Best Steak: Iron Barley / Special Cut Smoked Ribeye Stake + BBQ Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp Appetizer = $20

Best Burger: Liluma / The Burger = $9

Best Bar Food: Barrister’s / Blackened Tilapia Sandwich + Soft Pretzels and Guinness Cheese Sauce = $15

Best Dessert: The Cupcakery / Plain Confetti Cupcake Cookie = $2

Best Pizza: Dewey’s Pizza / Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza with Red Sauce = $14

Best BBQ: Pappy’s Smokehouse / Pulled Pork Sandwich + Sweet Tea = $10

Best Italian: Bartolino’s Osteria / Canoli = $15

Best Drink: Bailey’s Chocolate Bar / Chocolate Stout Beer Shake = $5

Best Mediterranean: Coffee Oasis / Deluxe Gyro with Tzaziki and Hummus = $9

Best Mexican: Chavas / El Mireko + Chile con Queso = $9

Best French: Atlas Restaurant / Grilled Lamb Loin Chops + Piccolo Frito with Lemon Garlic Aoli = $23

Best Vietnamese: Miss Saigon / Chicken Curry = $9

Best Japanese: Wasabi / Wasabi Special Roll + Clayton Roll = $20

Best Appetizers: 1111 Mississippi / Wild Boar Ravioli + Oak Oven Roasted Mussels = $22

Best Breakfast: Roosters / Banana and Nutella Crepe = $7

Best Vegetarian: Kaldi’s in Demun / Cheese Burrito = $6

Best Deli: Vivola Express / Boar’s Head Meat Sandwich with Spicy Mustard + Free Popcorn
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You know what you say. Regardless of how the food tastes, you say, “It’s great!”

You do this for a few reasons:

1. You know it’s the answer that he wants to hear.
2. That is the answer that will make sure that he moves along.
3. Even if you have something constructive to say, you don’t think it’ll make a difference.

I’m sure there are exceptions out there, but probably not many. I worked as a waiter several summers during college and am always on the lookout for signs of a good or bad dining experience, and yet I always say the same thing. “It’s great.”

Tonight this happened at a good restaurant. A great restaurant, in fact. I’m going to name it because my thoughts won’t negatively affect this restaurant at all, and they might just benefit from my advice. It’s called 1111 Mississippi, and it’s located…well, you can figure that out.

Both the waiter and the manager came up to the table during the meal and asked, “How is everything?” The waiter at least came to a complete stop before asking this question, while the manager (possibly the owner) said it while moving away past the table. The answer he wanted was clear, and he got it.

I asked Nancy if she could think of a question that would actually elicit potentially useful feedback from customers and engage them beyond the requisite “How is everything?” I was impressed–she came up with a fantastic answer right away:

“How can we improve?”

And not just ask this question, but have a notepad and a pen at ready when you ask it. That way people know that you’re truly interested in what they have to say.

Some people will not want the intrusion in their meal. It’s easy to give a short answer to this question. A good waiter/manager will recognize this, thank them, and move on immediately.

Others, however, will realize that they have something to say. The manager can take note of their comments, thank them for their feedback, and walk away.

The customer is not always right. However, they are always respected and always listened to. Always. By giving the customer permission to make suggestions, you make them feel valued and you create a memorable dining experience. And if you start to notice some patterns in the feedback you receive, you’ll be able improve your food/service/ambiance as well.

In addition, just so they end the meal on a positive note, put a business card next to their bill with a blank on the back preceeded by the question, “What was your favorite part of the meal?” They can jot something down and either keep it as a reminder of what they liked or pass it along to a friend.

If 1111 Mississippi is doing everything it can (and should) to value and engage customers, it will see this blog on their daily Google Alert and hopefully comment below. Let’s see what happens.

• Popcorn instead of bread before the meal.  I read a book last year called The Post-Birthday World. In it, the main character and her boyfriend eat a small bag of popcorn while they’re making dinner. It’s light and delicious, and you can flavor popcorn in a variety of ways. I think it would be a less-filling alternative to bread before the meal.
• Child Care.  Whenever a couple with young kids goes out to eat, they have two choices: (1) Go to a cheap, family-friendly restaurant with the kids or (2) leave the kids at home with a sitter and go to whatever restaurant they want. Why not have a decent restaurant that has child care? And not just any child care, but child care where the kids eat dinner and learn manners in a fun way (Barney meets Marsha Stewart).
• Popovers.  Have you ever had a popcorn? Maybe it’s a Southern thing. They’re delicious–crispy on the outside and kind of gooey on the inside. They’re difficult to make and easy to over cook or under cook. Nonetheless, I generally go to restaurants to make things that I can’t make myself. Popovers fit into that category.
• Choose-your-own-craving. Have you ever gone out to eat and had no idea what you were in the mood for? What if the menu, instead of being a long list of food, was actually a choose-your-own-craving booklet that helped you figure out what you wanted (with, obviously, a list of all the options at the end). So the first page might ask you if you’re in the mood for something healthy and refreshing (go to page 2) or something rich and sinful (go to page 3). And so on until the book refers you to the exact dish you’ve been craving
• You are the art. Picture a trendy restaurant with flat screens embedded into the wall instead of photos. During the meal, cameras all over the restaurant take photos of your table every few minutes and transmit them to the screens. This would provide some level of entertainment during the meal, and it would add a whole new level to the idea of telling the waiter that you want “what he’s having.” At any time during the meal you want the cameras to stop photographing your table, you hit a button on the table. And if at any time you see a great photo of you and your date projected on a screen, you press another button that informs the photo printer near the register to print that photo for you and add the price to your bill. You walk out of the restaurant with a visual memory of the experience.
• Ramen restaurant. Some of my favorite memories in Japan involved the delicious ramen served at certain restaurants–namely Tonryuu and Ippudou in Kyoto. It’s the perfect food to have for a quick lunch or dinner, especially on a cold day, and it’s even better after you’ve had a few drinks.
• __-Hands Bar. The blank is the amount of alcohol you want taped to your hands. You choose it when you walk in the door, and the proprietor duct-tapes that much alcohol to your hands. This came from something my friends and I tried a few times back when we were spry and young. It’s called “40-Hands.” You duct-tape two 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor (you can use beer, or smaller amounts of beer, as I did) to your hands at the beginning of the night, and you can’t untape yourself until you finish the alcohol (of course, that rule was flexible). It sounds dumb, but I can’t even describe to you the level of camaraderie you experience when you’re in an apartment with 20 people who, just like you, have alcohol taped to both of their hands. This survival instinct kicks in–you’re all in it together. I’d love to have a bar that put you in that situation. (Also see Beer-Pong Bars, which I think exist.)

Have you ever had an idea for a restaurant or a part of a restaurant? Post in the comments section.

None are better than the Liluma cheeseburger.

If you come to St. Louis, get this burger. It’s so good that it didn’t even occur to me to add condiments when I ate one today. Didn’t even think about it.

The meat is high quality, the bun is light and fluffy and flavorful, and the condiments–tomato chunks lightly dressed–adds just enough moisture to void the need for traditional condiments.

Highly recommended. You’ll want to order another, but you won’t have any room left in your stomach.