This is a fascinating little piece in Eater about how restaurant critics go about trying to get a REAL interpretation of the food and service at a restaurant.  It’s quite difficult when they know who you are!!

New York Times Critic, Pete Wells, Drops DANIEL to 3 Stars, Uses Decoy

In this week’s review, New York Times critic Pete Wells took a star away from chef Daniel Boulud’s 20 year old flagship restaurant, Daniel. (The last time Daniel was reviewed by the Times it got four stars from Frank Bruni back in 2009.) In his review, Wells finds fault with both the food and the service at the long-time four star restaurant. In a sneaky move, Wells — who’s not exactly anonymous — used a decoy. He dined 15 minutes apart from one of his more anonymous colleagues and compared his experience to that of a standard diner. His findings were informative. READ MORE