Thread: Restaurant Review Sites

On 9/9/2012 5:28 AM, jmcquown wrote:
> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person
> pointed out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his
> fraternity brother owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy
> review because someone took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read
> one review where the customer was upset because the restaurant hostess
> didn't give their kid some crayons.
>
> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
> service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk reaction?
> Or do you sit down and write a review which might actually help someone
> make a decision?
>
> Jill

I don't care much for internet reviews since nobody seems capable of
giving objective reviews.

OTOH, the restaurant we ate at yesterday had a few major glitches. The
large Cesar salad was anything but large with a most unattractive
presentation. Nine whole romaine leafs laid flat around a dish with some
cheese and dressing. I'm not sure the tres leches cake even qualifies to
be called that since it was not soaked in milk of any kind - a big
disappointment. Essentially, it was a white cake with a small amount of
caramel sauce. What's the deal? Any place claiming to make Latin
American dishes should be familiar with this.

The waitress also dropped some ice water on the back of my daughter's
dress. Not a big deal and the staff was apologetic but more importantly,
my daughter handled it with grace and tried to make the staff at ease.
This is a good thing.

jmcquown wrote:
>
> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person pointed
> out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his fraternity brother
> owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy review because someone
> took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read one review where the
> customer was upset because the restaurant hostess didn't give their kid some
> crayons.

As you surmised, on-line reviews are untrustworthy.
Here's an article about that:

http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...weigh_in_.html

Even disregarding businesses reviewing themselves,
there's motivations for consumers to place false
reviews:

http://xkcd.com/958/

On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:45:03 -0800, Mark Thorson <[email protected]>
wrote:

>jmcquown wrote:
>>
>> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
>> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person pointed
>> out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his fraternity brother
>> owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy review because someone
>> took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read one review where the
>> customer was upset because the restaurant hostess didn't give their kid some
>> crayons.
>
>As you surmised, on-line reviews are untrustworthy.
>Here's an article about that:
>
>http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...weigh_in_.html
>
>Even disregarding businesses reviewing themselves,
>there's motivations for consumers to place false
>reviews:
>
>http://xkcd.com/958/

One point they miss here though, it human nature. People are far more
likely to complain than to praise. Be it on line or just verbal
amongst people you see, we tend to gripe about a poor experience more
than brag about the good ones.

On 9/9/2012 7:50 PM, jmcquown wrote:
> "Brooklyn1" wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
>
> On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:23:11 -0400, Dave Smith
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On 09/09/2012 11:28 AM, jmcquown wrote:
>>> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
>>> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person
>>> pointed out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his
>>> fraternity brother owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy
>>> review because someone took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read
>>> one review where the customer was upset because the restaurant hostess
>>> didn't give their kid some crayons.
>>>
>>> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
>>> service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk reaction?
>>> Or do you sit down and write a review which might actually help someone
>>> make a decision?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> I give no credibility to online restaurant review sites. The good
>> reviews could be from the owners, their family and friends. The bad ones
>> are usually from unreasonable whines.
>
> Mostly the very supportive comments are from teh owners family and
> friends. The very negative comments are from their competition.

First thing I do when reviewing comments like that is throw out the
extremes. Then there is lots of useful information in between.


>
>> I came across a funny one the other day. I was checking online to check
>> the hours for a rural greasy spoon. I know they used to be erratic but
>> that it was under new management but I didn't want to drive 15 miles
>> only to find it closed, and it is in the middle of nowhere. I linked to
>> a restaurant review site and most of them were good. One was very bad.
>>
>> The guy was upset because they would not make him a hot chicken
>> sandwich. It wasn't on the menu but he ranted that they had bread, they
>> had chicken, they had gravy <?> so they should make him a hot chicken
>> sandwich. But when the complained, the owner/cook came out and kicked
>> him out. I have met the owner and he seemed like a nice guy. I can't
>> imagine him kicking someone out simply for asking for an item that was
>> not on the menu, but I can see him doing it for some guy who was making
>> a fuss over it.
>
> I can't imagine a restaurant that serves chicken and bread refusing to
> serve a chicken sandwich, in fact this makes no sense, it's like an
> Italian restaurant that serves meat balls and spaghetti but has no
> meatball sandwhich on their menu... the story is not even logical...
> if I wanted a chicken sandwich I'd order the chicken and use the bread
> on the table and make the sandwich myself.
>
>
> In this case he's talking about what I'd call a smothered hot chicken
> sandwich. You need a plate for that, along with a boat for the gravy
>
> I'd like to note exceptional service at a place called The Berry Island
> Café. John and I had planned to go there for breakfast but arrived a
> little too late. The lunch menu is mostly salads and cold sandwiches,
> not to my liking. Rather than let us walk out the server snapped her
> fingers. (I'm not making this up.) She said, "What about crab cakes?"
> They had some crabmeat for making soup... so they pan fried (griddled?)
> a couple of crab cakes. Delicious! This is the kind of service that
> deserves kudos.
>
> Jill

