Food Critic Sees Value In Review Sites
Adam Platt, New York magazine resturant critic offers his perspective on user-generated restaurant review sites. It’s a good lesson in embracing the opportunities that these review sites afford for restaurant owners. It’s also good education for restaurant goers in not taking these reviews too seriously.
I have been a restaurant operator for a few years. I would like to know how you really feel about restaurant review websites like Citysearch, MenuPages, and Yelp. The idea that someone who may be having their first experience in a restaurant that uses metal silverware and cloth napkins has the right to put, in writing, in a public forum, their completely uneducated opinion, blows my mind. What are your thoughts, as a restaurant critic, on the impact these forums have on our business?
I feel your pain, sir. But in a discerning market like New York, everyone’s a critic, and it’s been that way for a long time now. As an eater, I think the restaurant sites are valuable. They bring all the information together (address, menus, etc.) and put it at your fingertips. As a reviewer, I don’t pay much attention to them. Maybe it’s a restaurant PR person who put up the post. Maybe it’s someone whose waiter had a bad night. Or maybe the chef had a cold. The quality of a restaurant meal changes not just day to day, but hour to hour, and the only way you can get a good idea of how well a kitchen functions is to go back several times and dutifully chew your way through the entire menu. I’m biased, of course.
Ask Platt: On Amateur Reviewers, Struggling Restaurants, and Flavor Fatigue
