Specifically, I now have mixed feelings about my expectations regarding the quality and origin of food, as well as the environment and ambiance. First and foremost, after re-reading many of the online reviews I had looked at pre-visit, I now feel I relied too heavily on the words of potentially inexperienced, unsavvy, and only semi-food conscious "critics." Instead of accurately portraying the overall food quality at Taverna Ouzo, many of the reviewers just focused on one or two things to rave about and didn't actually provide much of a substantive argument. (You can check out a few of the reviews I read here, here, and here.) Due to the generally stellar reviews, I feel that I had high expectations for the quality of the food that were sadly not fulfilled.
Aside from the caliber of the food, my expectations for finding out the origin of the dishes was also a bit unrealistic. Although I was able to ask the waiter specific questions about a few dishes, I thought it a bit over-kill to ask him a millions questions such as if the cheese in my mousaka was grass-fed, if the ground beef was 100% organic, or if the potatoes were locally grown. Instead, I ended up asking him about a couple of things, but then turned to perusing my menu for further clues regarding the origin of certain foods. However, my pre-writing makes it seem that figuring out the origin of the food is one of my top priorities for my visit to Taverna Ouzo, and unfortunately I was unable to deliver many nominal results.
I think I was right, however, in not crafting my expectations of the food (and the environment) around the idea of "authenticity." Because I did not go into Taverna Ouzo looking for "the perfect Greek meal" or "the authentic Greek experience of Kalamazoo," I dutifully avoided the controversial discussion of what is truly "authentic" and to whom. After reading the article Culinary Tourism I believe that this was the best tactic. Had I had the resources to make a strong, educated argument about "authenticity" as whole, or specifically what Greek authenticity means to me, I perhaps could have taken another route with this concept in my review. As it was, however, I thought that avoiding the subject altogether was a better choice due to the obvious limitations.
As far as my expectations about the environment and ambiance of the restaurant, I think they were more or less on track. Since I had never been to this restaurant before and simply did not know what to expect, it was hard to formulate any pre-conceived notions about the environment. However, I think that it was important to go into the entire experience thinking about it from the lens of a college student. (Since I am a college student, this wasn't too much of a challenge!) Before going to the restaurant I made a list of all the things I thought a college student would want to know about the ambiance or environment, then made sure to observe those things when I went. Some of the items on my list included lighting, sound level, music soundtrack, and clientele.
Overall, I am pretty happy with the expectations I set up before visiting Taverna Ouzo last weekend. I think the most important thing about my anticipations was that I tried not to have too many concrete expectations. As I have done a significant amount of traveling in my life, I've come to realize that when I plan things out or over-think things, I often am left feeling disappointed or uncomfortable when things don't go according to plan. The best approach, in my opinion, is to have some basic level of expectation (such as this restaurant is fancy, I can at reasonably expect a little better food quality), but then after that just go with the flow. While I think this approach worked well for my visit to Taverna Ouzo, I think it is also a good philosophy to keep in mind next year when I go on study abroad to Ecuador and for any future traveling I may choose to do.
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