I win again! The past few months — ever since Laura Reiley took over for Sherman — the Times and CL have reviewed the same restaurants on the very same week on several occasions. I'm sure that she follows similar rules about waiting long enough to let the restaurant find it's footing, but not so long that the place is old news, whenever possible, so the coincidence is understandable. I'm just glad CL comes out on Wednesday, so my reviews get a 24 hour head start.
More interesting than that, however, is when our opinions differ. With Cheap, we differed a lot. Chalk it up to a difference in palate, the usual night-to-night variances in a restaurant's performance, or even a fundamental disagreement in what food should be like. In any case, restaurant reviews are like any other type of criticism: you need to figure out how well the reviewer matches your own preferences before you can determine how to use the review.
When it comes to Cheap, who do you guys agree with?
This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2007.