Yes, the Restaurant Dining Etiquette Finale is finally here. If you haven’t done so already, click here to read “Restaurant Dining Etiquette – The Adventure Begins” and click here to read “Restaurant Dining Etiquette – Part 2″ and than you’ll be all caught up. To end our Restaurant Dining Etiquette excursion, we will be talking about etiquette when it comes to specific food. You’re probably thinking “What’s so heard about eating a bowl of soup?” or “Eating a steak?” Well, what about the dreaded artichoke or did you not think that there may be a proper way to actually eat soup? Of course, I can’t speak for the proper way to eat every type of food. However, at least, I can give you an overview of some items, so keep on reading.

Specific Food Etiquette Guide:

Artichokes: Initially when it comes to eating an artichoke, fingers and hands are perfectly acceptable. Pull off a leaf, holding it by the pointed end. Put the other end in your mouth and pull it between your teeth, scraping the length of the leaf (the edible portion of the leaves becomes greater as you get closer to the center of the artichoke).

Just before you get to the very center, leaves will become almost white with purple tips. Be careful of these leaves because their purple ends are prickly. When the leaves are pulled, you will be left with the base, the heart, crowned with a fuzzy patch. You have now reached the best part of all, the very reason for eating artichokes: the heart. Carefully scoop away the fuzzy stuff with your knife or spoon (though a properly prepared artichoke will already have the choke removed). With knife and fork, cut bites from the heart like pieces of prime fillet.

If you’re provided with a dip such as a vinaigrette or mayonnaise, put a small part of the edible portion of the leaf in the dip and scrape with your teeth as directed above. Don’t overdo it on the dip or you won’t taste the artichoke.

Asparagus: While most etiquette books say that you can eat whole asparagus spears by picking up with your hand, your dining partners will probably give you strange looks Be safe and use your knife and fork to cut and eat them.

Avocado: If served in its shell, eat the avocado with a spoon. If sliced on a plate or in a salad, eat it with a fork.

Bacon: Simply, if bacon has fat on it, use your knife and fork. If it is very crisp, crumble it with a fork and eat it with your fingers.

Berries: Generally, eat berries with a spoon, whether they have cream on them or not.

Bread: Break slices of bread, rolls and muffins in half or in small pieces never larger than one bite. Butter each bite at a time. Small biscuits do not have to be broken. It is never appropriate to cut a roll with a knife.

When the rolls are served in a basket, take one, and always pass the basket to your right. Place the roll on the break plate, which is located on the left side. Never tear your roll in half or into many pieces.

Use your own butter knife and the butter on your plate; buttering should be done on the plate or just above it.

Caviar: To preserve the full flavor of caviar, scoop it out using mother-of-pearl utensils, and NEVER use a metallic spoon metal oxidizes the eggs), which will create an unwanted (and pretty horrid) metal bite. If necessary use a wood or plastic spoon.

Don’t mush caviar up while you’re serving yourself or other, lift the spoon carefully. Caviar should be scooped from the container vertically from top to bottom to avoid crushing the egg.

If caviar is passed to you in a bowl or crock with its own spoon, serve a teaspoonful onto your plate. As the following accompaniments are offered, use the individual serving spoon in each to take small amount of minced onion and sieved egg whites and yolks, as well as a few lemon slices and a couple of toast points. Assemble a canapé to your taste with a knife, then use your fingers to lift it to your mouth.

If you’re at a cocktail party or reception, where prepared caviar canapés are being passed on trays, simply lift one off the plate and pop it into your mouth.

When served caviar as an hors d’oeuvre, no matter how much you might be tempted by its luscious flavor. It’s considered bad taste to eat more than an ample serving of about two ounces, or about two spoonfuls.

Chicken: Chicken is eaten with a fork and knife.

Clams and Oysters in the Half Shell: Hold the shell with the left hand and lift the clam out using your oyster fork.

Crab, Shrimp and Lobster Cocktails: These are eaten with a cocktail fork.

Crab/Lobster Claws: Cracked with a nutcracker, broken with the fingers and the meat taken out with an oyster fork.

Fried Fantail Shrimp: Picked up by the tail and eaten with the fingers.

Olives: Generally, olives are considered a finger food. It is perfectly acceptable to pick up and eat an olive with your fingers. Remove pit with your fingers. If you prefer not to use the finger method, use a small fork to stab olive and remove olive from your mouth.

Pasta or Spaghetti: The perfect method for eating spaghetti or other long stringy pasta is to twirl it around your fork. Use a spoon to help if needed. It is also acceptable to cut pasta with a knife and fork.

Pineapple: Use a knife and fork to eat fresh pineapple slices.

Potatoes: Baked potatoes are most often served already slit. If not, cut across the top with a knife, open the potato wider with your fork, and add butter or sour cream and chives, salt, and pepper. You may eat the skin as you go along. Don’t take the insides out and put the skin aside (or take the foil off). Eat it by scooping out the insides bite by bite.

Risotto: Using a fork or a spoon, push the grains of cooked rice out slightly toward the edge of the bowl, eating only from the pulled out ring of rice. Continue spreading from the center and eating around the edges in a circle. This will keep the risotto hot as you enjoy your risotto.

Salad: If you are served large pieces or a whole wedge of lettuce, cut one bite at a time, using the knife provided. If the salad is served before or after the main course, use the smaller fork. If the salad is considered the main course, use the entrée fork.

Sandwich: Small sandwiches, such as tea sandwiches or canapés, may be picked up and eaten with your fingers. Large sandwiches, if not cut in halve, should be cut with your knife before lifting and eating. Any hot sandwich served with a gravy requires a knife and fork.

Shish-Kabob: Hold the tip of the shish-kabob in one hand and use the dinner fork to remove the pieces with the other. When all the food has been removed from the stick, place it on the side of your plate. Always eat the meat with your utensils.

Soup: Dip the spoon into the soup, moving it away from the body, until it is about two-thirds full, then sip the liquid (without slurping) from the side of the spoon (without inserting the whole bowl of the spoon into the mouth). It is perfectly fine to tilt the bowl slightly (again away from the body) to get the last spoonful or two of soup.

Sushi: Sushi is served in bite size pieces. You can eat sushi using your fingers, chopsticks or a fork. Never bite pieces in half as they are meant to be eaten whole. Sushi is usually enjoyed by dipping into soy sauce or other condiments in your own small saucer.

So there you have it – everything from napkin etiquette to tipping etiquette to even specific food etiquette has been served. Now it’s up to you to take it all in. If you do, it won’t matter whether you’re eating at the local crab shack or you’re having a fine dining experience at a high end restaurant, you’ll always be putting your best fork forward.

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

Yes, it’s that time! Time for Restaurant Dining Etiquette – Part 2. I’m sure you’ve been waiting with bated breath, right? Click here to read Restaurant Dining Etiquette – The Adventure Begins! In that first article, I focused mostly on etiquette in regards to proper use of your napkin and utensils, but this time around, we’ll take a look at general etiquette rules as well as tipping etiquette, so get ready!

General Etiquette Rules

A lot of the etiquette do’s and donts that I’ll be mentioning below are just plain common sense. These are things that you probably already know, but sometimes you just need a little refresher. Whether you’re on a romantic date or dining with friends, family or business associates, keep the following in mind.

• Arrive at least 10 minutes before your actual reservation time.
• Pass food from the left to the right.
• Show your manners. Say please when asking for something and thank you to your server and bus boy after they have removed any used items.
• Pass both salt and pepper together when asked, even if a table mate asks for only one of them. This is so dinner guests won’t have to search for orphaned shakers.
• Food is served from the left. Dishes are removed from the right.
• Butter, spreads, or dips should be transferred from the serving dish to your plate before spreading or eating.
• If your food is too hot to eat, let it sit and cool down. Don’t blow on it.
• Keep elbows off the table.
• Chew with your mouth closed.
• Cut food in small bites and chew slowly. No need to rush. Food should be savored.
• No blowing your nose at the dinner table. Excuse yourself to visit the restroom. Wash your hands before returning to the dining room. When coughing, cover your mouth with your napkin to stop the spread of germs and muffle the noise. If your cough becomes unmanageable, excuse yourself to visit the restroom. Wash your hands before returning to the dining room.
• Turn off your cell phone or switch it to silent or vibrate mode before sitting down to eat, and leave it in your pocket or purse. It is impolite to answer a phone during dinner. If you must make or take a call, excuse yourself from the table and step outside of the restaurant.
• Do not use a toothpick or apply makeup at the table.
• Do not push your dishes away from you or stack them for the waiter when you are finished. Leave plates and glasses where they are.

Tipping Etiquette

It’s amazing how divided people are when it comes to tipping. People are always quibbling over what the correct percentage is. Here are some general parameters to work with. Keep in mind though that there are restaurants that automatically add gratuity if you have a large party. A large party is usually considered 8 or more guests.

