First of all know what kind of restaurant you are going to unless of course you are looking for something generic and the dishes are ordinary. If the person is looking for a good fish restaurant, the rule of thumb I would use is concentrate on a seafood restaurant or on good ethnic cuisine where fish is common.

So a good Greek restaurant may do well with its swordfish dinner, as it would with its "mousaka, and chicken plates. A good local Italian Deli can do well with its tortellini dishes as it can with its spinach filled calzone. Swordfish is tastier when moist and a chicken dinner tastes best if the meat isn"t dry and the fowl does look as if it was under some hormone treatment.

If the waitress is mean, I wouldn't blame the restaurant, she might have had a bad day and worse come to worse if the service was really bad, she will probably be seeing her last day. Some people judge the establishment on the basis of who greets them without thinking that the food is a more important issue. Understanding that many waiters are not well paid and their conditions are poor, I would concentrate more on whether the dinner is served cold when it should be hot.

The way the dinner is presented is a big issue these days. In recent times restaurants have reduced their portions rather than increase their prices. But if the person is supposed to have a hamburger steak that has been reduced in size to a pea and it the side plate of French fries looks like they had been scraped from the bottom of the cooker or wire meshed holder, then the person should complain to the management. Complaining to the waitress who is discontent in her work place might not be the way to get the right amount of food on the plate, the best thing is to speak to the management.

If it is an old diner you are going to, look to see that the diner seats are not slashed and that the cutlery is not bent or frail looking. Appearances of this sort not to mention if the restaurant has a cracked window front are tale-tale signs of poor upkeep or management.

Usually appearance of this sort are not common in contemporary restaurants that appeal to the yuppie crowd Renewal is a key to continued success in restaurant management or bar management for that matter. Anywhere where people are going to sit and enjoy a meal, comfort and security are important. I wouldn't feel terribly secure next to a broken restaurant window.

One should know what the staple of the country is and get an idea of the price levels to see if that fits their budget. Staple meals are usually the cheapest as pizza and spaghetti plates are relatively cheap at Italian restaurants. Comparing pizza prices was a good way of knowing whether I would bother eating at the establishment especially if I felt there were no amenities like table cloths and wine goblets with rolled in linen napkins on the table to begin with.

To many people knowing that the restaurant has a liquor license might be relevant. Some people like to know that they can have a digestive after their dinner without going to another place. Most family restaurants beyond the fast food level carry such permits anyway.

Families might be looking for the availability of children's menus much the same way that McDonald's has introduced smaller sized burgers on its menus. It means that a family can save on dinner costs and would then be more likely to return.