breakfast, lunches, dinners, happy hour deals, and of course, early birds.
• 3:38
  , I understand you look when it's only for a hoity-toity expensive dinner
• 3:44
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, well, if I'm putting out good money, I mean a
• 3:47
  lot of good money for a fancy meal, I wanna make sure that it's gonna be good
• 3:51
  Sylvia France: Miss La-Di-Dah yet again
• 3:54
  Nancy - Food Critic: I know.
• 3:56
  I am called Fancy Nancy by my friends here in Brooksville.
• 4:01
  Sylvia France: When I look, I want to find at least three stars.
• 4:04
  Then I check the health inspection score.
• 4:07
  Yelp shows it for a lot of restaurants now
• 4:09
  Nancy - Food Critic: And if there are none there
• 4:12
  Sylvia France: You can actually call your local health department.
• 4:14
  Usually they post them online and sometimes even in the window
• 4:18
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I've seen that up in New York and certainly in Connecticut.
• 4:21
  If it's got a C, I'm probably not going in
• 4:24
  Sylvia France: Smart girl.
• 4:25
  Nancy - Food Critic: Or at least if it does have a C and I'm not feeling well the next day, I know why.
• 4:29
  But I talked about, Duncan Hines in an earlier show.
• 4:33
  You know the guy, Duncan Hines?
• 4:36
  Before his name was on the cake box, he actually used to be a traveling
• 4:39
  salesman who checked the restaurant kitchens before he went to eat there.
• 4:43
  Now, that's a picky eater
• 4:44
  Sylvia France: That's my kind of guy though.
• 4:46
  He just didn't wanna get sick
• 4:47
  Nancy - Food Critic: So, but when I'm spending Le Chambord money, I do open Michelin or Fordor's
• 4:54
  Sylvia France: You know that Michelin was actually a tire company.
• 4:57
  In 1900, they gave drivers a free guide with maps, gas stations, and places to eat.
• 5:03
  You know those marketers again, , the more you drove, the more tires wore out
• 5:08
  Nancy - Food Critic: You know, it's just planned obsolescence.
• 5:10
  But for all your checking when we eat together, neither of us are really looking at anything that I think
• 5:17
  Sylvia France: No, we go somewhere that we know is solid.
• 5:19
  Cooper's Hawk is somewhere we frequent
• 5:22
  Nancy - Food Critic: I like that place.
• 5:23
  Or, the place over by the International Plaza, we know that's pretty solid too
• 5:27
  Sylvia France: Which is what the Harvard study found out.
• 5:30
  Stars didn't matter for chains because people already know what they're getting
• 5:35
  Nancy - Food Critic: Standardized meal right across the board.
• 5:37
  Kind of boring though
• 5:38
  Sylvia France: Kinda like McDonald's,
• 5:40
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah.
• 5:41
  Sylvia France: it's not hoity-toity.
• 5:42
  So who's the toughest critic you eat with?
• 5:46
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh.
• 5:46
  Um, well, that's a tough one, but Bob says it's his brother George, who wouldn't
• 5:52
  say a word at a restaurant and then sometimes just makes a face later on
• 5:57
  Sylvia France: So is George picky or passive aggressive?
• 6:01
  Nancy - Food Critic: I don't think he's much of either, but he's been to some pretty interesting places.
• 6:06
  His business has been the manufacturing and sourcing industry, so he's been to
• 6:09
  Pakistan, Bangladesh, the deep jungles of South America, some backwoods of China.
• 6:16
  Yeah, some sketchy places.
• 6:17
  So I guess his main concern is that he comes out alive more than anything.
• 6:23
  Sylvia France: He sounds like a smart dude to me.
• 6:25
  So, you know, we know what Bob thinks, so who do you think it is?
• 6:29
  Nancy - Food Critic: I think it's Bob.
• 6:31
  If I liked a place and he didn't, he'll pitch a fit about going back for sure
• 6:35
  Sylvia France: And Mine, of course, I know it's hard to fathom, but it's my mom.
• 6:40
  She's just such a picky eater, - But it's so funny that every time we suggest a restaurant she goes,
• 6:47
  "You know me, I will eat anything," and we all just start laughing.
