Students sample and review local cuisine

By Sanam Daoudi and Jasmin Mendoza

Staff Writers

We went to various food establishments at Westfield Oakridge Mall in San Jose to try different foods and review restaurants. The distinct factors in our ratings were the flavor of the cuisine and the quality of customer service.

On the first day, we ordered a cheeseburger and an oreo milkshake from Smashburger. We also purchased samosas from Curry Roots, an Indian restaurant. After tasting the food, we rated Smashburger as 3 out of 5 stars and Curry Roots as 4 out of 5 stars. We interviewed employees of the restaurants about their opinions on the food and the overall quality of their workplace.

At each restaurant, we asked an employee:

1. Have you tried the food here?
2. What would you rate the food here on a scale from 1-10? (1 being the worst, 10 being the best)
3. What do you think should be improved?

The Smashburger employee said she had sampled the food there and rated it a 9 or 10 out of 10. She also mentioned that customer service at the establishment could be improved.

We surveyed a Curry Roots employee in the same way. He told us that he thought the food was a 7 out of 10 and that his personal belief was that the food quality could be improved by reducing the amount of preservatives used.

On the second day, we went to Charleys Philly Steaks and Good Karma. We rated Charleys Philly Steaks as a 4 out of 5. An employee said the food was a 5 out of 10 and the quality of the food depended on the chef. He also mentioned that the other employees did their best, but with the type of food served and the overall menu, there was not a lot of space for making large improvements.

The second interview was done at Good Karma, where the food was rated as a 5 out of 5. A staff member said that the food at the restaurant was good but that the amount of space in the kitchen could be improved.

We chose to do this project to see how our reviews would compare to opinions of restaurant employees. We asked for specific number ratings because we thought it would be the best way to properly gauge the difference between customer and employee reviews of the same restaurants.

We decided that, while there were some outliers in the data, our ratings were close to restaurant staff’s opinions.

See below for the full review: