Our Rating System:

Our rating system consists of a highly subjective "diamonds" scale (birthstone for both of us, and just puts us in a good mood). For each of our reviews, you get two ratings-- one for food alone (we both agree that is just the bottom line, no amount of ambience will make bad food good!) and one for overall experience which includes the service and atmosphere. We use fractions of rocks as we see fit. Sometimes we disagree on the number for a place we've eaten at together. When that happens, we discuss until we can reach a compromise.

When we rate bars, we might rate a little differently. We do a rating just for drinks, while normal restaurant scores include drinks in the "Experience" category.

We make no guarantees and do not claim to be experts as far as our opinions being spot-on and irrefutable. However, we think we have good taste, so we would listen to us!

A couple of clarifying notes:

Fool's gold.......we are not happy. We understand that pyrite is not diamond-related. It's just that so many of the places we would give 1 diamond to are raved about by some people, which makes it particularly aggravating. We pity those fools!

Lackluster (2 diamonds): average, nothing special.

Semi-precious (3 diamonds): we were quite happy/happy about some things though not others, and would probably recommend to others.

A true gem (4 diamonds): wonderful. We were very happy and would definitely recommend to others.

Brilliant (5 diamonds): we'll be telling our grandchildren about this meal. Bliss.

Please let us know if you have any comments or questions on our rating system - we can be reached at lawyereats@gmail.com!