Many restaurants have gone to a lot effort to show off their stuff on the web.
I often check out restaurant websites before making a visit, to get an advance taste of a menu and a sense of how a place wants to present itself.
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I'm also intrigued by big-name places that I know I'll never visit. A web visit helps to satisfy my curiosity if not my appetite.
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Here are some web spots where I've wandered recently.
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Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in California. Some restaurant critics say it's the best restaurant in the United States, and getting a table there takes much patience, good connections, and a healthy bank account. (Fixed price meal is $240 per person, but you get a lot of courses.) Despite the exclusivity, the website feels very welcoming and is stuffed with gorgeous photos of food. There are also short write-ups about how the restaurant operates, including a explanation of why the kitchen staff wears blue aprons.
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Closer to home, I've enjoyed poking around the website for Brasserie l'ecole. They have photos of food, a sample menu, and a short history of the restaurant. There's also a notice advising that the restaurant will be closed for most of September because their building is getting a seismic upgrade. When they re-open, they'll no longer take reservations; it'll be first-come, first-served instead.
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Eleven Madison Park in New York City was recently bestowed with a rare four-star review by the New York Times. My favourite part of their website is a short time-lapse video showing a night in the life of Eleven Madison Park.
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Le Bernardin in New York City is also on the New York Times' four-star list. When you open their site, you're greeted with slideshow scenes of New York, and no indication that you've arrived at a restaurant site. But images of the kitchen and the food it produces soon appear. There are short bios of the owner and the chef, plus plenty of food photos and food details. Lunch is $64, dinner is $109.听
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The Three Acres is a restaurant in Yorkshire, England. Relatives who live in England recently paid a visit there and reported that they had a nice meal. The website is a little puzzling 鈥� an address for the restaurant isn't readily apparent. The menu looks interesting 鈥� very British in tone. Prices look a little high for a pub-style place.
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Vij's in 91原创, the well-regarded Indian restaurant, has an engaging website with a profile of the owners, recipes, a menu, review snippets, and a short description of how the kitchen operates. They are another no-reservations restaurant.
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Nando's, the grilled chicken place that's just getting started in Canada, has a whimsical website with lots of cartoon-style drawings and animation. I'm tempted to say kids will love it, but I don't know if that's true. It's appealing to me.
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The McDonald's Canada website is a disappointment. It doesn't have a menu, at least not one that I can find. There are pictures of McDonald's food scattered about, but nothing systematic 鈥� no descriptions of the food, no big beauty shots of the Big Mac and the Spicy Thai Salad. Much of the type is squished and in a hard-to-read light grey.
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Burger King takes a different approach. It has an Our Menu section that includes photos and proud descriptions for their fare.
