F.O.O.D.

Favorite Orders for Our Dishes, also known as F.O.O.D., is the foremost service for reviewing restaurants and their best dishes.

Origins

F.O.O.D. began when Forvan Redfury found himself and his restaurant, the Forest After Dark, to be lacking customers. He knew his food was quality, and knew that more customers would go just to a place they knew they could eat at.
So Forvan gathered food critics that he knew and suggested an idea to them. To form a company where they can all get their names out there as reviewers, and also promote smaller restaurants. The first restaurant they reviewed: Forvan's Forest After Dark.
It was difficult getting their review published at first. Not too many newspapers wanted to listen to amateur reviewers and a no-name chef. Forvan and his compatriots sat for weeks thinking of what to do to get their reviews published, and decided that they would have Forvan hand deliver the reviews. Then, he would whip up his cuisine for them with his Food Magic.
This was a success, maybe more of one than they wanted. Every newspaper they sent it to, on every corner of Totania, published it, and Forest After Dark has not been empty since that day. The reviewer's names became synonymous with critic culture around the world, and F.O.O.D. was instantly skyrocketed to prominence as the absolute say on whether a restaurant was good or bad.
For a taste of the original review, an excerpt is included below:

"Forest After Dark is not just a restaurant or a hang-out, it is the full package. Excellent food, atmosphere, and service from a single, charming, hard-working man. Normally a one-man restaurant would never have such quality, but Forvan Redfury has captured the essence of what a restaurant needs, and has perfected it. If you haven't been to Forest After Dark, stop on by for the greatest culinary experience of your life. It's so good, you won't believe it's not magic!"

— Lorden Trispoon

Prominence

F.O.O.D. went on to review every restaurant on the planet, even going to dangerous places like Orc and Lizardfolk restaurants. When they went to more dangerous places, they managed to get an escort of military personnel, as the reviewers were that sacred to the people of Totania.
But F.O.O.D. found themselves at odds with a certain chain, who considered their practices scummy. This was fast-food chain McDales, who already were popular and were simply given negative reviews by F.O.O.D. for that reason alone. Forvan himself even admitted he founded F.O.O.D. to fuel competition against McDales. However, Forvan would later go on to say that the negative review was more than just a disdain for McDales' popularity.

Reviews

"If they made quality food, then sure, they would be allowed to complain. But tell me- look me in the eyes and tell me you enjoy any damn burger you've gotten at McDales more than any burger from any other restaurant. No, you can't, can you? Exactly. That is why F.O.O.D. exists. For good food."

— Forvan Redfury

Despite what Forvan says, many say the company works contrary to this. The main example is how his own restaurant is still their best reviewed, with every critic in the company giving it a positive review. Other high rated restaurants are believed to have some connection with Forvan or the other reviewers, perhaps bribes or even just genuine friendships that cloud the judgement and scores.
Nowadays, you'll be hard-pressed to find a restaurant in the territories with more Human-influence (Human, Draconian, Korvian, Elven) that does not flaunt its review from F.O.O.D. as a badge of the highest honor. Those that do not receive it do not make it much longer, normally.
Some exceptions include restaurants like McDales, which use the negative review from F.O.O.D. to draw in customers to show them that it isn't as bad as F.O.O.D. says it is.

Forvan Redfury by Jarhed

Reviewers

F.O.O.D. is not just made up of Forvan and the original review team, though. As a matter of fact, they still actively hire new food reviewers to get a broader range of tastes and opinions in.
There is a rigorous interview process, where Forvan sits the interviewee down for a five course meal where he intentionally makes one of the courses with poor quality. He asks for them to review each course and determine which is bad. This requires them to not only eat five entire courses, but also to eat one course that is not good quality food.
Still, the army of food critics that has spawned from this process is enough that anytime a new restaurant pops up, it is reviewed the next day by F.O.O.D. critics.
Some food critics have tried to copy F.O.O.D. to no avail, with smaller groups of reviewers or indie reviewers opinions being weighed against F.O.O.D. and, if the opinion is different from F.O.O.D., dismissed as hacks or not knowing what they're talking about.

Rating System

Originally, F.O.O.D. operated off of a simple "Recommend or Not" system where all of the reviewers would give their opinions on a restaurant, and they would be averaged together. That was when they didn't intend to review at an incredible speed with as many reviewers as possible, though.
Now, the reviewers often go in small groups (of about 5-6 different reviewers) to restaurants. After the meal, they write reviews that end with the classic "Recommend or Not" but have more depth than that. Most people skip to the recommendation at the end, but the in-depth reviews are not for the consumers really. It is often to demoralize restaurants that get negative reviews, or to make good restaurants feel good about their cuisine.
Below is a famous quote from a re-review of Forest After Dark, where a new reviewer clearly shows immense bias towards owner and founder Forvan Redfury's restaurant.

"Masterful is not a word that I throw around with ease, but there is no lighter word than that to describe the taste of the food at Forest After Dark. I cannot look at food the same again after this, for nothing after this can even meet the definition of food, as this has raised the bar that high."

— Kimble Broilforth

It is joked that Kimble was telling the truth in the end, as afterwards he went on to only negatively review every other restaurant he's gone to. It is this immense bias that shows heavily in some of their reviewers, and why unaffiliated reviewers look down on their reviews so much. For an example of this bias turned around, check another review from Kimble of a Martinau Cat Cafe known as the Calti Cafe.

"One could not describe this restaurant without the word pandering. Pandering to people that think cats are cute to disguise mediocre food, pandering to Draconians with a name for the cafe in Draconic that has no bearing on the aesthetic of the restaurant or the cuisine. That is, if you can even call coffee and slightly edible dribble on a plate cuisine."

— Kimble Broilforth

Still, the general populace loves Kimble Broilforth and other reviewers from F.O.O.D. and generally takes their word as law when it comes to where to eat. So love or hate them, restaurant owners have to cater to everything F.O.O.D. wants.