The HAPPINESS Scale

Eating is an emotional experience. Eating out encompasses not just the food, but the atmosphere, the company you're keeping, the service, the comfort of the chair, the height of the table and sometimes even the weather outside. We started with a traditional rating system but couldn't find a way to incorporate the emotional sensation of some of our perennial faves. It was Old Town who made us realize we couldn't use a standard scale of rating. Old Town serves ordinary bar good but their extraordinary hot dogs and worn down bar make us feel Super Happy every single time. The Happiness Scale is a rating system based on how we feel after we've eaten somewhere. Welcome to our world of eating.

1 – Wonderful
Like Michelin says, exceptional cuisine and worth a special journey. Not always extremely expensive, but can be. Eat here and you will leave feeling so utterly content that you could be walking on clouds.

2 – Super Happy
What is it about these places that cheer you up, bringing a smile to your face. It could be they serve the best Chinese in the ‘hood or the atmosphere reminds you of New York when you first moved here #oldschool or that the hot dogs will never let you down.

3 – Feelin’ Good
You’re not expecting greatness, but it’s always good and once in a meal or two, there are moments of greatness. You leave feeling generally at peace with yourself and the world.

4 – Just Fine
Nothing wrong with a meal here, lunch is a perfectly reasonable excursion, you are sated, your hunger pangs are abated and everything is just fine.

5 – Disappointed
Once there may have been greatness but you have been let down one times too many or your favorite food blogger and you just weren’t in sync and the seafood pancake he thought was divine, you thought was barely edible.

6 – Regretfully Yours
We all make bad choices once in a while. Don’t hold it against us.

7 – Offended
Once in a rare while, a dining experience comes out as so off-putting that you leave in a huff, steam rising from your indignant self and for the remainder of the day your ire is easily roused. It’s not just a bad meal, but an entirely bad memory you wish had never been made.