• 6:51
  That's why sh- she ends up picking the restaurant
• 6:53
  Nancy - Food Critic: I'm laughing on that one
• 6:55
  Sylvia France: Visit Tampa Bay paid Michelin about $116,000 a year to come eat here
• 7:02
  Nancy - Food Critic: They paid them to come?
• 7:03
  I've heard that before, but honestly, that's a lot of dough
• 7:07
  Sylvia France: Excuse the pun.
• 7:08
  Nancy - Food Critic: I know.
• 7:10
  Sylvia France: And the first year, Miami and Orlando got stars, and Tampa got a big zip zero goose egg
• 7:17
  Nancy - Food Critic: Hmm.
• 7:17
  Well, zero?
• 7:19
  That's pretty embarrassing
• 7:21
  Sylvia France: I know.
• 7:21
  Sounds like always the bridesmaid and never the bride
• 7:25
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, thankfully I have never been a bridesmaid.
• 7:27
  Ha ha.
• 7:28
  Sylvia France: You know, you're really lucky 'cause it's really expensive and all you get for it is a really tacky dress
• 7:34
  Nancy - Food Critic: That you'd never wear again, obviously,
• 7:36
  Sylvia France: Never.
• 7:37
  No periwinkle blue.
• 7:38
  Mm-mm.
• 7:39
  Nancy - Food Critic: well, Florida gets overlooked a lot, , but
• 7:42
  we're known best for bar-beach food, not fine dining, you know?
• 7:46
  Toes in the sand, glass in the hand.
• 7:48
  I'm good with that
• 7:49
  . Sylvia France: And inside Florida, Tampa Bay gets overlooked next to Miami and Orlando all the time.
• 7:56
  However, Michelin says the money only brings the inspectors to town.
• 8:00
  It doesn't buy a star.
• 8:02
  I don't believe that.
• 8:03
  And you know what?
• 8:04
  Inspectors even have to pay for their own meals
• 8:08
  Nancy - Food Critic: I'm gonna guess that something has slipped to them under the table or
• 8:11
  Sylvia France: I would guess too
• 8:13
  Nancy - Food Critic: But in New York, the guide that I liked that everybody seemed to get as well, was Zagat's.
• 8:19
  The Zagat's were on the local news all the time, and I always listened to what they had to say
• 8:24
  Sylvia France: Didn't… I understand that they were a husband and wife team and they started with regular diners, didn't they?
• 8:30
  Nancy - Food Critic: They did.
• 8:31
  In 1979,- they actually started with their own wine tasting group.
• 8:35
  Every big publisher turned them down when they tried to create and publish their own book, and then companies started
• 8:41
  buying their books by the boxes , as gifts for their clients and employees.
• 8:46
  They'd print the company name on it on the front cover and make sure the date for that year was on.
• 8:51
  So planned obsolescence again
• 8:53
  Sylvia France: So how many do you think that they published over the years?
• 8:57
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a lot.
• 8:59
  But one year apparently Bank of America ordered five million copies.
• 9:04
  Can you think?
• 9:04
  Uh, I think the copies were somewhere around 29 or $39 a piece
• 9:10
  Sylvia France: Wow.
• 9:11
  And I understand Google bought the whole company in 2011 for $151 million
• 9:18
  Nancy - Food Critic: That's a nice retirement package in my book
• 9:21
  Sylvia France: But I understand, you know, your Michelin's done stranger things than tires.
• 9:26
  In 1944, the Allies reprinted a Michelin guide for the invasion of France
• 9:32
  Nancy - Food Critic: I hadn't heard that one, but I'm gonna guess it wasn't for restaurants
• 9:36
  Sylvia France: No, it was for the maps.
• 9:38
  And guess what?
• 9:39
  They took down the road signs
• 9:41
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, of course, so they could buy the maps
• 9:44
  Sylvia France: I think to give a decoy so the enemy couldn't find them, and it worked So I have a question.
• 9:50
  Who do you actually trust as a critic?
• 9:53
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, depends on whether we're talking formal critic or not.
• 9:57
  But on the formal side, my favorite food writer right now is Ruth
• 10:01
  Rachel, and I read nearly all her books, not just her reviews.
• 10:05
  My favorite is the Paris novel
• 10:08
  Sylvia France: So I understand she was a New York Times critic
• 10:11
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yep, she was.
