Local restaurant review websites (UK)

[Harters]

When I'm "out and about", I obviously rely on the help of fellow members of this forum to come up with eating ideas. And, of course, also use the Good Food Guide as a backup.

But, occasionally, there are areas of the country not always well represented and I wonder if folk have any particularly good local review sites that are worth sharing.I appreciate these are not necessarily the most informative places but, at least, they can often give a "heads-up" about an unknown town.

[codheadred]

Hi John

I have used Sugarvine with little success in the past.

Manchester/Liverpool Confidential is amusing and a little more balanced, I'd be interested to hear of any others (Apart from logging on here and seeing whats recommended which BTW has been the most successful for me so far)

Steven

[nickloman]

http://birminghamplus.com/ is a fairly good guide to Birmingham, driven by user reviews - their top 11 ranked restaurants is a pretty reasonable selection of the best available in the City and environs.

[Harters]

I also have issues with Sugarvine - it has a declared and published policy on not posting negative reviews. Similarly, on the northwestern plot, OnionRing has a similar attitude towards negative postings. Both have cited to me that it's to avoid malicious posts - but it does make the sites less than useful.

One local site I like is "Chester at Large" which has both reviews and forum.

http://chesteratlarge.com/large/

[codheadred]

I just got quite excited about Hickorys smokehouse in Chester from Chester@large. I love bbq and would love to try some of the smokehouse style cooking after having some in Canada -the website looks smashing

However I then read the review of the food.. If I go I know I'll be disappointed

Sod it I am going to buy a Landmann smoker and do my own

Steven

Edited August 22, 2010 by codheadred (log)

[Nayan Gowda]

Yelp has given me some unexpected gems in London; though I don't know how useful it is with the rest of the country.

[codheadred]

heres another

http://www.opentable.com/home.aspx

I just looked up a place in liverpool with rave reviews on another site and found a bunch of negatives here,

Steven