A New Restaurant

I went to a local restaurant this past Saturday that I had low expectations of, and it met my expectations.  I had been here before, and I’ve never been impressed with the menu offering or the quality of the food.  I went this past Saturday because I believe in second chances, but mainly because I had a gift certificate and I really believe in free dinners.

I’m not the only one who shares the opinion that this restaurant is, at best, average.   In fact, I have not talked to a single person who thought the food was great, or that it was a great bargain.  The BBQ sauce tasted like it came from a bottle, and the pasta sauce was rather flavorless.  The portion sizes were adequate, but it was a bit pricey for what you got.
The food wasn’t bad, and the menu selection was OK,  but there wasn’t anything that made me want to come back anytime soon.  There was really only one thing that differentiated this restaurant from any of it’s competition: Location.

After the demise of the local Italian eatery, there are very few selections for residents who want to stay local when they go out to eat.  The result of this is, the restaurant can get away with being average, but the place was still full on Saturday evening.

The point being, a great location can make up for a lot of shortcomings.  This restaurants location in an area with little competition has allowed it to be successful despite the fact that it does not excel at providing great food or value.

This isn’t to say you should shoot for average.  If the management and owners would step up their offereings a little bit, the place would probably have lines out the door.  What it does show is the importance of doing your homework when choosing a restaurant location.