At the top of most restaurants and bars in the city guides we post, you will notice a ranking of food, atmosphere, service, and beverage program/wine list (if applicable). All of our ratings are highly subjective and totally biased, but they are there to give you a general idea of how we would rank a place, for us. That way, once you get an idea of how we feel about a place, you can decide how it might feel for you. It might be totally different. It might be the same. The point is- we don’t want you to waste your time. We are just here to share the things we love, and hopefully you will get the opportunity to love them too.
Here are three guides to some of the cities we visit the most:
London Guide // Paris Guide // Singapore Guide
Don’t know what to pack? Here’s Jess’s Packing List.
Special Considerations:
Whenever possible, we sit at the bar.
Sometimes, we review restaurants that offer multiple seating areas and they provide different experiences. It is safe to assume we will be reviewing our time from two bar seats.
We do not mention cost.
Prices change often. If you would like to know the price of anything we review, please contact the restaurant/bar/hotel directly.
We do not have children.
And we don’t pay much mind to them when we are traveling. So, we don’t know how ‘family friendly’ anything is.
We are biased.
Sometimes, all it takes is one good server or bartender to take a service score up a few points. Same with who you’re randomly seated next to. This is why… we do not rate anything we can’t recommend.
We update our city guides after returning to a city.
Restaurants close, people leave. We can’t monitor this site every day, so if you do notice any changes in places we have recommended, let us know.
We eat what we like.
You will rarely see reviews on things we don’t eat often or don’t like… this includes: breakfast, dessert, and cafes (Gio is a non-coffee drinker and Jess hates most sweets). We love Asian food. Also, we do not know how ‘vegan-friendly’ anything is.
How We rate:
The Four Elements
All elements are rated out of 10 possible points
And not every review will include each (ex. food at bars… or if we don’t eat at a restaurant we will simply rate the bar)
Service
10 = we will remember our server’s name several years down the road after a single visit, and many other members of staff showed great hospitality as well
9+ = world-class, exceptional service
8+ = excellent service
7+ = good service
6+ = average service
5 and below = varying degrees of bad service
Atmosphere
10 = will never forget it for the rest of our lives
9+ = world-class and worth a trip to experience
8+ = excellent atmosphere
7+ = good atmosphere
6+ = average atmosphere
5 and below = varying degrees of an overall bad vibe
Food
10 = we have travelled or will travel around the world solely to eat here again, and we are certain no one in the world can make a better ‘X’
9+ = world-class, exceptional food with very memorable dishes
8+ = excellent food and a memorable dish or two
7+ = good, solid food + might even return
6+ = average food
5 and below = varying degrees of bad food and we would rather not return
Beverage Program/Wine List
10 = either the best cocktails we have ever had OR an exceptional wine list that includes several hard-to-get wines at an unheard-of value
9+ = brilliant and innovative cocktails that are delicious, highly memorable, and provide something for everyone OR world-class wine list from world-class sommelier
8+ = excellent cocktails OR excellent wine list
7+ = good
6+ = average
5 and below = varying degrees of bad beverage management, often providing only bad well-liquor from a single distributor OR ‘wines-by-the glass-only’
0 = ‘natural-wine-list-only’
