sf7307

>>

well, I obviously meant to post THIS on a different thread!

nytraveler

I think menupages is useful - but not for the reviews. Agree than many of the reviewers seem not to have any taste buds at all. But it is useful for finding a specific type of food or seeing the actual menu/prices of a place you're interested in. As for reviews - that's why there's Zagat's - or friends and neighbors.

suze

I have never used Trip Advisor restaurant reviews. But I very much like their destination forums (similar format to here on Fodor's).

tekwriter

One of the biggest problems with the TA restaurant ratings is that they pull in reviews from other sources, credited to "Anonymous." These reviews are worse than useless, often no more than two or three words in total. They completely skew the ratings to point where they are ridiculous. I've complained to TA and their Destination Expert board is filled with complaints, but they have fallen on deaf ears.

If you're looking for a restaurant in a decent sized-city, one of my favorite sources is their local "underground" newspaper, usually a weekly like "City Paper" or in my neck of the woods "Westword."

So although TA has other good qualities, I completely reject their restaurant ratings and view their reviews with a grain of salt.

suze

If you want to know about a restaurants, I'm tellin' ya, ask your question on the destination forum for the place you're going to. I (and many other regulars) answer questions all the time about Seattle restaurants (for example) that people are comparing and trying to choose between.

NeoPatrick

Just returned to this thread, read through it all, and finally Suze hit the nail on the head for me. My best luck with restaurants has been coming here and asking. Fodorites seem rarely to steer me wrong. Here in Hawaii for 5 weeks, I've relied on the advice from Fodors (the guide books to some extent but more from personal recommendations here on the talk site).

Am I home now, someone asked? Nope. Posted the original post above while sitting on my lanai in Hana, Maui in the rain. Posted this while sitting in my room at the Old Wailuku Inn on Maui (a Fodor's recommendation which I like). They even called my room to tell me it was starting to rain and my top was up.

Drove back from Hana on the Hana Highway this morning in the rain. Because I finished the highway so early, I headed to Hali'imaile General Store for a spectacular lunch. Where did I find that? Another Fodorite recommendation (and highly recommended in Fodors Guide). Just for fun, I just checked out Trip Advisor. Some of the reviews are kind of funny, and reading between the lines it was the high prices that clearly bothered most -- and I kind of understand that. My Ahi panzanella salad and a passionfruit iced tea was over $32 with tax and tip -- but simply spectacular. But when someone says, "I felt like we had just eaten in a trailer park" one can only scratch his head. Well guess what -- that review was an ONLY contribution from a poster who says, "Maui has many great restaurants but this isn't one of them". Duh, why not tell us about one of the "great" ones -- anyone else get the idea that this is a person connected with another place who is tired of all the raves for the "HM" General Store? Seems pretty obvious to me.

Dukey

IMO your BEST review is your own MOUTH and STOMACH....

missypie

It is interesting to look at the Trip Advisor reviews of the restaurants in one's own town. Our town has lots of restaurants, and last time I checked, the highest rated restaurant is a run of the mill Mexican restaurant in a strip shopping center. The food is certainy edible, but nothing special at all.

Still, one can glean information from the reviews. I tend to discount ones about service because how does one know that the horrible server wasn't fired the very night he served the person who posted. But, for example, when every review mentions the tiny portions for the expensive price, that's pretty credible and the reader can decide if the portion size will be a problem or not.

zlaor

Rating restaurants is tricky and from my experience over the years – greatly varies and is based on individual taste and geographic location.

So, as Dukey said it’s really up to you.

When we go I try and research some local places or “must eat” places (budget permitting) otherwise I use my favorite system of finding good restaurants:
I go 3-4 blocks in any direction from the touristic centers and follow the locals.

suze

Why I like to ask on forums (rather than read already posted reviews) is you can have a conversation back & forth. I do the same thing for hotels.

