Further thoughts on food categories

[kake]

As discussed a couple of weeks ago, it seems to make sense to reintroduce the Pub Food category on RGL, and remove Food Served Lunchtimes and Food Served Evenings.

However, in poking around the data, I find myself wondering if it would be a good idea to have a Bar Snacks category as well, for places that will do e.g. sausage rolls, charcuterie, pitta & hummous, but not full meals. One example of a place I think would fit well in this category is Albertine Wine Bar in Shepherd's Bush. A possibly-borderline case is the Tooting Tram and Social which does rather good sausage rolls but no other form of food.

I'm thinking that the food needs to be more "fancy" than a packet of crisps, but less full-on than a proper meal. I'm not sure if a bowl of olives counts, and I'm also not sure about those home-made pork scratchings served from large jars. My main use-case for this category would be to find somewhere I could go for a drink and a small snack to keep me going until dinner, or possibly also somewhere I could go for a drink and a very light dinner.

Some places will do both Pub Food and Bar Snacks; others will do just one of these types.

Thoughts?

Comments

[katstevens]

I'd say if it comes on a plate/in a bowl with an accompanying napkin then it's a bar snack (so nothing that comes in a packet - crisps/peanuts etc). If you need a knife and fork then it's a meal!

[kake]

That's a good criterion!

[nanila]

I was going to say that if you can eat it with your fingers it's a bar snack, but that wouldn't exclude things in packets. I think of those (crisps, peanuts, pork scratchings, those weird fake bacon things) as bar snacks too, but I guess that won't make the distinction kake is aiming for here.

[kake]

Yeah, most pubs and bars serve crispy things in packets, so a category that included them isn't going to be really useful. The packety aspect is probably one worth mentioning then!

[therealdrhyde.livejournal.com]

"Food Served Lunchtime" and "Food Served Evenings" are useful, so I'd keep 'em. Searches like this (http://london.randomness.org.uk/scripts/pubsearch.cgi?locale=Greenwich&realale=1&lunch=1&Search=Search) are very useful. The option to search for Thai food is less useful perhaps. But adding a bar snacks category would be useful.

Perhaps what you really need is some meta-categories, so that if, eg, the venus is a pub and any of evening food or lunchtime food or bar snacks are available then the venue will also show up in the "Pub Food" meta-category. This would be searchable but not settable.

[kake]

As mentioned in the previous post (linked above), I don't think the data regarding food times is of high enough quality for us to continue offering that search.