• 10:12
  Restaurants knew her face, and she used to wear wigs and made names for
• 10:16
  the characters that she was trying to be when she went out to dinner.
• 10:20
  - one story was at Le Cirque, where she went as Molly, a retired teacher from Michigan who was visiting the city
• 10:27
  Sylvia France: It sounds like she really wanted to be on Broadway to me.
• 10:30
  So how was Molly treated?
• 10:33
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a poor teacher from Michigan, , she was treated pretty badly.
• 10:37
  And when she went back as herself, guess what?
• 10:40
  They treated her like a queen, darling, and she took away one of the restaurant's stars.
• 10:46
  I've been to Le Cirque.
• 10:48
  I think that was well deserved
• 10:50
  Sylvia France: I haven't been to Le Cirque.
• 10:51
  I'm jealous again.
• 10:53
  So your favorite critic proved restaurants treat critics better than mere mortals like us
• 10:59
  Nancy - Food Critic: Correct.
• 10:59
  I don't think it's fair though
• 11:01
  Sylvia France: I would totally agree.
• 11:03
  Everybody should be equal, especially if you have the money to pay for the expensive dinner.
• 11:08
  And the wigs are done.
• 11:10
  - In 2025, The Times named two head critics and stopped hiding their faces - because restaurants were spotting them anyway
• 11:19
  Nancy - Food Critic: And then, so who are we trusting or who are you trusting?
• 11:23
  Sylvia France: I go for crowdsourcing myself except I do admit the crowd has let me down a time or two
• 11:30
  Nancy - Food Critic: Now give me an example of that one
• 11:32
  Sylvia France: Well, there was this wonderful seafood Chinese restaurant, and it received a 4.0 on Yelp
• 11:38
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, I wanna hear that story, 'cause I've got a
• 11:41
  Chinese restaurant of my own but we'll tell you more right after the break.
• 11:46
  Stay tuned
• 13:19
  Sylvia France: As a single diner, I was stuck in the corner
• 13:23
  under an air conditioner that was actually leaking water
• 13:27
  Nancy - Food Critic: So you're kind of like Molly from Michigan, but how was the food?
• 13:33
  Was it any good?
• 13:34
  Sylvia France: I wasn't impressed with that either, but I'm not sure
• 13:36
  if it was the drip, drip, drip, drip that I kept hearing as I was eating
• 13:41
  Nancy - Food Critic: You know, honestly, I would have walked out, but that's me.
• 13:44
  But I also have a Chinese experience too.
• 13:47
  Friends told us a place we had to go in town, and Bob and I ordered pad Thai, one of our favorites.
• 13:53
  And you know what?
• 13:54
  The pad Thai noodles were made with good old Ronzoni spaghetti noodles.
• 13:58
  Sylvia France: Spaghetti.
• 13:59
  . I wouldn't have been surprised if it was from Walmart.
• 14:02
  You at least thought it was the high-end stuff.
• 14:04
  But If I remember correctly, pad Thai is supposed to have flat rice noodles
• 14:10
  Nancy - Food Critic: That's what I thought, but another friend also told us about a different restaurant.
• 14:14
  Oh, this case we were looking for Italian.
• 14:16
  New to the area, they suggested Carrabba's was the best Italian food they had ever had.
• 14:21
  Now, I have to tell you, I'm a little biased.
• 14:23
  We are from New York and Connecticut, so I think the best Italian food is from there.
• 14:28
  But we could barely get through that meal at Carrabba's without telling each other how sad that recommendation was,
• 14:34
  and I know we were thinking twice about the relationship we had with that friend,
• 14:39
  both on the Chinese and the Carrabba's.
• 14:41
  Sylvia France: You should have looked at the reviews first
• 14:44
  Nancy - Food Critic: But they were good No accounting for taste here.
• 14:47
  Sorry
• 14:47
  Sylvia France: Well, and you know, that's my worry with reviews too.
• 14:50
  Plenty of them come from people who like bad food because they
• 14:54
  just don't know any different, especially if they love Italian food
• 14:59
  Nancy - Food Critic: You know, I'm beginning to think that we're a bit
• 15:00
  of food snobs, but on that note, if we are, what do you check for now?
• 15:06
  Sylvia France: I always look for how many reviews there are.
