BELLEVUE, Wash. — If you've ever dined out, chances are the scrutinizing eyes of an AAA restaurant inspector has already been there.
"I personally do about 260 a year that I evaluate. And there are 30 inspectors across North America and we all do the same amount each year."
We can identify Inspector 594, but he is part of an over 80-year tradition of reviewing restaurants for their members.
"The most important piece of what we’re doing is providing AAA members a really good option of places to go to eat at and dine at," said Inspector 594.
"The cleanliness thing we're always looking at and when they're seating us we look at other guests."
One thing they don't bite into is how the food taste.
"We don't evaluate the food as a food critic, we do evaluate the food to make sure, it's cooked properly. We evaluate the presentation of the food when it comes out."
And with today's tech, a AAA inspector can look like just any other guest.
"The nice thing is with the advent of cell phones, everyone is taking photos of their food and texting. So any notes I have I text myself a note. I can take photos of food all day long because people expect that."
We met Inspector 594 at Ascend Prime Steak & Sushi in Bellevue.
It's being award AAA Four Diamond Designation, an honor only given to 4.2 percent of the places they review.
"It's not easy to get, we don't just hand them out of course. There's a lot of things we look at like the food, the service, and decor. When you get to the 4 Diamond, you're definitely in an upscale environment.”
So while you can read restaurant rants on Yelp, why not leave the reviews to the folks that do it for a living.
"It's a great job I can tell you that."
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