Restaurant Reviews: About

I started these restaurant reviews, formerly monthly restaurant reviews, because we live in a small mountain town and were not familiar with the nearby Boulder restaurant scene. Boulder offers a multitude of great dining establishments for a city of 100,000. I approach the reviews as a foodie, an avid cook and baker, and a former resident of Los Angeles County (few other places can boast such breadth and depth of ethnic cuisines as LA). Why no more monthly reviews? Time, money, and the fact that we go back to our favorites with guests and friends. And although I think the restaurants in Boulder on a whole are terrific - they've more than nailed French and Italian - I find the ethnic dining to be lacking.

The price of our meal including alcohol and tax is listed next to each restaurant, and the overall score (out of 100 points) with letter grade in parentheses follows. A score of 95 is pretty much the ceiling and then it takes that extra something to get a score beyond that. My scoring will fluctuate with more data points, but I try to remain internally consistent. I base my reviews on a combination of the food, service, presentation, style, ethic, and atmosphere. I also do all of the food photography to help prod your appetite!

**Note: I realize there are a lot of A's which seems like grade inflation (aka The Harvard Effect), but looking back over the A's, they were all deserved and I think that speaks to the quantity of good dining establishments in the Boulder restaurant scene (and the fact that I don't seek out dining at crappy places if I can avoid it).