As with any adventure, there must be rules. Without a system, how could anything be decided? Thus, the following rules have been created to level the playing field:

the method to our madness

  1. We must eat at each establishment on San Pablo starting from the northern boundary of El Cerrito near MacDonald Avenue. Restaurants that front on San Pablo without a San Pablo address will be listed separately. No end point has been established. If a hospital stay occurs, maybe that’s a solid candidate for an end.
  2. We’ll only visit establishments that serve food or beverages for immediate consumption that will incur the state eat-in tax (because we like to give back), or have take-out that can be eaten immediately. Wherever possible, we will eat in the establishment so that we can evaluate the “ambiance”.
  3. Both of us must attend the establishment. As Yelp has proved, one opinion is a wildly poor indicator of anything. Two, while flimsy at best, seem to be a slightly more reasonable way to make an evaluation.
  4. If there is an obvious specialty of the house (although the “$7.99 Prime Rib Special” banner on Carrows’ roof doesn’t count), we’ll give it a shot, because who wants to eat non-recommended food?
  5. Within each entry we’ll list the name, address, what we ordered and the final tab. We’ll post our review within 24 hours a reasonable amount of time after our visit (unless the hospital doesn’t have wifi).
  6. Since we’re non-scientifically ranking things, we obviously need a best-of list. We’re going to rank the best three places as we move down San Pablo. Since the restaurants vary widely in cuisine and atmosphere, it’ll come down to our top three (3) dining experiences (we’ve had some FINE dining experiences at Waffle House).