How to tell if you'll enjoy a restaurant before the first bite

Here's the clues to look for to avoid dropping $500 on a flop

For many eaters, choosing a restaurant for dinner with friends is a crapshoot. 

A party of four lays $500 on red or black, and hopes the ball bounces their way. Walking up to a new restaurant’s door, you feel blind date jitters. Will you get lucky tonight?

Even after 15 years of paying close attention to restaurants, I still gamble. But that experience has given me an edge at this particular game. If a diner knows what clues to look for, they can even the odds at the tables, or even bend them in their favor.

Here’s how I play the game. 

I’m a detective from the Restaurant Assessment Bureau. My job is to gather intel, then offer odds on whether a restaurant will please me. 

It’s more like math than magic. If you’re willing to do the legwork to investigate your next suspect, you’ll dramatically narrow the odds of a “bad beat.” 

This is how to build a case.