Bribe the maître d': restaurateur's guide to getting the best tables In his memoir Restaurant Man, which deals from his rise from busboy in his family's restaurant in Queens, New York, Mr Bastianich, who owns a string of successful Italian restaurants across the country, discloses a few tricks of the trade. On getting a good table, he writes: "A $50 bill might get you noticed. Depending on the restaurant, they might even take a 20. For an Upper East Side rip-off joint or a busy Midtown steakhouse a hundie [$100] should get you in the game. Members of the mafia, he claims are particularly good at getting the best tables. But he added that tourists should not try and bribe the maître d's that they have never met because they do not have a relationship with them. Mr Bastianich also take swipes at good critics in his memoir. In one instance, he said John Mariani, a critic for Esquire, was a "self-righteous, condescending p----" who gave him a negative review years ago at his restaurant Becco. In a letter to The New York Post, Mr Mariani replied: "You have so completely warped the truth to suit what are clearly your own insecurities ... Your characterisation of me ... is so distant from what you have, obviously and hypocritically, led me to believe all these years as to defy understanding. He added they he did not remember the bad review and put the restaurateur in Esquire's 'Hall of Fame'.