Originally Posted by
SanDiego1K
I routinely find two or three items that appeal to be equally. I'll then ask the server which he or her recommends. It's pretty easy to tell from their enthusiasm or lack thereof whether to move ahead with one of them. And they are choosing between items whose description appeals to me, so I have found this very effective.
This.
If a server says "X is very popular," I'll then ask "but do you like it?"
It is also telling if a server pushes the most expensive this and that, whether it be a menu item or a wine. I recently had a waiter down-sell me on a bottle of wine by about $50. Based upon our conversation, and his previous taste of the wine, he thought it wouldn't be what I was looking for (i.e., not the style one would anticipate from the particular selection). That was a great waiter, and I took his suggestions for pretty much everything.