I once went at noon to a Chinese restaurant that was advertising its lunch specials. It was completely empty save three or four Chinese waiters sitting at a table, talking Chinese and eating French fries and curried bratwurst from the greasy spoon diner next door. What should *that *tell me? 
I do use pad thai and tom kha gai as my Thai judgement foods, but pad ki mao is not a bad way to go, either.
Sadly, my local Thai restaurant is ghastly at everything I’ve tried there, yet beloved by the local populace.
Not necessarily. The local Mexican place (awesome tortilla soup!) doesn’t serve menudo simply because there’s no market for it around here. The owner told me this himself but he did say the staff makes it for themselves. I wouldn’t eat it at any rate. If my grandmother could never get me to eat it I’m not gonna start now!
That, plus I’ve had some pretty shitty menudo from these places, so its presence means nothing to me. I love menudo, but I have to seek out restaurants that are especially good at it. Plenty of mediocre Mexican restaurants in my neighborhood have mediocre menudo on the menu. Then there are those restaurants that I don’t like except for their menudo and the restaurants that have sub-par or non-existent menudo, but awesome otherwise.
It’s really hard to generalize. Even the restaurants that advertise toritillas “hechos a mano” (handmade tortillas) are not a guarantee of good food (although always worth at least a shot.)
I use great tempura and beef teriyaki to check how great a Japanese restaurant is
Funny.
But realistically, if you were a Chinese guy working at a Chinese restaurant, even if it were the greatest Chinese restaurant to ever exist, could you really eat there every day?
Every rule has exceptions. For example, I’ve had great BBQ that was turned out by atheist white people, served on plates in an air-conditioned restaurant. But if I’m traveling through a strange town and get hungry, that’s not where I’m going to stop first. I’m going to head for the tar-paper shack on the frontage road where the pit is manned by some 87 year old black man and the ribs are handed to you on butcher paper and you eat them at picnic tables surrounded by fundamentalist Baptist propaganda and pictures of Jesus. You just have to play the odds sometimes.
I mentioned thai food earlier, and pad thai is indeed my “judgment” food, but I’ll agree with you. The problem is that bad drunken noodles is far more likely than good drunken noodles, and then you’re stuck with a greasy mess to eat, instead of merely average pad thai, which is nearly impossible to screw up. And really well made drunken noodles is still about the 6th best thing on the menu.
I do wish the place I mentioned above handmade its tortillas but as I work in a restaurant I know the lack of such is an unavoidable concession to labor concerns. Also, I doubt many customers would appreciate the difference. Fortunately my mother still makes them for me (though not as often as when my father was alive). Ain’t nothin’ better then homemade tacos with homemade shells!
I kind of disagree with the overall premise. There are many restaurants that really only do one thing well. For instance, the local Thai restaurant does have excellent Pad Thai, but everything else I’ve tried there has been mediocre at best.
I’d sooner starve than order a California roll in a decent sushi restaurant, but there is certain logic to using it as a gauge of quality. First, is the nori properly fresh toasted or did it just come out of a wrapper? Second, is the rice served at a proper temperature? Third, how tight or loose does the chef form his rice and rolls.
Couldn’t you figure those things out from just about any roll? And with the exception of how tight it is, you could get it from any sushi as well.
That corroborates nicely with what Munch said 2 posts earlier even though you two are technically arguing two different sides.
You’re not going to get nori with most negiri, but you’re right, it could be any roll. But, there’s anther factor: How does the restaurant treat the lesser of its children (California rolls and those - usually inexperienced - customers who order them)? When I think of California rolls, I think of stale nori and cold rice pressed tight enough to produce diamonds. If I was served one with fresh toasted nori, warm rice, and only tight enough to make it to my mouth, I would certainly be inclined to expect the chef’s “real” sushi would be sensational
I would judge sushi by the nigiri. It’s as simple and pure as sushi gets. The quality and freshness of the fish, the quality of the rice, the knife skill of the chef, these will all be apparent.
Except now you’re half full on a California roll and didn’t learn anything you couldn’t have by ordering a more interesting roll.
But I’m not against California rolls or other non-traditional stuff. Just not so much at what I hope might be a really good sushi place. For the neighborhood strip mall place, I’m more than happy with them. And when my mother-in-law makes sushi for a road trip it is all inari, tamago and cucumber rolls eaten cold out of a cooler (which I’d never tolerate in any restaurant and yet those taste best of all).