• Waiter: 15% to 20% of the bill; 25% for extraordinary service
• Wine steward: 15% of wine bill
• Bartender: 10% – 15% of bar bill
• Coat check: $1.00 per coat
• Car attendant: $1.00 – $2.00

Remember that the amount you tip reflects the total price before any coupons, gift certificates, etc. Just because you get a discount, does not mean that your server did not serve up the full order. One thing to note is that when you are dining with a large party and there is an automatic gratuity, that gratuity will be based on the entire bill, including tax. If you’re dining on your own or with a smaller group, then whether you tip pre-tax or post-tax is up to your own discretion. Just use your best judgement. By the way, even if the owner of the restaurant serves you himself, you should still tip him. He will divide the tip among those who work in the kitchen and dining room.

Hopefully, this restaurant dining etiquette series has been useful. Stayed tuned for the final installment where you’ll learn some specific etiquette how to eat certain types of food, like the dreaded artichoke.

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

When it comes to dining out with friends and family, there are generally no formalities. When it comes to entertaining business colleagues or impressing a date, knowing proper restaurant dining etiquette may be essential in both your professional and personal successes. So let’s explore some do’s and dont’s below.

Don’t Flake On The Restaurant!

Before you even get to the restaurant, show proper respect for the restaurant you will be dining at. Restaurant reservations are like any other appointment. Making a reservation is a commitment that you will be dining there. If you’re running late, call and let them know and if you can no longer make it, cancel your reservations as quickly as possible.

Napkin Manners

1. Once seated at your table, immediately place the napkin on your lap. At fine dining restaurants, sometimes your waiter will do this for you, but if not, than there’s nothing wrong with you doing it yourself.
   
2. If you have to leave the table, place your loosely folded napkin to the left or right of your plate. Wadding it up on the table is not acceptable and never place your napkin on your chair.
   
3. When your meal is over, leave the semi-folded napkin at the left side of the place setting. Do not crumple, twist or leave on the chair.

You May Be Hungry But Hold Your Horses!

Curb that appetite and always wait until everyone receives their food before partaking of your meal.

So Which is My Salad Fork Again?

Use the silverware farthest from your plate. Start your meal by using the knife, fork, or spoon that is farthest from your plate. Work your way in, using one utensil for each course. You’ll find the salad fork farthest to your left with your dinner fork usually the closest to your plate. Your soup spoon will be farthest to your right, followed by a salad or fish knife and dinner knife. Your dessert spoon and fork are above your plate or brought out with dessert. Since even place settings come in different variations, you just need to remember one key thing. Let me repeat. Always work from the outside in and you’ll be fine. See an example of a place setting below.

Image Taken From Social Couture

A. Napkin B. Salad Fork C. Dinner  Fork D. Fish Fork E. Soup Bowl F. Soup Plate G. Dinner Plate H. Dinner Knife I. Fish Knife J. Soup Spoon K. Bread Plate L. Butter Knife M. Dessert Spoon N. Dessert Fork O. Water Goblet P. Red Wine Glass Q. White Wine Glass

Utensil Manners

1. When it comes time for the actual eating of your meal, hold your knife with your right hand and use your fork in your left hand to hold the food. After you’ve cut your food into bite-sized pieces, place the knife on the edge of the plate with blades facing in. Eat food by switching fork to right hand (unless you are left handed).
   
2. While in use, your utensils, including the handles, should not touch the table again. Be sure to rest them on the side of your plate or in the bowl.
   
3. For more formal dinners, from course to course, your tableware will be taken away and replaced as needed.
   
4. Once finished, rest your fork, tines up, and knife blade in. Be sure that the handles are resting at five o’clock with the tips pointing to ten o’clock on your plate.
   
5. Any unused silverware is simply left on the table.

Helpful so far? Do you want to know more? Than I guess you’ll have to wait for the sequel. Really! There is one. Just stay tuned.

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

So what’s a Phoodie? If you’re someone who whips out the digital camera the minute the bread basket comes out, who takes photos of your meal from start to finish and who may even go as far as to use to your macro lens just to capture every crack and crevice of your gourmet burger, than welcome to the world of Phoodies. Simply, Photo + Foodie = Phoodie!