• 15:08
  I want at least 50.
• 15:10
  I want them recent and not from years ago
• 15:13
  Nancy - Food Critic: So can you give me an idea of else you look for?
• 15:18
  Sylvia France: Oh, I love the pictures of the food and the room
• 15:21
  and mostly good reviews, , but a bad one or two doesn't scare me.
• 15:26
  It means actually a real person wrote the review
• 15:29
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I would think a real person would've written the review
• 15:32
  Sylvia France: Well, Yale actually tested that.
• 15:35
  They showed 151 people real Yelp reviews mixed with ones written by AI
• 15:41
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, that's getting sneaky.
• 15:43
  I didn't realize that AI was actually getting involved in food reviews or restaurant reviews today
• 15:48
  Sylvia France: Yes, and only one in six of them got 16 out of the 20 right.
• 15:53
  And in 2025, Yelp filtered out nearly a half a million reviews that looked like AI wrote them.
• 16:00
  Nancy - Food Critic: You know, interestingly enough, there's a few AI podcasts written out there
• 16:03
  too - But I understand fake reviews aren't even legal anymore
• 16:08
  Sylvia France: Nope, not since 2024.
• 16:11
  The FTC banned faked reviews, including ones written by AI, and businesses that buy them can be fined
• 16:18
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, do you know
• 16:20
  Sylvia France: That's, we'll put it in the show notes.
• 16:22
  . Nancy - Food Critic: And Google
• 16:23
  Sylvia France: On Google Maps, AI will sum up a restaurant's reviews
• 16:27
  for you, so some people never even read a real review at all
• 16:32
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ah, , so Google Gemini, I guess, is doing that for us instead
• 16:35
  Sylvia France: Yes, some people like to take the easy
• 16:38
  way out
• 16:39
  Nancy - Food Critic: yeah, I'm not sure I would trust a, computer who'd
• 16:41
  never even eaten anything before to do a review on a restaurant for me
• 16:45
  Sylvia France: You'll also see it all over the internet that people post 26,000 Yelp reviews a minute
• 16:52
  Nancy - Food Critic: Oh my God, homeny?
• 16:53
  Sylvia France: Well, at that speed, Yelp would pass its whole 330 million in about nine days.
• 17:00
  The number goes back to a data company's marketing graphic from around 2017
• 17:05
  Nancy - Food Critic: You know, I love data, but I think that's pushing it
• 17:09
  Sylvia France: what I wish is every review told me where to park
• 17:13
  Nancy - Food Critic: Okay, that I would agree with.
• 17:15
  Downtown Tampa and even getting into Manhattan is crazy.
• 17:19
  But we ate downtown not too long ago together before a podcast meeting,
• 17:23
  and happily at a wonderful Japanese restaurant that I had eaten at before
• 17:28
  - Sylvia France: And what was really great, it was around the corner, so we only had to park once
• 17:33
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, but we unfortunately took the long route around to find the door.
• 17:37
  Sylvia France: We had on flats, so quit complaining
• 17:40
  Nancy - Food Critic: But when I wrote a bad review myself, the
• 17:42
  crowd came running after me with pitchforks, uh, and maybe burning forks
• 17:47
  Sylvia France: So wasn't that the coffee place?
• 17:49
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, it was, and here's what happened.
• 17:52
  Bob and I decided to stop into this new drive-in coffee place with the name on top
• 17:57
  of the drive-through that said name and the word brew, right in lit up letters.
• 18:03
  And we asked the young woman who's outside helping us with orders for a coffee, a plain hot coffee.
• 18:10
  She looked at us for a couple of seconds, kinda bewildered, and then said, "Oh, we don't serve coffee."
• 18:17
  Sylvia France: At a place called Brew
• 18:20
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah.
• 18:20
  Can you get that threw me for a loop.
• 18:23
  Both of us kinda looked at each other bewildered.
• 18:25
  But I decided to put a little social experiment out there on Facebook - and the solution to the coffee that
• 18:30
  we were looking for . We just drove across the street to Dunkin'.
• 18:34
  Believe it or not, strangers went after my butt like you wouldn't believe it.
• 18:39
  Including that I didn't know how to offer coffee, my age, my fat butt, so they thought.
• 18:45
  They didn't even see my butt.
