Hi,
I would say that there is nothing else better than EXECUTION PLANS to fine tune your query. But you need to understand it message that it trying to give.
What happening inside --> the best answer is follow the graphical flow of execution plan.
And to get the no. of times it hit a perticular table or row / IO reads, you need to enable some options in SSMS. Follow the below steps.
1) Navigate to Tools --> Options
2) Expand "Query Execution" at the left pane and expand "SQL Server"
3) Select "Advanced" option under "SQL Server"
4) Check the two options "SET STATISTICS TIME" and "SET STATISTICS IO"
5) Be sure you haven't opened any query window while performing this action.
Now this time when you will open any query window, it will be enabled by default.
Just run any query, you will be able to see the statistics under "Messages" in Results pane.
Hope it might help you get what you need.
--Arun