Everyone has the potential to be a Phoodie, but the road begins with your digital camera. Now if you don’t have one and are unsure what type to get, check out CNET.com. CNET is a great technical review website where you can get feedback from consumers as well as get CNET editor’s picks and reviews for everything from cell phones to computers and more importantly, all types of digital cameras. If you’re starting out, don’t feel that you have to get something flashy with all the bells and whistles. All the photos to the left were taken with a Canon Powershot SD850, so it is possible to take some lovely photos without having to spend the big bucks. All you need is some creativity and also a little bit of information. On that note, here are some guidelines that will hopefully start you on the right track.

1) Be Ready for Low Light. Daytime or night, ambiance is the name of the game for most restaurants, which equates to darkened rooms – not the best type of lighting to highlight your food pictures. To combat that, be sure to ask for a table by the window when making your reservations. Another trick is to arrange candles around or close to your dishes.

2) Shoot Handheld. Although you can purchase a digital camera tripod with flexible legs, try shooting primarily hand held. This will allow you flexibility when you’re trying to capture different angles of your dish.

3) Shoot From the Side. Shooting from the sides will add dimension and complexity to your photo. Shot from above, your food will simply look flat.

4) Highlighting Certain Aspects of Your Food. If the dish in front of you is bursting with colors of red, green, purple and more, it’s time to showcase them by shooting far enough away so that you capture the dish’s vibrancy. However, if the dish has a uniformity of color like fish or meat, use that macro setting to photograph the texture. For dishes that have an interesting shape like a plate of hot wings, angle your shot for a more unique perspective.

5) It Doesn’t Have to be Just About the Food. Vary your shots to add interest. Try shooting further away to include the dish on the table with a dining companion’s hand or elbow in the frame. If several dishes arrive simultaneously, take a closer shot of one of the dishes, while still capturing the rest of the dishes out-of-focus in the background.

6) Don’t Limit Yourselves to Just Restaurants. There is a whole food world out there. Farmer’s Markets pulsate with the vibrant colors of the rainbow from cherry red tomatoes to purple cauliflower to deep green avocados. Check out your local gourmet shop, whether it’s a cheese shop, a chocolate shop or bakery where there are lots of opportunities to photograph food in different settings. If you enjoy cooking, why not take pictures of your own creations?

Are you ready to be a Phoodie? As you can see, it’s not that hard, especially since you now have some guidelines to see you through. Now that you’ve taken all these fabulous food photos, what’s the next step? The answer is clear. Share them. Even better, share them with other Menuism members. After writing your review, upload the photos of your meal. If you’re more of a reader than a reviewer, there are still opportunities to add photos to any of the reviews on the site. In the end, it’s a win-win situation. By adding your photos, it gives you a chance to show off some of your newly-found skills, and at the same time, readers are able to get a better idea of what a restaurant is like, from both the written review and the added bonus of the food photos.

To end, I just want to encourage you to start taking photos. Food is a beautiful thing – the colors, the textures, the shapes. It’s the perfect subject. It doesn’t cry. It doesn’t move. It doesn’t walk away. It’s just there in all its glory, waiting for you and the click of your camera. So click away, Phoodies and we look forward to salivating over your tasty food pics all over Menuism.

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

Your marriage proposal left something to be desired. You can’t remember the last time you told your mother that you loved her. Hey, you’re just not good with emotions. So how can you write a restaurant review that says how you really feel?

Abandon the Obvious. Start by ending your love affair with words like good, delicious, and perfect. They’re the comfort blankets of the English language and you’re all grown up now. You don’t need to be a foodie to know what you’re tasting. Remember it. Was it crispy? Was it soft on the inside? Did it have a sweet aftertaste?

Take Pictures. Pictures will jolt your memory and fill in the gaps in your description. Plus, everyone loves a little smutty food porn. Take these examples.

A photo by justin wickedly labeled, “All You Can Eat”. From Tadashi Sushi.

A burrito for a small army from Sandiago’s Mexican Grill. Photo by fattiusthebear.

Write about the Interesting and Funny. Was there a fire in the kitchen? Were the men sitting one table over squabbling over their golf game? These things are all part of the dining experience. If it really stood out in your memory, write about it.

Don’t Hide Your Personality. Some of us can do the whole swirl, sniff and slurp wine tasting without giggling, and some of us can’t. So what if you don’t write for Gourmet magazine? There are still countless numbers of people who want to read about your opinion. After all, that’s why they’re visiting a public restaurant review site.

Re-Read Your Review. After you’ve finished, take a moment to look back. Check for typos that make you look silly. Try to read it from the point of view of a stranger: would you be captivated by what you’re reading? Would you find it useful? Would you give yourself an A? Tweak as necessary.

