Link: http://events.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/reviews/26rest.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Departing New York Times Restaurant Critic Frank Bruni offers great tips for foodies in his last column that appears today in the publication. Here are his tips on what to order from a menu:

"Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you’ve seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef’s heart isn’t in them.

"Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef’s vanity — possibly too much of it — spawned these.

"Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil.

"Choose among the remaining dishes."