Restaurant reviewing at The World-Herald is a thorough process. It is designed to give you reviews that are honest, informative and free of outside influence and are also fair to the restaurants they examine.
Our approach is based on the guidelines of the Association of Food Journalists, a national group of restaurant critics and food writers.
Key elements include:
We go unannounced. We don't make reservations under the reviewer's name or call to say we're coming.
Why? To ensure that the reviewer experiences a restaurant just as ordinary diners do.
Multiple visits. We base reviews on two or more visits.
Why? To better judge a restaurant's capabilities and to minimize the impact of a single dining experience -- good or bad -- on a review.
No freebies. We pay for the meals on which reviews are based. We do not solicit or accept restaurants' offers of free meals or anything not offered to other diners.
Why? To avoid special treatment that might influence our opinions.
A grace period. We avoid visiting new restaurants for review within their first month of business.
Why? To give them some time to work out the kinks inherent in starting up any operation.
Checking. After visiting a restaurant but before a review is published, we contact the reviewed restaurant to arrange for photographs, confirm basic facts (such as hours of operation), inquire more about what might have contributed to our experience or changed since our visits, and seek comment about our impressions.
Why? For better accuracy, depth and fairness to both readers and restaurateurs.
Ways to respond: Our reviewer's e-mail address (sarah.bakerhansen@owh.com) is included at the end of each review. Comments intended for publication may be directed or copied to the Public Pulse (pulse@owh.com). Readers also may submit their signed, written accounts of their experiences at a restaurant to the reviewer or her editor (elizabeth.freeman.@owh.com) for potential posting as reader reviews on Omaha.com.
Why? Because we realize the reviewer's opinion is just one opinion.
We'll include an abbreviated version of these guidelines periodically with our dining reviews, and they're posted at omaha.com/go/dining.
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