• 18:49
  And that I should take my car and drive over to McDonald's and get a senior discount instead.
• 18:54
  Wait a second.
• 18:55
  Sylvia France: That was just terrible, and they weren't even talking about coffee anymore
• 19:00
  Nancy - Food Critic: No, nasty.
• 19:02
  Totally nasty.
• 19:03
  But here's another one that I also thought was nasty, not to me, but to somebody else, a poor waitress.
• 19:09
  A woman who I recently met who had been a manager for 23 years at one
• 19:13
  of those big food chains - and been moved around to different locations.
• 19:16
  Well, at this one steak restaurant, apparently a 16-year-old was out with her mother, and the 16-year-old pitched, I'll
• 19:23
  be polite, a fit, a hissy fit because her mother's steak was not cooked properly
• 19:29
  Sylvia France: that sounds, like, overboard since all she really had to do was to send it back
• 19:34
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a 16-year-old obviously doesn't understand that.
• 19:37
  But the waitress was young and new on the job and apparently went back to the kitchen just in tears because
• 19:44
  the daughter tore into her like, I guess this was life-threatening
• 19:49
  Sylvia France: Over a steak
• 19:51
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah, . So the manager came out, after cooling her own jets,
• 19:56
  And explained to the 16-year-old How she could send the plate back , and ask for it to be done politely.
• 20:01
  Then the 16-year-old lit into the manager and said she was gonna drive the company out of business.
• 20:07
  Now, this is a national chain.
• 20:08
  One 16-year-old, one hissy fit.
• 20:11
  Really?
• 20:12
  But the manager finally said, " Listen, darling.
• 20:15
  This is only over steak and potatoes.
• 20:17
  It is not life-threatening
• 20:20
  Sylvia France: If my 16-year-old would have done that, I would have had their butts
• 20:24
  Nancy - Food Critic: I would've done the same.
• 20:25
  And if it had been me at 16, we'd never been allowed back at a restaurant again
• 20:30
  Sylvia France: But I did hear how Bebe was not a good hostess, so same kind of thing
• 20:35
  Nancy - Food Critic: No, she was bad.
• 20:36
  But another issue for me is the room matters, the environment.
• 20:40
  .. There was a fancy place near us that we went to for an anniversary
• 20:43
  dinner, and the food was excellent, but we had another issue
• 20:48
  Sylvia France: What was wrong with it?
• 20:50
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, we had a delicious meal, but
• 20:52
  unfortunately the place was kind of like our grandmother's parlor.
• 20:55
  Uh, and my grandmother's been long gone, so you can imagine what that was like.
• 21:00
  - But it felt like there was an inch of dust on the drapes.
• 21:02
  I don't think that was really true, but it just had a little dirty, kind of feel about it.
• 21:07
  And all the customers came in in T-shirts and jeans.
• 21:10
  All right, they were clean.
• 21:11
  But maybe I'm a snob.
• 21:13
  If you're going out to a nice, fairly expensive meal, I think you should dress at least better than jeans and sneakers
• 21:20
  Sylvia France: Well, I'll vouch for you.
• 21:21
  You're not a snob.
• 21:22
  But I do think dress code matters, except on the beach
• 21:28
  Nancy - Food Critic: I agree, although maybe a pedicure helps.
• 21:31
  Sylvia France: Well, there's nothing better than eating your dinner, watching the sunset with sand in between my toes.
• 21:36
  The bar food even tastes great, but maybe it's because I've had a glass of wine or two as well
• 21:40
  Nancy - Food Critic: I know.
• 21:41
  As long as there's a glass in my hand, I'm good.
• 21:43
  .. But I usually like the environment as long as the food is good
• 21:46
  Sylvia France: And in Rome, I understand you had both
• 21:50
  Nancy - Food Critic: We did.
• 21:50
  Oh my God.
• 21:51
  I was with my mom on a girls trip, and we were having our last meal in
• 21:55
  Rome at the top of a little boutique hotel overlooking the Colosseum.
• 22:00
  It was absolutely magical
• 22:02
  Sylvia France: So what did you have?
• 22:04
  Please do tell
• 22:05
  Nancy - Food Critic: it was a very simple meal, but it was so interesting and delicious.
