Terrific Ramen—with a Side of Quirks
I've got a great lead on this bowl of wonder—if you're willing to overlook a few rough edges.
This week’s review presented a struggle I’ve been facing since the launch of this newsletter. What should I do when the food is undeniably delightful, yet a few aspects of the dining experience fall short?
When I first started this newsletter, I envisioned only writing about a place if it was all-out great; after all, there’s enough negativity on the Internet already, right? Trouble is, this approach means passing up the opportunity to share some truly outstanding food.
I could follow the approach of, I suspect, most of today’s influencers, focusing only on the positives and leaving out the less-impressive details. However, that risks giving diners an incomplete picture. Nothing in my 25 years of writing reviews has ever made me feel worse than when a diner has told me they’ve felt misled by something I wrote.
The only option that feels right to me is to celebrate the highlights while acknowledging the shortcomings—an approach that respects both the complexity of the dining experience and the reader’s ability to weigh the trade-offs for themselves. After all, great food deserves to be recognized, even when the overall experience falls short of perfection.
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