An award-winning food critic has revealed the best tricks to help you choose a restaurant for an enjoyable dining experience – some methods you can use before you even enter the restaurant.

Tom Sietsema, who was honored by the James Beard Foundation in 2015 for his series “America’s 10 Best Cities for Good Food,” has revealed the most efficient way to recognize a delicious restaurant.

In his latest article in the Washington Post, the experienced restaurateur revealed his surefire method for checking out restaurants before booking a table.

Here are some of his easy-to-use tricks:

1. The quality of the cars in the parking lot

The surest way to find out if a restaurant serves good food, Sietsema says, is to check the cars parked right outside the door.

Food critic Tom Sietsema says the surest way to tell if a place serves good food is to check the cars parked right outside.

A sure sign of whether you are going to get an appetizing meal is whether there are expensive cars like Porsches parked or whether there are lots of vehicles with domestic license plates waiting outside.

He also noted that establishments surrounded by buses are often tourist traps.

2. Size of the menus

If a restaurant doesn’t have parking, Sietsema recommends checking to see if there are large menus posted outside.

According to the critic, eating in restaurants can be harmful if the menus contain many typos or exclamation marks or indicate that the dishes are “perfectly prepared”.

According to the reviewer, any place whose menu contains a lot of typos or exclamation points, or indicates that a dish is “perfectly prepared,” may be unsafe to eat.

3. The smell of the place

When a restaurant passes the parking and menu check, Sietsema advises guests to try to smell the air of the place.

“A steakhouse should smell of beef, an Italian dining room should whisper of garlic, and a Korean restaurant should tingle with chilies.”

“A stale smell – or sometimes worse, a whiff of bleach or ammonia from cleaning products – should send you back to the sidewalk,” he said.

“A stale smell – or sometimes worse, a whiff of bleach or ammonia from cleaning products – should send you back to the sidewalk,” he suggested.

4. First impressions

If you call to reserve a table and are greeted by a rude employee, there is a good chance that you will also receive poor service when you get there.

Sietsema also noted that the restaurant would be “sleepy” if prices were not listed on the website or if holiday specials were not posted again in the next season.

5. Happy waiters and a busy kitchen

Sietsema also noted that the restaurant is “sleeping at the counter” if the website does not display prices or continue to post their holiday specials into another season.

If you enter the restaurant and see a lot of cheerful waiters and a busy kitchen full of people, that can be a good sign.

Sietsema explains: “In a restaurant, look for waiters who seem happy (proud to work there) and a little busy (customers willing to wait for a table).

“You want to see a busy counter and a lot of sales.”

6. How old are the online reviews?

Last but not least, one of the most important things to pay attention to is the cleanliness of a restaurant – especially the work surfaces, floors and the chef’s clothing.

When you look for reviews of new places online, check when they were published.

According to Sietsema, even reviews that are only a year old are considered accurate descriptions because “restaurants are like live theater, with the possibility of cast and script changes.”

7. Cleanliness

Last but not least, you should pay special attention to the cleanliness of a restaurant – especially the work surfaces, floors and the chef’s clothing.