Restaurant reviews. How impartial can they really be?

What I mean is: how impartial can we be, reviewing a restaurant that’s what a cliche would tell you is a stone’s throw away, what in reality translates as a visible cake display away.

One where the almond croissants can be counted with the naked eye.
One where the toasted custard (pastis de nata, to save you time at the counter when you frenetically order just in case someone in the restaurant has ordered one of these mightily tasty items for dessert and you’re left tongue-tied, searching for the Portuguese for delicious custard magic with the phyllo pastry tart shell. THAT THING! THERE!!) tarts are also visible, and also calling you.
One where the smell of the bread wafts over with the persuasiveness of a Tony Robbins seminar.

How impartial can we be when we know dishes won’t make the menu if they cannot be put together in a certain amount of time without compromising on their exceptional standards? (Try this. I have never experienced service in tandem with the deliciousness of meals like IDP before)

It would be a challenge to be impartial when you have seen the details of what makes IDP what it is: watching the owner after hours fix a basic hinge mechanism on a bakery door, then cleaning the floor himself, 15 years into this business.

Not giving the job to someone else to do.

Not waiting until tomorrow as he got up at 4am like many in the baking trade and he’s pretty damn tired by now.

No, he wants to get it done, and he cares to get it done, and that attention to detail defines this place, and when you see a foundation like that, a value, you can’t help but be impressed.

We are clearly partial.