The Food Cops - "Now anyone can be a food critic.''

At last it’s over. That sinking feeling you experience when the waiter sails over to you, followed immediately by the manager (and always at the very moment when you have overfilled your mouth with food) to ask you the same vacant question: “so-is-everything-okay-and-whatdya-think-of the-food!” South Africans are polite people. We are burning to enquire in reply as to which military barracks has started donating food to local restaurants once it passes its sell-by date. But instead we just mumble “it’s okay”, pretend that we are too deep in conversation to think about the question, and grumble all the way home about a ghastly experience. Now you can smile sweetly, and think to yourself: The Food Cops will get to hear about this.

The Food Cops is South Africa’s very own instant restaurant-review social media platform which gives the public an opportunity to share dining out experiences be they good, bad, or mediocre. The Food Cops reviewers aim to root out every known food and beverage contravention: inferior ingredients; shoddy preparation and presentation and bad service. And like every vigilant bobby, The Food Cops will not be afraid to dish out a warm thumbs-up for a great dining out experience.

The Food Cops was developed out of the collaboration between a professional chef and a dedicated food guru. The Food Cops provide a social media page for the public to locate restaurants and reviews. Ultimately the page will incorporate a range of South African restaurants: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Food Cops is no ordinary Facebook or Twitter page; it is an extensive collection of eating establishment reviews compiled by the eating-out public.

Two kinds of restaurant reviews appear on The Food Cops: 1.Reviews are posted by a select panel of anonymous Food Cops and 2. Anyone can write about their restaurant experiences on the page. The anonymity of The Food Cops reviews ensures that restaurants do not put their best practice forward when a celebrity food critic steps through the door. The Food Cops pay for their own meals to protect their unbiased reputation. Visitors to Facebook and Twitter are encouraged to leave brief, humorous, cutting edge criticism and compliments.

The Food Cops do not limit themselves to the types of restaurants. They frequent and review: fine dining, pubs, breakfast joints, fast food outlets and coffee shops.

The Food Cops disclose the fact that they are blog writers at the end of the meal by leaving a sticker at the restaurant or a comment on the bill. In this way restaurateurs are encouraged to visit the web page and hopefully learn from the constructive criticism left on the page for them by the paying public.

We welcome everyone to join our page by clicking the ‘‘like ’’ button at the top of the page by searching The Food Cops or visit www.facebook.com/thefoodcop Follow us on Twitter at @TheFoodCops