Menuism Users Show You How It’s Done
Or, select words from the superstars.

Rayvenhaus
Motto: Searching the bounty main for the best restaurants!
Best Trait: His honesty results in laugh-out-loud reviews. He also brings in personal experience. “I’ve slopped food in cleaner pig troughs then the bathroom at this restaurant.” (Taco Bell, Lynwood)
Memorable quotes: “I’m telling you what, I love the service at this place. I think next time I’ll try one of their Subs in a Tub.”(Jersey Mike’s Subs)

trufflupagus
Best Trait: Her far-reaching vocabulary: not surprising, considering she’s a professional writer (and photographer). She describes the Mexican Bloody Mary at Café Colonial as “a mix of vodka and tequila with perfectly piquant tomato juice and spices.” And she makes the Shrimp al Ajillo at El Faro sound like a Biblical experience. “A terrific rendition of this incredible classic – small shrimp, bubbling in a clay casserole filled with hot sauce and an immense amount of garlic…” Want some yet?
Memorable Quotes: “You have to be a super-hardcore capsaicin addict to tango with these peppers.” (Spicy & Tasty)

tommers
Motto: The deliciousness is in the details!
Best Trait: He merrily foodies his way from start to finish: his four visits to the Three Seasons Restaurant in Palo Alto cumulated in an 811-word review. Skip a sentence and you’ll be missing out on gourmet-ing vicariously. But he’s no grumpy food critic: in his hundreds of words, you’ll be loath to find any more critical than “wasn’t great.”
Memorable Quotes: Worth noting are his epic struggles with the limiting star rating system. About Saha he writes, “Four stars, just barely”; with AUX Delices, it’s “Four stars going on five?”. But the best may be his happy response to the EOS Restaurant & Wine Bar: “Hot damn! What a great meal!”

My job involves looking at hundreds of restaurant websites. As multiple tabs gather on my Firefox, I mildly worry that an animated chef doing the polka might show up in my dreams. Restaurant websites are a recipe for disaster, as owners are notoriously tight-fisted and their website designer is often the lowest bidder.
At a recent conference I attended for restaurant owners and managers, a speaker said, “You have to get into the twenty-first century with a website for your business.” The bad news is that owners are listening. Here are some things that that will send your potential customers lunging for the X in the corner of the screen.

Overenthusiastic Use of Multimedia: I’ve seen sites that have buttons that squeal, squeak, or moan every time a mouse runs over them and animated knives that sharpen themselves as a transition to every page.Too often, the multimedia takes the place of actual content; it’s these sorts of sites that have the most “Under Construction” pages – a good segue to the next point.
Serious Offender: Gregoire’s Restaurant . The links are swirling images that I can’t identify, but they look suspiciously like rounded coffins. Move your mouse and out pops the name of the link in a seedy-looking font. Are we meant to be surprised or terrified?

The Under Construction Page: If a page doesn’t exist yet, don’t link to it. There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking on a link that promises information but doesn’t deliver.
Serious Offender: Burrito Boyz . If I were an investor trying to get that ball rolling by clicking on “Invest”, I’d be greeted with a sadly pixelated Under Construction image. Bad news. Anyway, did I say nothing’s more frustrating than the under construction page? That’s a lie. Take the next point, for instance.

Playing Hide-and-Seek: Your potential customer shouldn’t have to hunt for your address, phone number, or other contact information. Put these things on the front page.

Manager in a Fortress: Hey, Rapunzel? If your customer had an especially good or bad experience (okay, most likely bad) she’s going to want to e-mail the owner or manager. Either post your e-mail address or create a feedback form. You can’t placate an angry customer who can’t reach you.
Serious Offender: Bob Chinn. if you’d like, you can read his entire biography, and you can even sign up to have him send you e-mails, but your chance of reaching him is slim to none unless you hire a private detective.

Music: Sorry, Beethoven; vocal website are so Web 1.0, and for good reason. The person doing dinner sleuthing at work will be given away by a burst of music to annoy the coworkers; another person already listening to music will be treated to an unpleasant remix. Play your favorite music at your restaurant; keep it off the internet.
Serious Offender: Katana. No one wants to buy your “Sounds of Katana” CD to “escape into a world of smoky sake, sexy candle-lit moment and luxurious beats” while they’re eating Bagel Bites.

The Orphaned Website: You can’t just slap your logo, address and menu onto a site and forget about it for months. Think of your website as your portfolio that needs continual updating. Post your specials every time they debut and display positive reviews as you receive them.

