The 78 Most Annoying Words to Read in a Restaurant Review

There's a hot and hilarious discussion happening over on our Food Media and News board, nominating the most annoying words used in restaurant reviews. L.Nightshade helpfully compiled an alphabetic list of the offenders. To wit:

• 100 mile
  addictive
  affordable prices
  ambrosia
  annealed
  artisanal
  authentic
  awesome
  bad boy
  cloyingly sweet
  cooked to perfection
  crazy delicious
  cuts with a fork
  decadent
  deconstructed
  died and gone to heaven
  engorged
  eponymous
  falls off the bone
  fellows
  foodie
  gastropub
  gem
  goodness
  gooeyness
  gutsy
  haute barnyard
  healthy
  hidden gem
  historic
  house-made
  I have seen God
  I really want to like this place
  in my opinion
  inedible
  local
  locavore
  meltingly tender
  most unique
• mouthfeel
  munch
  my kingdom for ...
  napped
  oh so ...
  omg
  organic
  orgasmic
  party in your mouth
  piping hot
  piquant
  pocked
  redolent
  revelatory
  sammie
  sinful
  sing
  slurp
  song
  surreal
  sustainable
  symphony of flavors
  taste sensation
  terrific
  think
  to die for
  toothsome
  trio
  tucking into
  tummy
  ubiquitous
  unctuous
  underwhelming
  you won't go away hungry
  yummers
  yummilicious
  yumminess
  yummo
  yummy

Pause. Giggle giggle giggle. And now some thought. There are certainly clear offenders: No adult is allowed to write tummy in a review ever, and when I see the word addictive used to describe food in anything I'm editing, I edit it right out. Sammie is quite horrible, and napped always sounds pretentious to me. Is annealed even a word? Yeah, I see it is ... Robert Sietsema at the Village Voice apparently uses it as a synonym for stuck on. That one only seems marginally appropriate if the food in question is, in fact, stuck together with meat glue, or, possibly, as in Sietsema's case, where he was describing the interior of a blackened pig's head.

But alanbarnes makes a good argument that some of the culprits are actually specific and useful: "'organic' is strictly defined, and it's pretty hard to fudge on '100-mile' ... you can't claim that those usages are anything other than precise."

Any others we missed? Anyone want to stand up and defend symphony of flavors? Party in your mouth? No?