Hello world!

Welcome to the Travel Insider.  This blog is designed to share our experiences in traveling, eating and living.

On this blog you will find a variety of travel related things:

  • Restaurant Reviews
  • Location Reviews
  • Trip Recommendations
  • Day-by-Day Itineraries of Trips

and more.

Food ratings

For cuisine, I adopt the general 0-20 French rating system, with these descriptions:

16-20: Exception.  A phenomenal experience; artistic; a top restaurant in the country.

12-16: Very Good; always consistent high quality; hard to achieve.

8-12: Good and consistent; many restaurants score here.

5-8: Fair; not great, but edible.  Can return again and again without shame.

0-5: Not our type of place to eat at, we try to avoid at all costs.

I rate the cost as:

$$$$: Expect to pay $50+ for one’s meal.

$$$: Expect to pay $20 – $50 for one’s meal.

$$: Expect to pay $10 – $20 for one’s meal.

$: Expect to pay under $10 for one’s meal.

*this excludes any drinks, appetizers, tip and etc.

Decor Ratings

This also uses the general 0-20 French rating system, with these descriptions:

16-20: Not only does this look authentic, it is authentic.

12-16: Well done and well thought out.

8-12: Clean and well decorated, but might be trite and random store (or “air space”) decor or basic ethnic decorations.

5-8: Basic and simple.

0-5: Dirty and unkempt.

Enjoy