Introduction to Linda's List

Friday night is “date night” for me and my husband.  While that may sound exciting, it’s more of just him and I taking the night off from eating at home.  Okay, so it’s really me taking the night off from cooking (and planning) an evening meal. It’s not that I don’t like to cook, because I do.  I like to cook when I have the time to try new recipes or when I’m planning to entertain guests.  What I don’t enjoy is the need to plan dinner around the family’s busy schedule and basically throwing a meal on the table every night of the week (typically in 20 minutes or less). So, whenever I get the opportunity, I head to a local restaurant and let them cook for me. My husband and I eat out (almost without fail) every Friday night and on occasion, we may enjoy a dinner out during the week as well.

When it’s just me and my husband eating we always have that common, familiar conversation.   You know, the one that goes something like this:

Me: “How is your food?”

Him: “Good, how is yours?”
Me: “It’s okay. Do you want a bite?”
Him: “No, do you want a bite of mine?”
Me: “No, I’m good”

There are, however, some nights when I might have a bit more to say about my meal.  When this happens, it’s because I’m eating something that is really, really good or something that leaves me thinking that I’ll never go to that restaurant again.  Last Friday night fell into the “I’ll never go to that restaurant again” category.  At this point I’m not going to mention which restaurant I went to but my husband made the comment that I should go to their website to write a review.  This conversation led me to a comment that I say to my husband at least annually “when I retire, I would love to write a restaurant review column for the newspaper”.  Since we eat out often, and are often looking for new places to try, I always say this would be a great idea.

I’m not sure why it never occurred to me (or him) before, but this time, he said “why don’t you start a restaurant review blog”?  Hence, Linda’s List is born!!!

After thinking through what my blog would include, I decided that since I visit a variety of different local restaurants*, I would write about my personal thoughts and experience at each one. Food, service, ambiance and value for the money would all be great to write about since these are all of the factors that I consider when deciding if a restaurant is worth going to a second (or even third) time.  To me, these are all equally important during the dining experience and I can only assume everyone would be interested in knowing what the full dining experience is like at a particular restaurant.

Since I’m an avid user of coupons, I will also mention if I’ve used a coupon, a Groupon, a Restaurant.com gift certificate or had somehow obtained another “deal” or “discount” for my meal.  This will give my followers a heads up to look for a similar deal before they visit.

Being realistic, unless I do have a coupon or other “deal”, I have a tendency to eat at the same old tried and true favorites (which I’ll blog about as well) but I’m committed to at least trying different items on the menu.  This will ensure that I have something new and (hopefully) exciting to write about.

*Local restaurants?  For me, that would be Massachusetts - more specifically the New Bedford, Freetown, Fall River and Dartmouth area.  This is certainly not an all-inclusive list of towns but it gives a general idea of where I’ll be. 

I’m hoping that if you’re in the area and are looking for a place to dine, you’ll read Linda’s List first!

My blogging adventure will begin with my Friday, August 3^rd review.  I’m open for suggestions and plan to attend a movie at Showcase Cinema in Seekonk later that evening – so I’ll need to find a restaurant in that area!