This year, Square Meal is pulling out all the stops to encourage our readers to leave their comments. If you’ve been to a restaurant, tell people about it on squaremeal.co.uk
and you could win fabulous prizes.
More and more in the restaurant world, everyone who eats out is a critic – and an influential one at that. Social media has made every diner’s voice audible, and restaurateurs are responding to the
sea-change – just one look at the news story on John Burton-Race’s ‘interactive’ restaurant confirms this fact.
Your comments are really important to Square Meal, too. They give other readers a solid base from which to make dining decisions, and they collectively inform our reviews. That’s why we’re awarding
more prizes than ever before for first-time reviewers, promising newcomers and stand-out, one-off comments.
We’re not forgetting long-standing members of our community, either, and are awarding more gold and silver ratings to repeat reviewers. Leaving 10 comments will earn you silver status; 20 reviews
will increase your standing to gold.
This year, we’ve introduced a platinum rating for reviewers who leave more than 50 comments. Earlier this year, Richard E, a platinum reviewer
and Square Meal’s Amateur Restaurant Critic of the Year 2011, became the second person to pass the 100-review mark.
A bottle of Champagne winged its way to him for this achievement.
But it’s not all about quantity – monthly prize draws mean that anyone who gets involved could see themselves treated to bottles of fizz, slap-up meals, days out, weekends away, and more. What are
you waiting for? Get writing today!
THE PRIZES
Join the debate on squaremeal.co.uk and you could win any number of fantastic prizes. In the next few months, we will be giving away: 
• A top-of-the-range Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition tablet (pictured right), worth £329.99
• Dinner, bed and breakfast for two people at one of the 17 hotels in the Hand Picked Hotels portfolio (valid until 30 November 2012)
• A three-course meal for four at Roti Chai Dining Room to the value of £200
• Two premier tickets to the Ultimate Celebration Saturday (Gold Cup) at Sandown Park, worth £74
• Bottles of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne
• Cases of wine
And the winner is…
Congratulations to BoatLady (pictured, left), who has won the Critic of the Quarter title for spring 2012. Square Meal’s editor Ben McCormack praised BoatLady’s
informative and lively reviews: ‘BoatLady can paint a picture of a restaurant in very few words,’ he said. ‘Her comments are a well-rounded mixture of shrewd observation, humour and practical
advice – they’re a joy to read.’
BoatLady, a former City worker, started writing reviews for squaremeal.co.uk in November; since then, she’s written 30, earning herself a gold rating. She wins a £250 meal for two at the London
restaurant of her choice and a bottle of Martell XO Cognac. Here is an excerpt from her winning review, plus soundbites from some of her other critiques.
‘I
love a place that doesn’t have a menu: partly because it says, “trust us, we know what we’re good at and you won’t be disappointed”, mostly because I hate making decisions. Surprisingly, Burger
& Lobster actually has three things on the (notional) menu: burger, lobster and, ta-dah, what is essentially a lobster burger. I wish I had chosen the last option.
One of us had the burger (delicious, apparently, but for £20 you would expect so). I had the lobster; also delicious with its garlicky butter sauce, but quite frankly, those hard little shells
crustaceans developed to stop them being eaten in the sea do the same trick even when the creature has been cooked and served with an array of dissecting forks. It never seems worth the effort or
the money.
If you are going to eat lobster, though, this is probably the best and cheapest place to do it. You can’t fault the decor: diner-ish banquettes and light, wooden wall panels cosy up the exposed
steel vents and give the place a casual air. The service was extremely friendly – effusive even – with the only, very minor, drawback being that the maître d’ didn’t have a handle on seating (we
waited two minutes rather than the 20 warned).
I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to this three-trick pony, but if I was in the area, I’d happily pop in to try the lobster roll and I hope they continue to attract customers once the initial
gimmick-curious glut is over. After all, you’ve got to love a place in Mayfair that provides you with a plastic bib.’
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF BOATLADY’S REVIEWS
How to nail a restaurant review
Do
• keep the review short and concentrate on the facts
• explain why you liked or disliked something
• write to entertain
Don’t
• focus too much on one part of the dining experience
• write about yourself at the expense of the restaurant
• rant – give objective criticism instead
This feature was published in the spring 2012 edition of Square Meal Lifestyle.