After 12 years of reviewing restaurants, I'm leaving the table

Extreme food and gaming “quests”

• Commenters recall long-form projects (cross‑country burrito hunt, barbecue parody, visiting every themed chain location) as fascinating for their sheer excess and self‑imposed suffering.
• Similar appeal noted in grind-heavy gaming content (RuneScape “one‑chunk” accounts, hardcore challenge modes, massive Factorio mods): audiences enjoy watching others pour huge effort into marginal gains.

Tax write‑offs and “turning dining into a business”

• One thread explores starting a minimal food/movie/travel review “business” to deduct tickets, meals, and travel.
• Others push back:
  • IRS hobby‑vs‑business rules and “ordinary and necessary” standards limit what’s deductible.
  • Entertainment deductions have been narrowed; critics are an exception only when clearly working.
  • Debate over whether pass‑through losses can offset other income; some say yes with limits, others say only against that business’s revenue.
  • General consensus: pushing this too far risks audit.

Health effects of restaurant food

• Many emphasize that restaurant cooking leans heavily on fat, salt, and sugar; portion size in the US is repeatedly cited as a major driver of weight gain.
• Several share personal experiences of gaining weight while eating out frequently (travel, catered office meals) and losing weight when eating home‑cooked food.
• A cited study links frequent meals “away from home” to higher all‑cause mortality; others question its lack of control for cuisine type, restaurant quality, and confounders (e.g., travel, occupation).
• Some argue occasional restaurant meals are fine; the problem is routine fast food and oversized portions, not rare fine dining.

Home cooking vs restaurant capabilities

• One side claims certain flavors and techniques (high‑heat pizza, wok hei, deep‑fried fast‑food textures, fine‑dining patisserie) are effectively unreachable at home due to equipment, ingredients, and labor.
• Others counter with workarounds: pizza steels, outdoor ovens, blowtorches, air fryers, and careful technique can get “close enough” for most people.
• Separate subthread on recipes: many home recipes (including from newspapers) are “heavy.” People report routinely cutting sugar/fat and still getting good results, and debate weighing vs volumetric measuring.

Life and health as a restaurant critic

• Multiple comments highlight that four rich review meals a week is physically punishing and leads to weight gain.
• Suggestions include: tasting but not finishing dishes, sharing among a group, spreading the job across several critics, or using weight‑loss drugs.
• A reported experience with such medication describes severe side effects (nausea, dehydration, fainting), countering the idea that it’s an easy fix.

Criticism, popularity, and taste

• Discussion revisits harsh reviews of touristy, gimmicky restaurants.
• Some argue a critic should judge food quality regardless of an owner’s public niceness or charitable work.
• Others note that professional critics’ tastes often diverge from what mass audiences enjoy; high‑end restaurant culture is compared to the art world in its tendency toward pretension.

Insider perspectives from the restaurant world

• Restaurateurs describe the stress of realizing a major critic is in the dining room, including tactics to identify critics, showcase more dishes, and fill empty rooms.
• A positive review is said to make reservations scarce for weeks.
• Former industry workers who moved into tech say the experience gave them deep insight into consumer behavior and empathy for users.