Cities

Chicago, Illinois

New Orleans, Louisiana (Mike Ditka's)

Savannah, Georgia

Rating System

The rating system we use is based on five points.  We arrive at a number between 0 and 5 in the following manner:  We each score the restaurant in five different areas Food Quality, Service,  Atmosphere, Bathroom, and Value.  0 is worst, 10 is best.  All of the points are added up, then divided until we get a number between 0 and 5.  It should look something like this:

 

	Mike	Larry	Rob	Tom
Food	8	8	7	7
Service	7	8	7	7
Atmosphere	9	7	8	9
Bathroom	8	8	8	7
Value	8	8	8	8	Grand Total	Divided by  (# of diners X 10) = 40
Total	40	39	38	38	155	3.875

So that we each had an understanding - and to provide our readers with a baseline of the scores - we went through four of the scored areas and discussed which restaurant defines a score of 10.  

Food Quality  - too difficult to nail down what a 10 really was.  The description of the food won't leave you asking many questions.  It's just too hard to name ONE restaurant that defines a 10.  We skipped it without much discussion.  If you want to understand our perception of what constitutes a score of 10 in the other areas, feel free to visit the restaurants mentioned below:

Service - Gibson's defines perfection in service.  You can't find better service.  Most restaurants we visit will be doing well to get a 9.  Gibson's has a waiter hovering over four tables at your beck and call.  If you get up to go to the bathroom, expect to return to a neatly folded napkin - even though you didn't fold it.  The wine steward - and his only responsibility is to know the wine, what it goes with, and how to sell and serve it - knows his job well.  He can match you and your fellow diners up with a wine that compliments your dinner, and follow it up with a recommendation for a dessert wine likely to bring you to the brink of orgasm.  That is, of course, assuming you like dessert.  Or orgasms.

Atmosphere - Carmichael's Steak House's warmly lit mostly wooden dining area, guarded by a  large semi-circular bar at the entrance makes a bold statement.  No other restaurant I have been in says, "steak" like Carmichael's.  We agreed that restaurants could have diverse possibilities and still get a high score for atmosphere.  We chose to use the word atmosphere instead of ambiance because there are some places that couldn't rightly be accused of having "ambiance," yet the emanations definitely add to the experience.  The Twisted Spoke, for example, does not have anything really resembling "ambiance," but the atmosphere created on the northeast corner of Ogden and Grand would be most difficult to replicate - and to forget.

Bathroom - The Twisted Spoke and Carmichael's Steak House were neck and neck on this one.  Not much of a heated discussion, though.  Had there been much of a discussion, I suspect we would have would up violently agreeing on the wonderful bathrooms, and how they are both good in their own ways.  Nothing can ruin an otherwise exceptional meal faster than visiting the bathroom, only to find out that it hasn't been cleaned in a few days, it is out of toilet paper and soap, and the toilet has a brown patina above the water line. 

Value - The Twisted Spoke gives us the most for our buck.  You don't get a better all-around package for the price.  Food quality, service, atmosphere, and bathroom (just a little bit) compared to the price of the food.  Iberico on the 700N block of LaSalle is a close second.  There's a little bit of black magic involved when we do our scoring on this one - and it doesn't necessarily equal $25.00 or less per person equals a good value.  If the food was merely good, and the price was more than we thought it should have been - all things considered - we'll let you know.