> > > Arri wrote about restaurant specials:
> > >
> > >> It's the best way to gauge whether or not one should choose to eat
> > >> somewhere different. If the specials are drab or mundane, what does that
> > >> say for the rest of the menu?

It can say, that the place has the confidence to serve some kind of "home/nursery comfort food"
absolutely perfectly cooked. I can instantly think of at least three or four favourite places
whose sophisticated menus have occasionally included, the perfect fish and chips, or mince and tatties, or bread and butter pudding.
They are hugely popular with tourists who want to taste the real thing; but also with locals who have eaten those
simple dishes a zillion times and appreciate the absolute perfection of the art.

One of the most infuriating "special" I've ever encountered , was a fantastic restaurant where the owner occasionally offered scrambled eggs on toast as a main course choice.
I cook pretty wonderful scrambled eggs myself.
For years I told the owner that was ridiculously simple for such a restaurant and such a menu and he replied "you've never tasted my granny's secret recipe and if you ever do, be warned, I will never tell you our secret ingredient".
One day I caved in and ordered it. I have spent YEARS ever since, trying and failing to replicate that absolute perfection :-) He had regular customers who ordered it over and over again, trying to work out what made it so special.


Janet