<p>The Pizza Hall of Shame Thread prompted me to start this thread. </p>
<p>I have an Open Table account and use it a lot for dinner reservations. I always look at the reviews on that site and the star rating. I also use Trip Advisor and Yelp. More than once, though, I have gone to a restaurant that gets great reviews and been hugely disappointed in the place.</p>
<p>Just this past weekend, I used Open Table to make reservations in DC at a restaurant that got 4 3/4 stars out of 5 and had rave reviews from customers. We arrived and were the only ones in the place. This was a Friday night in a very busy city and the place was deserted. The food was mediocre, the prices high for what we got and the service was dismal. </p>
<p>I concluded that someone was stuffing the ballot box by writing their own reviews or having friends and family do it. I think it happens a lot.</p>
<p>Where can you find restaurant reviews that are genuine and trust worthy? I’m tired of feeling like I’ve been taken.</p>
<p>There are many instances of people being paid to post to the various rating services. And famous cases of people being harassed and even threatened physically for posting bad reviews. I’m thinking of the optical store in NYC that threatened people.</p>
<p>And of course online reviews are a mixed bag anyway because you don’t usually know the people, their tastes and what else was going on with them. I tend to use chowhound more because I am used to the community of posters and can adjust their comments to fit my tastes. That’s much harder with these more hit and go review sites.</p>
<p>Ha-ha! I’ve been threatened by a restaruant in Key West for my bad review on tripadvisor (“I know who you are. You were sitting at the table near…You’ve ruined my business”). Not everyone is laid back in Key West, I’ve learned. I find tripadvisor reviews to be very accurate, but I only read the reviews from posters who have written multiple reviews. I’ve written over 200, so I hope people take my reviews seriously.</p>
<p>There are rumors that Yelp extorts businesses - if you buy advertising Yelp will hide negative review, and if you don’t Yelp will hide positive reviews. And there are definitely marketing companies that have started posting reviews online for there clients.</p>
<p>What’s kind of creepy is that some of this ballot stuffing happens here on CC.</p>
<p>Zagat used to be fairly reliable for most cities. Now that it has been purchased by Google and is free, the quality of reviews has dropped. I still prefer it to yelp though.</p>
<p>I used to use gayot (it’s free) but I relied on it to book a birthday dinner in DC and the place not only lost my reservation, but it was awful.</p>
<p>Usually, bad reviews are useful and on the mark. Good reviews with some bad reviews are semi useful. All glowing reviews and a small number of them, all within a small time period is usually not good news.</p>
<p>I’ve found yelp with >100 reviews gives a pretty accurate picture. Anything less than 4 stars for just food I’d hesitate to go and any bar with over 4 stars I’d hesitate to patronize 8)</p>
<p>Counterbalance their retort with anecdotal evidence that they have indeed contacted restaurants saying these types of things. Why is yelp in the restaurant advertising business at all? I’m not sure who to believe.</p>
<p>RacinReaver, nope definitely Yelp. I’ve heard similar things about the Better Business Bureau too, so I guess these sorts of claims are pretty widespread.</p>
<p>Another good resource for restaurant ratings is Gayot. I agree that Yelp leans slightly toward overly positive reviews but, at the same time, some reviews that are negative tend to be for some really trivial reasons.</p>
<p>I don’t rely much on any type of reviews. I like to get recommendations from friends who have actually been there, and even then, they’re not always going to have the same opinion as I do. As an example, since we bought our place in Hilton Head, we’ve heard about one particular restaurant and how great it is, how everyone loves it and how so many people head there every time they’re on HH. So, we tried it when there this past winter, and were thoroughly unimpressed with everything - food, service, ambiance. The place was packed, though, and tripadvisor has a ton of great reviews. I think a lot of people are easily impressed!</p>
<p>The first ten reviews are from the owner’s friends.</p>
<p>The next ten reviews are from people with an axe to grind.</p>
<p>Personally, I like to go to restaurants recommended by people I know, or if they have more than one review where the reviewer says “I loved the food, the service is great, but they charge way too much.” In Portland, “way too much” usually means around $15/person I also like to find reviewers who say “I’ve been here ten times.” </p>
<p>I do try new restaurants in particular categories. For a long time, I couldn’t find a good Chinese restaurant–finally found one, now trying to go regularly and tell everyone I know to go, too. They’re a block away from a really famous but not nearly as good Chinese restaurant… I also patronize the restaurants in my neighborhood as much as possible; I like being able to walk to dinner!</p>
As an example, since we bought our place in Hilton Head, we’ve heard about one particular restaurant and how great it is, how everyone loves it and how so many people head there every time they’re on HH. So, we tried it when there this past winter, and were thoroughly unimpressed with everything - food, service, ambiance. The place was packed, though, and tripadvisor has a ton of great reviews. I think a lot of people are easily impressed!</p>
I also like to find reviewers who say “I’ve been here ten times.” </p>