Reader's Question: How do you determine ratings for each restaurant?

Image source: Google search

I have to be honest, I am not a food blogger at heart. I am a fashion and beauty blogger TURNED food and travel blogger because I would like to channel my love and passion for eating and travelling, hence the "about me" section says it all.

For the past few weeks, I have been in the roll in publishing restaurant reviews and I received a comment about a particular restaurant that I have made my review on. The comment-er basically asked how I will be able to rate high-end restaurants if I gave a high rating to a non high-end restaurant. I have my ways in doing reviews and ratings and I follow a very strategic way on how I do this.

Basically, I have four (4) categories for restaurants:

1. Fast Food - as we all know, fast food restaurant emphasizes on the speed of service. These types of restaurant do not offer full table service and their meals are usually served in disposable plates and cutlery. Examples of fast food restaurants are KFC, McDonald's, Jollibee, etc.

2. Fast Casual - just like fast food, they usually do not offer full table service but the difference is that they offer non-disposable plates and cutlery. The quality of food and prices tend to be higher than those of a conventional fast food restaurant but may be lower than casual dining. Examples are Bon Chon, Teriyaki Boy, 50s Diner, RA MEN OH, etc.

3. Casual Dining - this is the type of restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual ambiance. in this category, I also add in some of the casual buffet-style dining like Dad's, Kamay Kainan, Kamayan, etc.

4. Fine Dining - this is the type wherein they offer full service with specific dedicated meal courses. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire. Food portions are visually appealing and they have certain rules of dining which visitors are generally expected to follow often including a dress code. Examples are Heat (in EDSA Shangri-La Hotel), Spiral (in Sofitel Manila), Annabel's (which we do not own, by the way), etc.

I know that it may be a little confusing to some of you but the reason why I do this is that I want to be able to cover all types of restaurants and to give them the rating, that I think, they deserve and not minding whether they are a high-end restaurant or a non high-end restaurant.

I hope this helps you to determine how I do my reviews and ratings.

How to: Red Velvet Cake

Being a person that's utterly obsessed with anything red velvet, may it be cupcakes or cakes, I decided to try and look for the best Red Velvet Cake recipe that I've tried. So far, this is the best that I've tried and it's from Bakerella.com.

I'm starting a new blog segment that's basically a post about tutorials, demos, and how to's that's related to travel and food. Let's get started with the recipe.

What you will need...

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 oz. red food coloring

Steps...

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
• Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
• Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
• Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
• Then make the frosting.

To make the Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

• Sift sugar and set aside. 
• Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla. 
• Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition. 
• And frost away.

Enjoy your heart out!