Usually it is the ‘proof of the pudding’ (the eating) that eventually classifies a restaurant as such. The terrible consequence is that the information comes too late.
So I’ll let you in on a secret. An unfallible way to know whether a restaurant is good or bad, before sitting down. Before even entering the place.
A French colleague taught me. Standing before a restaurant he’d look carefully at the place and then decided whether it was a good or bad place. I once decided to call his bluff and insist on eating in a place he had discarded. It was terrible.
After some months he let me in on the technique. If the place has fresh flowers, it’s good. If there are no flowers, chances are high it’s a bad place. Dry or plastic flowers? You bet the food will be terrible.
It never let me down. Not even once.
Link to Quora
Buon appetito