It might seem like a strange topic to consider: how to avoid restaurants that are a waste of money in New York. However, with as many famous, delicious, innovative and unique dining spots as there are in the city, who can afford to waste time and money at the equal number of unimpressive establishments? Without some sort of guide of which restaurants to eat at, one might be tempted to simply pick a place that looks good enough and check it out. However, without careful consideration, it is easy to get stuck paying over $15 per plate for generic food at an eatery that could easily make the worst restaurants in NYC list.

The best way to avoid a generic restaurant is to observe the crowds. By many standards, a restaurant might look busy, since a smaller city’s busy rush hour will look just like a slow day in the big city. If there is not a significant wait around noon, chances are that the restaurant is not popular with the locals. Obviously, it is best to simply go prepared with a list of restaurants you want to visit, but some people enjoy letting chance dictate their trip, a method that sometimes pays off with a pleasant surprise.

However, you can give chance a leg up by knowing what to look for and how. It may seem challenging when one restaurant serves delicious food but looks like a dive, and another establishment serves mediocre food but has great décor and a large menu. Finding the places with good service, unique food and a fun atmosphere takes creativity. A few tips should help novices who enjoy making their own way.

Before going to breakfast, lunch or dinner at any restaurant, view its menu. Menus with large selections are surprisingly less likely to serve quality food. Smaller menu selections usually indicate that a chef has a mastery over precise ingredients. Larger menus overextend chefs and lead to generic cuisine.

Price, too, is important in avoiding poor food. Knowing when food is fairly-priced takes some experience. In general, if a lunch list serves BLTs or soup and salad for more than $10, the owner of the establishment is banking on a flow of customers that are either rushed, or inexperienced. Plenty of great food can be found in New York for less than $10 a plate. Lunches are a great time to venture out into unknown territory, and settling for an establishment simply because it has a big or pricy selection usually backfires.