When the stars don’t align

When the stars don't align

The Village Pub in Woodside has an interior that transcends the food and service. Paul Chinn/The Chronicle 2001


That review of V Pub does not jibe at all with 2.5 stars. The words tell me don’t go, the stars say quality. Sync them up. Thanks for your otherwise valuable reporting on our local industry.

I appreciate e mails like this because it helps keep me in check. To be honest, the comment doesn’t surprise me. This was a difficult review to score because the ambience was so high ( 3.5 stars). The Village Pub is one of the most inviting and comfortable rooms in the Bay Area, so just sitting in the rich interior makes you feel as if you’ve arrived.

Of course, you pay the price, which is where the challenge with the ratings comes in. It’s one of the most expensive restaurants in the Bay Area. When a place charges more than $30 for a main course, diners’ expectations increase proportionately.

Some dishes were exceptional, such as the corn flan and the duck confit; others were mostly good, but could have been much better with a little more attention. The kitchen crew is clearly talented, but they sometimes lose focus.

If it was only the restaurant menu I was judging, awarding stars would be easier, but the Village Pub has a more reasonably priced bar menu that servers deliver along with the regular menu. The bar menu includes charcuterie, an exceptional Caesar salad, duck confit and steak frites that, comparatively speaking, is a true bargain at $25. So how do you judge a restaurant that has such a wide variation in pricing and in quality of execution?

When the stars don't align

The dining room

I gave the restaurant a 2-star rating for food, weighing the good dishes and the bar menu heavily. I also gave the place 2 stars for service. Like the food, at times it was very good, but at other times a little lackadaisical. When you add the gorgeous interior, I bumped the overall rating to 2.5 stars — meaning the experience is very good. But, again, that depends on what you order and what you pay because quality is always reflected through the lens of pricing.

Another factor that led to the overall rating was that I had reviewed the restaurant less than two years ago; the experience was virtually the same, so I left the stars where they were. Since things hadn’t improved, perhaps I should have lowered the stars to 2.

My editors questioned the stars before the review was printed, and brought the matter to my attention. But I stuck by the overall rating because I felt the entire experience transcended the stars for food and even service. It seems, however, I might not have communicated that well enough in the review.

I sent the reader back an explanation of my thinking, and the response was as follows:

“Appreciate your explanation and respect the thought that goes into your decisions. As when I grade law school exams, and in any rating system, there is a danger of shorthand (each rating represents such different balances among the factors that go into the rating) and grade compression (hesitation to use the extreme ends of the scale to help distinguish places/students).

So as you can see, awarding stars is an ongoing challenge; sometimes I meet it better than at other times.

Categories: Between Meals, Reviewing
Michael Bauer