Janet Wilder <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:09 -0400, "jmcquown" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
>> service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk reaction? Or
>> do you sit down and write a review which might actually help someone make a
>> decision?
>
> I have done several. Usually on Trip Advisor or Yelp. I know I like to
> see them when I'm looking for a restaurant.

Most reviews I made were to support existing comments or generate a fresh
review.

I usually use urban spoon, or city search. Comments about poor service
should also go to to owners email.

I made a negative comment about a soggy brick oven pizza, on top of other
bad reviews. Year later, new restaurant.

Greg

gregz <[email protected]> wrote:
> Janet Wilder <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:09 -0400, "jmcquown" <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
>>> service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk reaction? Or
>>> do you sit down and write a review which might actually help someone make a
>>> decision?
>>
>> I have done several. Usually on Trip Advisor or Yelp. I know I like to
>> see them when I'm looking for a restaurant.
>
> Most reviews I made were to support existing comments or generate a fresh
> review.
>
> I usually use urban spoon, or city search. Comments about poor service
> should also go to to owners email.
>
> I made a negative comment about a soggy brick oven pizza, on top of other
> bad reviews. Year later, new restaurant.
>
> Greg

The bad pizza Italian restaurant also had those inferior grade utensils
that Bend when you look at them. I also said that.

Greg

On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:09 -0400, jmcquown wrote:

> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
> service companies) on these sites?

I sure do. And I enjoy going against the grain sometimes:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/burger-tex-a...CEfd4q0uvLWSGw

> If so, is it a knee jerk reaction?

Never. You can tell the knee jerk reactions by how many words are in
the review. Generally speaking and IMNSHO.

-sw

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:[email protected]..

On Sun, 09 Sep 2012 17:45:03 -0800, Mark Thorson <[email protected]>
wrote:

>jmcquown wrote:
>>
>> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
>> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person pointed
>> out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his fraternity
>> brother
>> owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy review because
>> someone
>> took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read one review where the
>> customer was upset because the restaurant hostess didn't give their kid
>> some
>> crayons.
>
>As you surmised, on-line reviews are untrustworthy.
>Here's an article about that:
>
>http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...weigh_in_.html
>
>Even disregarding businesses reviewing themselves,
>there's motivations for consumers to place false
>reviews:
>
>http://xkcd.com/958/

One point they miss here though, it human nature. People are far more
likely to complain than to praise. Be it on line or just verbal
amongst people you see, we tend to gripe about a poor experience more
than brag about the good ones.


Given human nature, people do tend to complain more. And I'm the type who
holds a grudge. I had a horrible experience with a cleaning service
recently. I complained loudly (both online and verbally to everyone I know)
about it. But when I found a really good company I sang their praises. I
try to do the same thing on the rare occasions I go out to dinner. Comment
cards are useful, although I can't recall the last time I saw one on a
restaurant table. Online reviews... I'm not sure if the owners of some
places even bother to read them.

Jill

"Sqwertz" wrote in message news:[email protected]..

On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:09 -0400, jmcquown wrote:

> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
> service companies) on these sites?

I sure do. And I enjoy going against the grain sometimes:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/burger-tex-a...CEfd4q0uvLWSGw

> If so, is it a knee jerk reaction?

Never. You can tell the knee jerk reactions by how many words are in
the review. Generally speaking and IMNSHO.

-sw


Sounds like a damn scary place to me. Most of the other reviews made the
place sound stellar, although one comment rang pretty close to yours: "The
burger itself looked very unappetizing when it was first presented on a
plate (like a very bad sloppy joe!)"