• 22:09
  It was a pasta dish, fresh pasta, with tuna and a lavender sauce.
• 22:15
  And the wine, spectacular.
• 22:17
  The chef came out under my request, I had to ask, and gave me the recipe, which I have not been able to recreate.
• 22:24
  I did try.
• 22:25
  And also gave us the name of the wine, which Bob and I have bought back here as well
• 22:30
  Sylvia France: It sounds like the perfect ending for such a special vacation
• 22:35
  Nancy - Food Critic: It was.
• 22:35
  And I have to say, the wine doesn't taste quite as good back in the States as it did there
• 22:40
  Sylvia France: That's not surprising.
• 22:42
  So who wins?
• 22:43
  Your guide or my daily Yelp?
• 22:46
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, for a big fancy dinner, I'm still opening Michelin or Four Doors
• 22:51
  . Sylvia France: And I'm still checking before I go anywhere
• 22:54
  Nancy - Food Critic: No, I'm not gonna check the dive, so we're fine.
• 22:58
  But then let's settle it.
• 22:59
  , Next time we're downtown for another meeting, you pick the place your way, and I'll pick another one the next time my way
• 23:06
  Sylvia France: and we'll report back, and we'll let you know where we ended up going
• 23:11
  .. Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, we'll let you know in our Facebook group.
• 23:13
  - So five things to take with you before we go.
• 23:16
  One, look for more than 50 reviews if you want to be like Sylvia, and make sure that they're recent
• 23:22
  Sylvia France: Everybody wants to be like Sylvia.
• 23:25
  two, check the photos and the health score.
• 23:27
  Yelp shows the score for a lot of places
• 23:30
  Nancy - Food Critic: Three, a bad review or two is just fine, but remember, AI can write one now
• 23:36
  too, and most people can't tell the difference between human and non-human
• 23:41
  Sylvia France: Four, a guide only covers the places it was brought to.
• 23:44
  No stars doesn't mean the food is not good
• 23:47
  Nancy - Food Critic: Five, if the view made the meal special, say so in your review
• 23:52
  Sylvia France: Okay, it's time for another toast.
• 23:55
  To tomato juice again
• 23:57
  Nancy - Food Critic: And I'm getting the vodka.
• 23:59
  , To the meals where the place and the people did half the cooking or made them just a little bit more tasty
• 24:06
  Sylvia France: Santé to health
• 24:08
  Nancy - Food Critic: Cheers.
• 24:08
  So do us all a favor and everybody else who's listening, and tell us the worst restaurant recommendation you've ever got.
• 24:16
  You can find us on Facebook at Family Tree Food Stories or let us know on our podcast page, Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com
• 24:25
  Sylvia France: And if you liked this one, of course, leave us a review
• 24:28
  Nancy - Food Critic: Yes.
• 24:29
  Not an AI one, please.
• 24:31
  And next time on our food fights…
• 24:33
  Sylvia France: we're gonna be having a food fight about retro foods
• 24:37
  Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, I can't wait for that one.
• 24:39
  I've got my list starting already
• 24:41
  Sylvia France: you already told me that your fondue forks were out
• 24:44
  so be kind to your waiter, happy cooking, and happy experimenting
• 24:49
  Nancy - Food Critic: Like, give me an extra shot of vodka.
• 24:50
  Sylvia France: You need a piece of bacon in it or celery
• 24:54
  Nancy - Food Critic: Celery yes,, yes.
• 24:54
  Bacon, no.
• 24:55
  Sylvia France: That's a Southern thing.
• 24:56
  . Nancy - Food Critic: I've never heard of bacon
• 24:58
  Sylvia France: Oh, they have it all the time.
• 24:59
  There's a beach bar here that for $5 you get a glass and you can make your own bloody Mary, . you know, they give
• 25:06
  you, like, a shot of vodka, and you, can put celery, you can put bacon, you can put all kinds of schmutz in your Mary
• 25:14
  Nancy - Food Critic: I've never heard of bacon and Bloody Mary, but
• 25:15
  Sylvia France: It's a Southern thing.
• 25:16
  They're not gonna do that in hoity-toity New York
• 25:19
  Nancy - Food Critic: Well, they do some other strange things in New York, but they'll probably put caviar on top.
• 25:23
  A little extra dash of salt.