Restaurant awards are on the menu

WALK into any restaurant these days and you’re frequently confronted by a wall covered with plaques and framed certificates, telling you how great the restaurant is. What do they all mean, if anything?

Adrian Cummins is chief executive of the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI). He cites a recent visit to a restaurant in the south. “The place is open a month and the guy had three plaques on his wall. And he hasn’t had a single inspection.”

He believes there are a number of schemes out there that aren’t actually award schemes at all, where all you have to do to display an ‘award’ is to buy the plaque.