My personal first-impression of a good restaurant usually is, unless you're standing in front of a street vendor in Southeast Asia, what it looks like. Secondly, what it smells like. Next, who's smiling at you. But these aspects are, at the end of the experience, not terribly important. I can deal with a not-smiling maitre or maitresse. I can deal with a bare floor, formica tables, and paper napkins (you have to if you want to eat Vietnamese, right?). Dirt, of course, does not please me, unless the place has a dirt floor. But, of course, a clean dirt floor. That Bali beach restaurant, for example...
But what I have a little bit of trouble with is a crappy menu. I'm not talking about a finger-spotted, ripped plastic-wrapped thing, bad though that is. Nor am I raving about over-described ingredients. (I am so over crunchy, aromatic, succulent and pungent...just gimme the nouns, please, and gimme my food. Better yet, lose 50% of the nouns, and just gimme the food.)
No, I'm talking about a restaurant that totally misnames a dish.