First and Last

[GotGarlic]

I've used Yelp in the past, back when we actually went out to eat. I, too, tried to balance good with bad reviews so that I didn't look like a crabby old biddy. [emoji38] However, like casey's "gaming the system" remark, I take each review with a grain tablespoon of salt. I tend to ignore the top 10% and bottom 10%, then read from there.

I never joined TripAdvisor. They seem to want way more private information than I was comfortable with giving them back when I looked. They might not be so nosy anymore.

I also use Yelp with a grain tablespoon of salt [emoji38] We haven't been steered wrong by it yet. Once when we were driving to visit family in Michigan, we found a really wonderful restaurant with great German food and terrific atmosphere in Ohio via Yelp. It's several miles off the highway, so we never would have found it otherwise. I'd be happy to go there again.

http://www.canaltavernofzoar.com

I've never tried TripAdvisor.

 

[Dawgluver]

I like TA, I'm a frequent member on one of their forums. We share reviews with each other, and I trust the members I've gotten to know over the years. I don't look much at TA's "regular" reviews, because like Yelp, they can tend to be a bit skewed.

 

[ixamnis]

Does anyone use Yelp, or Tripadvisor, or any kind of other site for both searching and reviewing restaurants?.....

I've used both of these, as well as Zomato. I write a lot of reviews on TripAdvisor, and I've found that I write about 4 or 5 positive reviews for every negative one.

I find these sites to be very helpful, but only when there have been a lot of reviews. People are more likely to get on one of these sites and write a negative review when they have a bad experience than they are to write a review based on a good experience. However, when there are a dozen or more reviews for a restaurant, you can get a pretty good feel for what the place will be like.

The more specific a review is, the better; that way you know if a complaint is a legitimate complaint or just another review by a crab that never likes anything.