That disclaimer runs every week with the "restaurant review" in The FNP's 72 Hours.

As the editor of 72 Hours, I think the dining experiences are some of the best-read items we publish. Often the restaurants featured will also post the write-ups on their walls, which always makes me happy.

Yet some readers seem to have a problem with "this is not meant to be a critical review," or at least the most vocal and critical of them do.

I get calls and e-mails ... we are too harsh, too easy, too boring, unfair ... and so it goes.

One especially adamant reader who believed we were dropping the ball, even though we never profess to be restaurant critics a la Phyllis Richman or Tom Sietsema, even started her own blog critiquing area restaurants, after she critiqued our articles and found them seriously lacking. Last I looked, she has not posted for more than a year.

See, it's hard doing this for a living week in and week out. You cannot go gunning for bear, so to speak, because no one will hunt with you. And many restaurants are already wary of being "reviewed."

But I do get calls from establishments that want us to feature them, which is great. There are 52 weeks in a year and we have been publishing 72 Hours since May 2002, so you do the math.

Our appetite and need for new, fresh material is as great as our readers' interest in new places to eat in and around Frederick County.

Business writer Ed Waters feeds me lots of tips on new eateries that have just opened or are planning on coming to the area.

Just as the recession has hit everyone, you may have noticed that we have been visiting places that are easier on your wallet, more often than not. We have not gone through the drive-through yet, as one local blogger snickered, but we are trying, in these tough economic times, to let our readers know about places where you can eat out for less.

Ideally, we visit restaurants incognito. We do not want to be treated differently. We also like to let a new place work out the kinks, give it maybe two or three months before we visit. That seems only fair.

After a writer visits a restaurant, I then call the establishment and let them know we would like to "feature" them in our 72 Hours entertainment guide and hope, with fingers crossed, that they allow us to come and take photographs of their dining area and food, so we can capture the ambience for the readers. And we really don't want to ambush anyone.

I often try to explain that these dining experiences are an attempt to be the eyes and ears for our readers and to introduce them to new places they may not have had a chance to try. I encourage using adjectives and being as descriptive as possible. We have been accused of regurgitating the menu, but don't you want to know what's on the menu when you decide to eat someplace?

Would you like to know if the bathrooms are clean? How long you have to wait for service? The price range? Is the food fresh, or does it seem like it was reheated from frozen? Would you eat there again?

Here is what I advise the "reviewer": Think of the reader when you're munching. What would he/she want to know about this restaurant? Focus on the food and include details such as quality, freshness, variety of textures and tastes ... include some details about the establishment, but remember it is a restaurant, and people go there for the food ... describe as best you can what you and your guest ate with lots of details so the reader can get an idea of the food, foremost, ambience and decor second.

And I stress that they are not a professional restaurant critic. They are not qualified to be one, even though every Tom, Dick and Harry blogger thinks they are.

Perhaps a definition is in order:

Critic --

n One who forms and expresses judgments of the merits, faults, value or truth of a matter.

n One who specializes especially professionally in the evaluation and appreciation of literary or artistic works: a film critic; a dance critic.

n One who tends to make harsh or carping judgments; a faultfinder.

Well, it seems, by human nature, everybody's a critic to some degree. And everyone's entitled to their opinion. And you know the old saying about opinions ...