"knowing what to order" news and stories

Menu options. Photo: Roboppy, Flickr

Hanna Raskin's first waitressing job was at a small Greek diner in Michigan. In the 15 years since, she's worked at a chop suey joint in Mississippi, an exclusive Arizonan country club, a vegetarian eatery and an Irish pub. She currently picks up odd shifts at a seafood eatery in the North Carolina mountains, where she cracks crab legs for helpless tourists. This is the eighth in a series of posts.

Say you're in a restaurant in which you've never, ever dined. You haven't read a review of the place, pulled up its menu on the Internet, or even asked a friend what's worth eating. How do you know what to order?

If you're wise, you'll ask your server. It's not just mobbed, white-tablecloth joints in which customers can confidently throw their menus aside and place themselves at the mercy of the food-and-beverage professional at their table. Servers are expected to ferry plates from the kitchen and back to the dish room, yes, but -- even at the grubbiest eateries -- their primary responsibility is to serve as a sort of kitchen escort, steering you toward the best dishes and away from the suspect ones.