MareW

I don't read the restaurant reviews there, but I've seen a ton of fake hotel reviews on Tripadvisor. There are two Mom and Pop places I stay at that are basic but fine, but they're obviously planting reviews. All of the reviewers have only rated one motel. Each one refers to the first names of the owners, uses the same word choices repeatedly, and mentions things that most customers would never know about the cleaning methods used by the staff. (As in "Steve and Carla even clean the doorknobs and the remote between customers!")

beachbum

I usually look to TA's forums first, then maybe to the restaurant reviews. Posters who give solid travel advice generally also write accurate reviews.

exiledprincess

I would take any forum with a grain of salt. I review both professional (critics, travel articles, etc.) as well as non-.

I personally put more faith in a local's review than others (non-professional). For a metropolitan area, for me, a "local" means a person who lives *IN* the city - *NOT a suburbanite. No offense against those suburbanites out there, as there *are* some that take themselves out (and clients) often for dining/entertainment - but not many.

I think that posters of reviews (or forums) should be a little more forthcoming as well. I mean - If you go to a more expensive restaurant and get the cheapest dish on the menu - or order a half-order at a busy restaurant. What do you think you are going to get with respect to quality and service? Less than overwhelming, to be sure, and probably quite a bit underwhelming.

If I see an employee's name in a review, I usually discount it. I mean, how often does anyone remember the name of their waiter or a hotel clerk. *Perhaps* the concierge if they do something totally extraordinary, like getting truly great seats to a sold-out event - but, honestly, how often does that happen?

I do wish that the websites (including TA's) would separate restaurants into categories (fine dining vs. casual) and they would separate the tours from the other attractions. I think that there is really a great skewing in the last. That's the one area where I think there is the greatest chance of "stuffing the ballot box".

And on the tours, give a little information such as if they are profit or non-profit; associated with museums or other institutions; etc.

exiledprincess

Sorry if some of the comments got a little OT - but I thought it was in the general spirit of the thread.

Lexma90

I've got to say, I only use tripadvisor restaurant reviews if I really have to - when it's the only resource I can find. (I.e., small towns in Europe, when the local-language resources are non-existent and/or beyond my translation abilities). I try to use local resources, as well as chowhound, eGullet (but SO hard to search), and yelp, pretty much in that order.

But I read all reviews with an eye toward what experience the reviewer wanted, or got, and what their perspective was - the same way I look at TA hotel reviews. A family with 4 young children, on a strict budget and that doesn't eat out much is going to rate a restaurant (or hotel) entirely differently than I would (2 older kids, we're all pretty much in the foodie category) - it may still be a useful review to me, but only if their perspective is included in their comments.

We could all agree that the best ratings and reviews are those that are detailed, that give a little background on the reviewer and lots of objective information about the restaurant, both the ambiance and the food itself.

suze

on TA you can PM the poster and ask about their review.

NeoPatrick

Suze, I can't. As I said, I did that once and politely asked a poster (whom I was 99% sure was the manager of the restaurant she was raving about) if perhaps she could recommend other restaurants in town since she says she's eaten at all of them but has never posted any other reviews of them. Clearly she understood why I was asking that. That's when she screamed at me about needing to get a life and apparently had me banned from pm'ing anyone. And when I forwarded my message to her and her message to me to the editors asking which one they felt was out of line, I never got a response.

NeoPatrick

Oh, maybe I should point out that I sent the same message to several "different" posters. I suspect the reason I got the angry message about getting a life is that ALL my messages ended up being received by the same poster, posing as different posters.

siena1

Neopatrick--We just returned from Maui! I miss it already.

I find that Tripadvisor is more reliable for hotels than restaurants, although it is difficult to sort through the bogus reviews. I generally ignore any review written by someone who has written only one or two reviews.

In my experience, the best source of info is here on Fodors.

traveller1959

I very frequently post reviews on Tripadvisor (under the same screen name) and I have noticed that my positive reviews are 95% rated as "helpful" by other users whereas my negative reviews are 70% rated as "not helpful".

In several cases, I even got angry messages from the hoteliers.

I must say, the reliability of TA reviews has sharply decreased in the last years, including that of hotel reviews. I find the travellers' photos (of hotels AND restaurant food) most helpful. Unfortunately, only few reviewers do upload their pictures. When I enter a hotel room, I regularly make some pictures for TA before we start to unpack.