When it comes to food, the phrase "everyone's a critic" earns its literalness.
With the proliferation of websites like Yelp! and Urban Spoon, diners can instantly view knee-jerk reviews of just about any eating establishment out there, be it a five-star seafood restaurant or a hole-in-the-wall Chinese joint. No actual conversations are necessary to enhance an outfit's word-of-mouth reputation.
On the one hand, it's nice to be able to sift through hundreds of comments to determine the neighborhood's best Thai take-out option. But the grab bag of opinions can be so variable that it negates any usefulness the might offer.
Do you read online restaurant reviews before eating out? How do you know what to believe.
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Comments (17)
I do read online reviews and take them into account. I usually go with the majority opinion. However, the opinion of somebody who knows me and who has personally experienced the restaurant trumps the online review, since they have a better idea of my personal tastes.
I look at them, yes, especially when I'm in an unfamiliar city and looking for something in particular.
I think the thing about these is that you have to realize that a lot of commenters don't actually know what the hell they're talking about. In a way, these can be valuable too in that if a particular eatery has nothing but idiots praising it, its probably not that great. For example, "omg i love this place!! just like a high class panda express!" is worth less to me than "the xiao long bao here are of equal quality to dai ting fung, at half the price with none of the fuss, also recommend the dan bing, the chef came from kuaxia wu in Taipei" or something.
I find it helpful to look at the person who rates, and the people who rate negatively -- if their ratings, comments, and restaurant choices match our own, it's a good bet that we will feel negatively about whatever place they felt negatively about also. Same with positives; looking at that reviewer's page often provides me with SIMILAR eateries that turn out to be better.
Not as much as doctor clinic/ vet reviews and etc. Sometimes I would read them to know if they offer good service. Most of the time I rather just see the picture and decide for myself if I want to eat there or not.
I do, but at the same time I also read their review to see if it has any substance instead of just "it's good" or "it's horrible don't ever eat here."
And whatever else chow ^ said since I don't feel like repeating him. =oD
I think websites such as Yelp, help foodies look for possibly new places to dine. I dont take what others so seriously as to not want to dine at a place. Everyone has a different palate, and only you yourself can determine whether the place is good or not. Like @chow said, most of these folks dont even know what good food is!!
@DeathzDezign@xanga - @tigerdauphin@xanga - @just_the_average_jane@xanga - Yes, this is very true and a good point. I think in general, if the commenters all seem to be fairly reliable, the consensus opinion can be a good one; but we all do have our individual palates. I know there's some things that I like that Jane or Thuy here doesn't, because we discover variations in taste and preference in conversation.
And then there are times when general consensus says "bad" but then we realize that general consensus really doesn't know WTF they're talking about when we go, and realize that it's truly authentic Szechuan cuisine, not the americanized versions, and american people don't like it.
It's like a conversation I had with Martin Yan once over noodles, after a production -- we were talking about how "authentic" taste may be good, but it may not always go over well, especially in foreign populations. How "hou guo" from Szechuan is made very differently; and the kung pao in traditional style is almost unidentifiable by american tastes.
I bet if someone opened an authentic Tso Tofu shop, 90% of people would go there and be disgusted. But the 10% who know it and love it the authentic way would love it. Regardless though, the Yelp would say "horrible, disgusting, 1 star" when it's actually a gem. I'm sure there's Vietnamese food like this too; in fact, I'm sure there's food/ restaurants/ styles from all over the world that wouldn't do well in "authentic" form in the US, just because of the difference in palates.
I should have just posted this as an entry, haha.
@chow - you should!
An idea of mine that I've harbored for years is to open a restaurant for my mom. Only open on the weekends or one day a week (maybe out of our house?) But I want my mom to cook whatever she wants, and only that one dish for the entire day. There would be workers to help her of course since the quantity would have to be massive.
I have a couple times.
My family loves Mexican food, so whenever we're out of town we usually just ask someone who works at the hotel if they know of any good nearby authentic Mexican restaurants. Usually we have good luck!
I read them.. but I still go there to try the food myself.... service i don't really care much about if the food is good there as long as they don't spit in the food it's all good. I eat at this restaurant called TK noodle one of my favorite restaurant... service sux but the food is good.
I read them occasionally, they are quite helpful to find restaurants. I just moved into a new province, across the country, so finding new restaurants to my taste is really helpful. Also being vegan its nice to find options that are greater than salad. I used a review recently to find a Ukrainian Diner... it didn't turn out to be good at all, but finding Ukrainian food and Russian restaurants around is a task in itself here.
no
i have this friend who loves to read reviews before he goes into a restaurant. sometimes he's disappointed by the reviews but i always encourage him to go anyways because different people have different tastes.
ewww yelp???
no, considering everybody has a different opinion about things. i really like to try things for myself.
i always yelp! and if a lot of people are saying the same thing, then i believe it :D
yes, all the time. it helps to know if the restaurant you're going to has good service, good food, ambiance, the works. the worst thing is to go to a restaurant and spend $100CDN on a meal that was BARELY okay, and find out that the reviews online have already told you to stay away. they're there for a reason, so read them.
I always read the yelp reviews to see what other people have thought. I'd hate to go somewhere new and be sorely disappointed and find out that there were over 200 bad reviews.
yeeeup!