We all do it. You search for a place to eat, spot a restaurant with a low star rating, and keep scrolling. Two men in North Carolina decided to do the opposite, and ordered a big spread from a Mexican restaurant rated just 3.4 out of 5 stars to find out whether the score was fair.
The pair behind @swollenbacks are upfront about the mission. As they put it, the whole point was to see why the place had such low ratings. The restaurant is called Del Rancho, and they tagged the location so anyone curious could find it.
Before the first bite, they did something that made the whole thing feel more like a Sunday dinner than a review.
@swollenbacks
A prayer, a pinky toast, and a table full of food
They held up their pinkies, as they do at the start of every taste test, and one of them said a short prayer thanking the country of Mexico for its beautiful cooking. Then they got down to it.
For their first dish they picked enchiladas with mole sauce, which one of them said looked great. They also ordered tamales and a third dish, and worked their way through the table one plate at a time, rating each as they went.
The verdict
By the end, the review was a surprise. They called the food pretty good overall and said it surprised them, with the shock factor up there. The one real letdown was the rice, which one of them said just was not it.
In the end, they gave their overall experience a 10 out of 10, thanked the owners, and asked followers to suggest where they should eat next.
It is a fun reminder that a number on a screen does not always tell the whole story. Here is how to make a smarter call the next time you are staring at a 3.4.
How to read a low rating
- Read the reviews, not just the stars. A restaurant can be dinged for a long wait, a hard-to-find parking lot, or one bad week of service, while the food itself is fine. Look for patterns in what people say, not one angry post.
- Check the dates. Newer reviews matter more. A place that had a rough patch two years ago may have a new cook or new owners today.
- Look at the number of reviews. A 3.4 from twelve people is a very different thing than a 3.4 from twelve hundred.
- Look at the photos. Pictures from real customers show the portions, the plating, and the dining room better than any description.
- Order what they are known for. If a place has a signature dish, start there. The enchiladas with mole got the first spot in this taste test for a reason.
Give the little guys a chance
Small, family-run restaurants often live and die by those star ratings, and a few harsh reviews can scare off the very customers who would have loved the food. If a place looks clean when you walk in, the staff are friendly, and the menu has a few things that sound good, it may be worth a try. Order a couple of different dishes to share, as the guys did. That way one disappointing plate, like the rice in this case, will not spoil the whole meal.
And if you do find a hidden gem, do what @swollenbacks did. Tell people. A kind word and a good review can do a lot of good for a small restaurant.
One more thing to keep in mind is that restaurants of every size have off nights, and a rating is an average of many of them. If you do give a low-rated spot a try and the experience is good, leave a kind review with a few specifics, such as the dish you ordered and how quickly it came out. That helps the next hungry person decide, and it helps the owner know what is working. Fair reviews, good and bad, are what make star ratings useful in the first place.
And bring a friend. Having two or three people at the table lets you order more dishes, share them around, and compare notes, which is exactly how these two figured out which plates deserved a high score and which one did not.
More Stories You May Like
- She Walked Up to a Stranger in a Restaurant and Asked to Eat Together and They Said Yes and Even Gave Her Tips on Spring Rolls
- Soldier Home After a Year in Korea Surprised His Mom Who He Had Not Seen in Two Years and the Cheering Crowd Said It All
- Restaurant Owner Says an Influencer Praised Her Food to Their Faces and Left a 6 Dollar Tip on 200 Dollars Before Trashing Them Online
