Do Zagat Ratings Make Sense?
Let me start by saying that I have been a devoted Zagat fan, follower, whatever for years. It has been my source of choice when deciding on which retaurant to go to. I’ve had an online subscription for years and rate restuarants for their survey. I would quote Zagat ratings whenever a group of us had to try and decide on which retaurant to go to and even used it to factually back-up my arguments on which restaurant was best - Zagat says so, argument closed! You can say that I was the poster child for Zagat.
I used to travel a lot for work. I was a consultant so always on the road, spending way too much time in Dallas, Atlanta and even Arkansas. Since New York restaurants were my reference point I created my own system for adjusting Zagat ratings in other cities so that I could gauge food quality against New York. Of course, New York restaurants set the standard so ratings in all other cities were adjusted lower. A 25 rating in Dallas represented the equivalent of a 20 rating in New York, though that may be too generous but that’s another blog. This of course drove people in Texas crazy, but I stuck to my point adjustment scheme wherever I went. My basic rationale was that people in other cities do not have the same reference point - logical right?
The problem now is that I think New York restaurants have inflated ratings. It was one thing to believe that ratings were inflated everywhere but New York. This has thrown my whole rating scheme and the natural order of things for me into turmoil. How do I now judge restaurants in New York let alone in other cities? Some examples include recent visits to Aureole and Tamarind (more on that in an earlier post). Aureole has a 27 food rating, it was good but did it really deserve a 27? 27 should be wow, but it was good, well executed food, but not a wow. Tamarind witha 25 rating is the highest rated Indian restaurant in New York. It’s good but not the best. I think Devi is better, but inconsistent. Is it that the ratings are inflated or my standards are just too high? Were they always inflated and I was foolish to have the faith in the ratings that I did?
So where do I go from here? I’ve started using the ratings in New York as general indications rather then absolute values. Anything over 25 is very good, 28 or higher should be a wow, anything between 18-21 is just ok, anything under 18 is to be avoided and anything between 22-25 is good, not exceptional. Also, within each band restaurants are comparable rather then better then one another.
Lets hope this works better for me. Of course I’ll still keep my Zagat online subscription.
Anyone else have any ideas for me? Do you think the Zagat ratings are inflated?
I applaud your logic in regards to the system to guage/balance comparisons of food ratings from city to city.
I’ve been in the F&B business for decades and I can tell you that most in the business see Zagat as a necessary evil. With it, tourists and travelers have an appropriate index. Without it they don’t always know about your restaurant. However, the ratings area is where the integrity of the guide rapidly slides downhill. Utilization of untrained reviewers can (and always will) lead to this type of result. My recommendation, as well as that of most of my colleagues, search out the big local papers - identify the best of the reviewers - and go from there.