Why We Really Go to Restaurants (It's Not Just the Food)

On the latest episode of "Best New Restaurant," both competitors suffered from food gaffes, but exceptional service made up for the kitchen's less-than-perfect food.

Welcome to our weekly recap of Bravo’s Best New Restaurant*, where we share our unapologetically opinionated musings on the ups and downs of dining out. This week, we’re taking a look at episode no. 6: The battle between NYC's L'Apicio and Santa Ana's Little Sparrow.*

What keeps us coming back to the restaurants we love? In some cases, it's exceptionally delicious food. In others, the allure isn’t about the food at all. Perhaps it’s a favorite server, or the feeling of being recognized by everyone on staff when you walk through the door. Maybe it's just an inexplicable feeling of homeyness you haven't been able to find in any other restaurant. These aren’t things you can eat, but they’re every bit as critical to a restaurant's success (or failure) as its food.

This isn’t to say the food is not important—it is. The point is that we often forget how important the non-food elements of a restaurant are in making a good impression on diners. In the latest episode of Bravo’s Best New Restaurant, it was clear that the staff of NYC’s L'Apicio, last night’s winner, has put a lot of thought into what makes a customer want to revisit a place again and again.

As in every episode of the series, both competitors made mistakes. The most glaring food gaffe happened when L’Apicio’s competitor, Santa Ana brasserie Little Sparrow, failed to notice a salmon dish had left the kitchen without the actual salmon on the plate—which, unfortunately, went straight to the judges' table. And at L'Apicio, for example, many of the dishes on the menu were cooked on the spicy side. Unfortunately diners had no way of knowing that without advance warning from the servers, causing some heat-averse customers to complain about the food being too hot to enjoy.

L'Apicio's Gabe Thompson (left) and Joe Campanale chat with Colicchio. Photo: Paul Zimmerman/Bravo

L’Apicio’s customers didn’t leave the restaurant completely turned off by the too-spicy food because co-owner Joe Campanale knows how to make a table happy. His front-of-house staff's impeccable service and hospitality made an equally strong impression as the food, and that was enough to counteract the effects of a less-than-perfect meal. For example: When one of the show's "mystery diners" visited the restaurant later in the episode, his server was the picture of accommodating, maintaining his sense of hospitality and grace even after the diner sent back two menu items in a row because they didn't taste right.

The fact that hospitality played such a big role in this week's episode made me think about the conversations that took place at the housewarming party Bon Appétit threw earlier this week to celebrate the opening of our new kitchen. During the night, I asked our various chef guests to name the one restaurant that felt the most like home to them. I was wholly expecting their answers to revolve around how much they loved the food at each spot, but their responses were diverse and not entirely about the food. Wilson Tang, the chef-owner of NYC restaurants Nom Wah Tea Parlor and Fung Tu, said he loves how the big banquettes at Mission Chinese make him feel like he can sit down with a bunch of friends and "chow down." Chef Bobby Hellen of GG's told me his pick was Mayfield, a tiny New American joint in Brooklyn, and added, "I could pick 100 restaurants in the city I love going to, but it's really nice to go there and see the same people who treat you really well."

In a perfect world, our favorite restaurants would serve up flawless food every time. But in the real world? Sometimes all you need is to feel like you’re at home.

Best New Restaurant airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Bravo. Catch up on our previous coverage here.

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