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What are the best websites for travel/restaurant reviews?

Owtahear

By Owtahear
in Food Media & Arts

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Owtahear

Owtahear

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I see this site USED TO BE a fantastic source of restaurant reviews, foodporn, and information, but for some reason, it has died off.  Similar with Chowhound.   Yelp is yelp, but I find more people whining and too many people who would think Mrs Paul's fish sticks are good food.

 

Are there anymore "foodie" type of review sites??    And why has Egullet's forums on these topics have essentially died off?

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Smithy

Smithy

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It seems to me that this site is filled with food porn. Just go look at the Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch topics for starters!

 

As for restaurant reviews: have you checked out the Regional Cuisine forums?

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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gulfporter

gulfporter

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I gave up a long time ago on finding my taste bud doppelganger. 

 

For outside the US travels, I like Culture Trip.  Not in-depth reviews by any stretch, but they list the dish(es) that epitomize the eatery, have a corresponding map on each page that highlights the restaurant you are reading about.  They break down Food and Drink to several categories making it more manageable for me.  Many of the categories are by neighborhood, always a help when arriving in a new city.  

 

We will be in Lisbon next month and here is Culture Trip Lisbon Food and Drink Page.  I link to and then read the sub-categories that most interest us. 

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/portugal/lisbon/food-and-drinks/

 

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heidih

heidih

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Respectfully it is a different world. In the US sites like Eater are quite well curated. Internationally I am charmed by Roads and Kingdoms. The world now is pinterest, instagram and twitter so actual  aggregated website - not so much.  You have to follow chefs or research people who write about the city you are interested in. 

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gfweb

gfweb

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Chowhound used to be great for hyperlocal food and restaurant reviews. Then, about 5 or 6 years ago, they got bought and became very intrusive in their moderation.  They took down critical restaurant reviews that were in no way out of line. End result...everybody left and its filled with clickbait "articles".

 

I don't know of a site for thoughtful restaurant reviews that is very active right now.  Tripadvisor is the best of a bad lot as far as I can see.

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Alex

Alex

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6 hours ago, Owtahear said:

Are there anymore "foodie" type of review sites??    And why has Egullet's forums on these topics have essentially died off?

 

Your second question has very complicated answers, not to mention the moderators probably wouldn't allow them anyway.

 

For the first question, there still are some good city-based sites, but again, they're subject to the winds of change. For Chicago, there's LTH. For DC, there's Don Rockwell (a former eG'er). For Las Vegas, there's John Curtas's blog. 

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Owtahear

Owtahear

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On ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 3:00 PM, Smithy said:

It seems to me that this site is filled with food porn. Just go look at the Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch topics for starters!

 

As for restaurant reviews: have you checked out the Regional Cuisine forums?

I understand and yes, the "food porn" in those topics is fantastic.  

But if you go on the Regional Cuisine, you will say days, weeks, months before posts.  Like I said, it USED TO BE active.

 

I understand their other mediums/media for this.  Eater is great, but it is Major city centric, and is not very interactive.  Grubhub is great if I am going to NYC.  Chowhound as mentioned, has declined since it was bought out. Yelp is yelp.    I was just wondering if there were any other foodie blogs/sites.  I am in sales, travel a lot, unfortunately like most of this country, they ain't always in NYC/Chi/LA, etc...but smaller towns 

 

What I tend to do is use Google Maps and look at the area around where I am staying, then click on the restaurant's web site and look at the menu, photos and reviews.   But sometimes I don't know if those reviewers know the difference between a fish stick and fresh piece of halibut.   So I kind of use the menu and photos as my guide.  

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SusieQ

SusieQ

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1 hour ago, heidih said:

For smaller towns the local paper (uif it still exists..) is a source.  Not interactive but it can give you some ideas. 

 

Sadly, more and more local newspapers are on a fast down--and-out trend. 

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gfweb

gfweb

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Our local-ish  paper, the News Journal, has lots of restaurant reviews but they are always super positive...even gush-y. So not reliable.

 

The Phila paper has a food critic who is extremely discerning and can be relied-upon.  He has a policy of publishing really bad reviews on a Friday so as to help people not ruin their weekend by going to a dump.  Doesn't happen too often. But it happens. Craig LaBan...good guy.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

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55 minutes ago, brucealan1 said:

According to me Tripadvisor is the best website for travelers and restaurant reviews.

 

I too think that generally it is the best.  But,  even restaurants that have been highly rated can let you down as happened to us last year in Newfoundland.  A restaurant rated 4 .5 starts gave us the worst meal of our trip.

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gfweb

gfweb

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38 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

I too think that generally it is the best.  But,  even restaurants that have been highly rated can let you down as happened to us last year in Newfoundland.  A restaurant rated 4 .5 starts gave us the worst meal of our trip.

The problem with all of the sites is that the reviewers tend to go to restaurants that they like (duh) and will write a positive review of the Pilot Truck Stop if that's what they like to eat.

 

I don't look so much at the numerical rating as the write-up.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

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5 minutes ago, gfweb said:

The problem with all of the sites is that the reviewers tend to go to restaurants that they like (duh) and will write a positive review of the Pilot Truck Stop if that's what they like to eat.

 

I don't look so much at the numerical rating as the write-up.

 

Yup, I do that too.  I especially look at the negative ones because "they didn't have my brand of beer on tap" is no excuse for downgrading a restaurant.  "My food arrived cold, under seasoned and no one cared" is a different story.

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chromedome

chromedome

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I take them all with a grain of salt, because pretty much everyone I know in the business has been shaken down for freebies or discounts with the threat of a negative review.

 

Yelp has actually been taken to court (and won, which is a travesty!) because they straightforwardly and unapologetically surface positive reviews for restaurants who pay them, and negative reviews for restaurants who don't.

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