This is America. Service is the #1 factor in people’s satisfaction in restaurants, it’s not about the food. So that’s what Yelp reviews often reflect.
Also, since this is LA with our horrid traffic, I feel like the vast majority of people stay in their own neighborhood, so the reviews mostly reflect the tastes of the people who live there. Where I’m at it’s mostly a bunch of old people who like their food plain and their meat dry. They get upset when the meat is not dry enough.
There are some communities of various ethnicities but they are small enough that they just talk to each other, no need for Yelp.
Notable exceptions to this rule are places like Santa Monica where you have a giant daytime population commuting in to work, so you get a larger variety of opinions.
Yah, I disagree with that part too @js76wisco. Yelp has a bitch squad that carelessly slams places not realizing they’re costing someone their livelihood. FTCers come in all shapes, sizes, opinions but the common denominator is we like to celebrate food. We want to like restaurants.
Ohhh I really hate that. When a customer complains, gets free stuff then slams the restaurant anyway. That’s why restaurateurs are terrified and give you the world if you’re unhappy.
I don’t use it much . I do like it for the opening hours and photos . As far as I’m concerned I take the worst reviews . If there is a lot of them . Buyer beware . This is just not for restaurant reviews . Everybody has a opinion. Just like everyone has a … I’m a one strike your out . Maybe I’ll take another pitch after months go by. Different strokes for different folks. If I like it I’m going back . And you might hate it .
I am clearly behind the times. Thank you for letting me know, it was easy to find once I knew it existed. I remember last time when I tried to figure it out a couple years ago the feature didn’t exist.
Agreed, though I will read the reviews to see if they’re all the same complaint.
My favorite is when the Yelper complains about the owner being nuts or whatever, and the owner writes a response proving the point. I had a beautiful one in 2009 that I should’ve taken a screenshot of.
Really? That’s interesting. I am not familiar with this story. Care to elaborate?
I think FTC is pretty discerning and there are a lot of heavy users that would quickly out any shills.
DV: You’re still a young barbecue joint, but you’ve gotten plenty of accolades. How did they start to roll in?
KB: When we opened in 2008 I put some stuff on Chowhound, just throwing it out there under an anonymous name. That got us started, then Jonathan Gold ranked us as one of the 99 essential restaurants in L.A.
from what i remember, Kevin Bludso was trying to tell everyone to come to Bludso’s on CH under an anonymous name. He got called out. But TonyC had already been and confirmed it was good, then a lot of CH’ers started to go and JGold got word of it.
