<p>I have used Open Table and found the few times I have reserved through it, reviews were spot on . I try to read the bad ones too , but they have usually been based on the quality of service rather than the food.
Yelp is another story…
I was recently looking up a phone number for a local bagel shop that I have patronized since they opened. Yelp was the first to pop up and the review was pure nonsense. It was clearly a personal attack on the owner and his family ( It was a neighbor of the owner ) The review had nothing whatsoever to do with the eatery. Obviously it isn’t moderated and someone with a personal vendetta can harm a business’ reputation .
Our business has a negative review there as well, although most people would probably see how silly it is ( it was based on the " customer " placing an order with us and not knowing that we are in NJ and not Maryland 
) Still , unmoderated complaints on a website can have a negative impact to a business . I don’t like that we did not have the option to offer a rebuttal to the complaint</p>
<p>Why not just post the location here…and get info from the CC community. I find that persona experience with a restaurant is far better than online “reviews”. </p>
<p>On a recent trip, I got several very good recommendations for restaurants right here!</p>
<p>In Seattle Angies List (not for restaurants/tourist stuff) is the most accurate and comprehensive. Only certain people are allowed to review, and, as a pay site, they try hard to protect the quality of their product. The Yelp/Tripadvisor type anonymous reviews I read of the restaurants I know well can be a real mystery to me, often very innacurate. </p>
<p>My wife (an NP) is good at spotting when drug addicts are looking for a new Oxycontin prescription. She often gets flamed by them when they get denied. Healthcare reviews end up almost the opposite of actual quality of care; ones who dig, trying for cures instead of overprescribing antibiotics and painkillers, get lambasted by those looking for a quick fix.</p>
<p>On a national level, AAA and Forbes/Mobil are fairly reliable. On a more regional level, each city has a reliable magazine or newspaper that rates restaurants as well. In DC, I think the Washington Post does a reasonably good job. As a rule, never trust a restaurant rating that is not transparent, particularly one that can be tampered with. In other words, I would not rely to heavily on TripAdvisor and Zagat etc…</p>
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<p>Yelp is horrible. Yelp will hide one star negative reviews once a company starts advertising with Yelp. To look at the hidden reviews, you have to enter a code. If you want to find out accurate information about a company look to the hidden reviews not the ones Yelp shows you. Better yet, avoid Yelp at all costs.</p>
<p>It’s not just Yelp. I spent some decent money and bought a game on my iPhone. After writing a lengthy and accurate report and updating it a few times (once I began to comprehend exactly how rigged the game was, as opposed to how good it appeared to be) I received a very nasty warning from Apple (App Store), my review and many other negative reviews were pulled, and reviews for this app were ‘shuffled’ so that the first 100 or so are all glowing reviews, then there are batches of 1 and 2 stars, and then back to good reviews. Also reviews are now NOT sorted by date, which makes it near impossible to read thru.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing Trip Advisor reviews as a way of paying back the info I’ve gotten from their reviews. It’s the first place I go to start researching hotels and restaurants in an unknown (or even known) location. Sometimes I cross check with Yelp to get a different point of view. The only reason I wouldn’t bother reviewing a restaurant or hotel is if there’s a constant stream of recent reviews. Then I feel mine won’t really help anyone. Trip Advisor has shown their appreciation by sending me gifts such as luggage tags, a cap and canvas bag. I’m always tempted to wear the cap and carry the bag to see if it improves service.</p>
<p>One of the better points of using Open Table is that everyone who made a reservation through them is invited to review the restaurant. So possibly it’s a fairer assessment than the sites where someone has to want to review. I usually just do the ratings and don’t bother with the comment unless there was something that especially impressed or bothered me.</p>
<p>I find TripAdvisor useful for hotels and restaurants but I do think it is important to ignore simplistic rave reviews as well as very cranky ones that might reflect either a degree of ignorance or a personal issue. Open Table seems tnuave lost a bit of reliability in its reviews lately–might have to do with it being summer Summer Restaurant Week in NYC with places not always living up to their full price reputations (though I have had some very good lunches during RW in the last couple of years).</p>
<p>I usually take reviews with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I have a yelp and manta for my business. Problem is one crackpot can go around giving bad reviews that aren’t accurate. We have 1 bad review on yelp and manta - the kind of business I own isn’t really the kind of business you’d go find me and give a good review. Chances are you weren’t that aware of my business at the time, everything went fine and that was that.</p>
<p>Yelp hid this one bad review for me signing up for the service. I wrote a dispute on manta, and the crackpot came back and said something dumb like, we were just a hick business located in a redneck town. </p>
<p>However, one bad review can keep me from getting new business. But I see 1800 new clients a week, one bad review and it can do real damage when people don’t understand that an anonymous forum gives all the power to one side.</p>
<p>I agree that negative reviews should be taken seriously no matter how many positive ones there are, especially if they tend to be consistent. The night before an early morning flight we stayed in an airport hotel that was highly rated on Tripadvisor. The complaints were right on target. That could either point to ballot stuffing or just a more discriminating clientele than a place generally tends to attract. </p>
<p>A restaurant in my area gets 97% approval and is just so-so at best, The rave reviews seem to be from students who are always crowding the place because it is dirt cheap.</p>
<p>I think one of the most frustrating things about reading reviews is when the people reviewing don’t take the price point into account. I’ve seen complaints about Motel 6 hotels where they didn’t have an exercise room on an in-room kitchen. Likewise, I’ve seen people complain about cheap, greasy spoon restaurants don’t have certified organic sustainable vegan tofu burgers.</p>
<p>I find that Chowhound is very helpful for restaurant recommendations, but not all locations are covered.</p>
<p>I would like to say I prefer a word of mouth review for local restaurants , but ( and I know this sounds snobby ) I don’t trust most people’s opinion on food in my area. The bar is set rather low unfortunately.
I trust only other foodies</p>
<p>I find it useful to ignore reviews by a person that has only done one review and also ignore multiple glowing reviews that are done during the same time period.</p>
<p>I find Trip Advisor very useful for finding restaurants and hotels in areas I am not familiar with. You have to take some reviews with a grain of salt but if you read enough, you can get a pretty good idea. One problem with restaurants though is that they can change hands and go up or downhill very quickly.</p>