Thank goodness for Menuism, which will give you all the information you need with an interface that’s just as pretty as you please.

Yes, the day we’ve been waiting for all month is finally upon us! This week is National Pancake Week, and specifically, today is National Pancake Day, which you might know better as Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras.

To celebrate this wondrous day of fluffly, griddle-cooked batter, IHOP is giving away one free shortstack of pancakes today. More details here, and here are some quick links to find them in the following areas:

• Seattle
• Chicago
• New York
• San Francisco

What better way to celebrate National Pancake Week and participate in the ongoing Food Fight than by enjoying some free flapjacks? If plain buttermilk pancakes aren’t your thing, you can try lots of other specialty pancakes that users have already found. There are still lots of pancakes to eat (and reviews to write) for this Food Fight – get crackin’!

-John

Want to keep track of the latest reviews on Menuism? Try out using the RSS feeds. Keep your eye out for the RSS icon and add the link to your favorite RSS feed reader. At this time, we’ve got a few different feeds:

• All Reviews: If you want to know who’s eating what no matter where, grab this one: http://www.menuism.com/reviews/feed
• Cities: If you want to just keep track of what’s going on around your city, grab one of these. Some examples:
  • http://www.menuism.com/cities/US/IL/Chicago/reviews/feed
  • http://www.menuism.com/cities/US/WA/Seattle/reviews/feed
  • http://www.menuism.com/cities/US/CA/San+Francisco/reviews/feed
• Users: If you want to keep tabs on a particular user, grab the feed from their user page. For example, on my profile page, the RSS feed for all my reviews is: http://www.menuism.com/users/justin/reviews/feed
• Friends: If you just care about where your friends are eating, grab the feed link on your “Friends” page. For example, on my friends page the RSS feed for my friends is: http://www.menuism.com/users/justin/reviews/friends/feed

If you don’t have an RSS reader yet, here are few you can try:

• Bloglines: A web-based RSS reader
• My Yahoo!: The Yahoo! start page can include RSS feeds as a content module. More info here.
• Google Reader: Google’s version of a web-based RSS reader
• Vienna: (Mac) A downloadable RSS reader so you can sync your feeds then read them offline.
• Firefox: You can use the Firefox browser to keep track of RSS feeds through “live bookmarks”. Menuism also looks better if you use Firefox or Camino (on Mac).
• More top feed readers here

Here’s Feedburner’s Feeds 101 guide if you want to read more about RSS feeds.

Go grab a feed to keep up on the food!

Leave a comment if you have a RSS reader recommendation for others or an RSS suggestion.
Justin

Quick Reminder: Write reviews to enter the end of month t-shirt drawing!

At the end of the month, we’ll be giving away a free Menuism t-shirt to one of Foodha’s Picks. If you haven’t noticed yet, Foodha randomly picks a top tipped review over the past 30 days to display on the front page (since he likes food so much, the review has to include a review of the food). On January 1st, we’ll load up the front page of Menuism and see who the random winner is (excluding John and Justin of course – we already have shirts ).

Right now, the users that look to be in the running are:

• Shaomai
• Mandeelish
• Mirabell_19

If you don’t want to write reviews but you want a t-shirt, then buy one at the Menuism Shop. We also have dark gray hoodies now too, but they aren’t up on the page yet. Send us an email if you want one of those.

Some tips on getting tipped:

• After you write a review, click on the “Share” link on the review confirmation page to send it to your friends or the people you dined with. Tell them to join to tip you!
• Invite your friends to join the site so they can keep track of all your recent reviews.
• Good reviews don’t just mean reviews with high ratings. Make sure your review is useful, helpful, and/or entertaining.

If you enjoy the review, give it a tip! ‘Tis the season for giving afterall

Happy Eating,

Justin

Happy December to all you hungry readers! The new month brings lots of updates at Menuism (plus the huge backlog of blog posts about them), and one of the most exciting is the ability to upload your own profile image.

How do you do it? Just go to your user homepage and look for “Change Pic” under your current picture.

What about using Gravatar, you might ask? We were initially excited about using their simple service for user avatars, but technical issues on their side have closed off the service to new users. With all the great new users joining the site, we didn’t want everyone to wait any longer, so we chose to implement our own system. Maybe one day we’ll reconsider Gravatar, but our priority is to ensure a good experience for you, our loyal users.

We just added the image feature very recently and we’ve already seen great adoption by lots of users. It just takes a minute – if you haven’t uploaded an image yet, there’s no better time than now.

-John