This reminds me, I want to try Taco Burger in Port Royal. It looks like a
hole in the wall but I've been told they make great hamburgers. And tacos.
Hand made tortillas. Plus they serve horchata. Go figure.

Jill

On 2012-09-10 02:21:26 +0000, Ed Pawlowski said:

> One point they miss here though, it human nature. People are far more
> likely to complain than to praise.

And also inclined to typify all other people in one way or another!

> Be it on line or just verbal amongst people you see, we tend to gripe
> about a poor experience more than brag about the good ones.

That hasn't been my experience, therefore people tend to disagree with
your conclusions! :-)

On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 23:10:34 -0700, gtr <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 2012-09-10 02:21:26 +0000, Ed Pawlowski said:
>
> > One point they miss here though, it human nature. People are far more
> > likely to complain than to praise.
>
> And also inclined to typify all other people in one way or another!
>
> > Be it on line or just verbal amongst people you see, we tend to gripe
> > about a poor experience more than brag about the good ones.
>
> That hasn't been my experience, therefore people tend to disagree with
> your conclusions! :-)

I think people tend to surround themselves with like minded people.
So, complainers hang with other complainers and the non-complainers
flock positive thinkers. Therefore each type thinks "everyone else"
has a similar outlook.

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

"jmcquown" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me think
> about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one person pointed
> out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because his fraternity
> brother owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a lousy review
> because someone took umbrage about some itty bitty thing. I read one
> review where the customer was upset because the restaurant hostess didn't
> give their kid some crayons.
>
> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
> service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk reaction? Or
> do you sit down and write a review which might actually help someone make
> a decision?
>
> Jill

No, but I like to read the reviews on Chowhound if I plan to go somewhere.

Based on it being mentioned here, I just checked out TripAdvisor in my
area and the ratings and reviews there are nutty. For Santa Ana, CA,
the first two listed (Antonello's, The Playground) are excellent
restaurants but with only 11 and 19 reviews each.

One really horrible place in the area is "Geisha House", it's #19--and
with only 11 reviews by, quite likely, people who know nothing about
eating or digesting. And it closed in May of 2012.

#14 is Maricos [sic] Los Primos. It got its position with an
overwhelming 2 reviews.

So TripAdvisor doesn't seem to be of much practical use.

Comparative with Yelp, Antonello's is rated 3.5 stars with 77 reviews
and the Playground got 4.5 stars with 527 reviews. Geisha House died
with 2.5 stars and 405 reviews.

If there's anything I don't like about Yelp it's the 5-star rating.
People seem to rate everything on the planet between 3 and 4. I guess
they think 3 is a pretty mean. Sometimes I see a 3 rating where they
don't have a single positive thing to say.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:22:34 -0400, "jmcquown" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>
>"Sqwertz" wrote in message news:[email protected]..
>
>On Sun, 9 Sep 2012 11:28:09 -0400, jmcquown wrote:
>
>> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or other
>> service companies) on these sites?
>
>I sure do. And I enjoy going against the grain sometimes:
>
>http://www.yelp.com/biz/burger-tex-a...CEfd4q0uvLWSGw
>
>> If so, is it a knee jerk reaction?
>
>Never. You can tell the knee jerk reactions by how many words are in
>the review. Generally speaking and IMNSHO.
>
>-sw
>
>
>Sounds like a damn scary place to me. Most of the other reviews made the
>place sound stellar, although one comment rang pretty close to yours: "The
>burger itself looked very unappetizing when it was first presented on a
>plate (like a very bad sloppy joe!)"
>
>This reminds me, I want to try Taco Burger in Port Royal. It looks like a
>hole in the wall but I've been told they make great hamburgers. And tacos.
>Hand made tortillas. Plus they serve horchata. Go figure.
>
>Jill

I would never purposely go out to eat mystery meat, especially not at
a joint named Taco Burger.

On 2012-09-10 18:41:35 +0000, Mark Thorson said:

> gtr wrote:
>>
>> If there's anything I don't like about Yelp it's the 5-star rating.
>> People seem to rate everything on the planet between 3 and 4. I guess
>> they think 3 is a pretty mean. Sometimes I see a 3 rating where they
>> don't have a single positive thing to say.
>
> You need to consult the star rating guide:
>
> http://xkcd.com/1098/

They seem to have nailed it.

gtr wrote:
>
> If there's anything I don't like about Yelp it's the 5-star rating.
> People seem to rate everything on the planet between 3 and 4. I guess
> they think 3 is a pretty mean. Sometimes I see a 3 rating where they
> don't have a single positive thing to say.

You need to consult the star rating guide:

http://xkcd.com/1098/

Brooklyn1 wrote:

>> I give no credibility to online restaurant review sites. The good
>> reviews could be from the owners, their family and friends. The bad
>> ones are usually from unreasonable whines.

> Mostly the very supportive comments are from teh owners family and
> friends. The very negative comments are from their competition.

One can be practically sure expecially when the members who wrote those
reviews got their account created the very same day of the review. Now
there's a scadal goin-on in Italy about eh reviews on many websites, mainly
TripAdvisor: some companies offer to our restaurants some services like
dozens of kids writing fake rave reviews about their place, and some
restaorant supplying company started threatening owners by menacing dozens
of kids writing horrible reviews of their places if the restaurant ownder
didn't buy more from them.

On 9/11/2012 6:06 AM, ViLco wrote:
> Brooklyn1 wrote:
>
>>> I give no credibility to online restaurant review sites. The good
>>> reviews could be from the owners, their family and friends. The bad
>>> ones are usually from unreasonable whines.
>
>> Mostly the very supportive comments are from teh owners family and
>> friends. The very negative comments are from their competition.
>
> One can be practically sure expecially when the members who wrote those
> reviews got their account created the very same day of the review. Now
> there's a scadal goin-on in Italy about eh reviews on many websites, mainly
> TripAdvisor: some companies offer to our restaurants some services like
> dozens of kids writing fake rave reviews about their place, and some
> restaorant supplying company started threatening owners by menacing dozens
> of kids writing horrible reviews of their places if the restaurant ownder
> didn't buy more from them.
>
>
I find that difficult to believe from personal experience with Trip
Advisor. I think they are pretty careful and they don't let the review
post immediately. They look at all of them first.

I had reviewed a place my girl friends and I like on South Padre Island.
We always eat there when on The Island for a yoga weekend. I gave them
a really good review.

The last time we were there, the service was non existent. We had
brought a friend after bragging about the food and there we sat with no
service, not even a glass of water and a menu for 40 minutes. I went
back on and took back my review. I've been contacted by the owner and
have gotten an apology and a explanation regarding a family situation
that day (doesn't matter to me as I believe that your customers should
not suffer). Anyway, we are going back in 2 weeks when we have our next
yoga weekend.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

jmcquown <[email protected]> wrote:
> The thread about Olive Garden and other chain restaurants made me
> think about these sites where patrons can write reviews. As one
> person pointed out, a lousy restaurant might get five stars because
> his fraternity brother owns the joint. Or a really good place gets a
> lousy review because someone took umbrage about some itty bitty
> thing. I read one review where the customer was upset because the
> restaurant hostess didn't give their kid some crayons.
>
> I'm just curious. Do you ever write reviews about restaurants (or
> other service companies) on these sites? If so, is it a knee jerk
> reaction? Or do you sit down and write a review which might actually
> help someone make a decision?
>
> Jill

I only write reviews for two reasons, when the food is very good and I
happen to know and like the proprietor, usually a family run establishment
struggling to compete against franchises; or when the experience is so
unredeemably awful and my complaints are so rudely ignored by both on and
off site management that there is no amount of pandering with apologies and
free stuff that could ever entice me to return. Sticking to those criteria,
I've only done negative restaurant reviews twice.

The last time a wrote a review it was about Ruby Tuesday and hopefully it
cost them some business because not only was every aspect of the food and
service inexcusably horrible, the waitstaff and manager were also
inexcusably rude, all because we had a coupon. Great PR for a company trying
to increase business... put out a coupon offer to get new people in (it was
my first and last visit), and then insult them and feed them garbage. What a
total creepshow.

I hope their "New Ruby Tuesday" campaign fails miserably and they go out of
business in the very near future. Die, Ruby Tuesday.

MartyB