Yelp

Anyone on here read Yelp reviews before trying out a new restaurant, store, commercial service, or any business?

I have a yelp account, but I've only used it to support my friend's businesses and give praise to my favorite places. Overall, I've never relied on other people's Yelp comments to decide on going someplace new. I just take chances.

 

How may I yelp you

 

i don't entirely believe in reviews of anything. reviews are useful to the person creating whatever is being reviewed to see what someone else thinks they're strong or weak in, but they're seldom really that useful to anyone else.
at least not to anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with the dominant culture of their surroundings nor that of the reviewer.
that's also why i prefer to enjoy things alone, to not have my experience of them tainted, distracted, diminished, twisted or altered, by someone else's pre-conceptions.

 

yelp is fixed. someone dont like their comment they can have them removed .. .fuck that shit..

 

DaFug's a Yelp?

 

I always use Yelp (as well as Google and TripAdvisor) when choosing restaurants to take my girlfriend to. I have found a lot of good places this way. I have also written a few reviews myself.

 

but isn't Yelp just another tool of the evil and nefarious cabal that has been poised to rule the world for centuries?

PR has drank the kool-aid

another one added to the flock.......baaaahhh....

 

THIS^^^^^
I had a review I wrote on a fish store removed, twice!!!
after I wrote another review complaining about shit being removed, (Yelp claims retailers have no control,bullshit, $$$ has control) it magically reappeared.

 

I used to work for a small local cafe and they realized that Yelp reviews would make or break them. There were several times were they would get a completely bogus bad review which they then asked Yelp to remove. Yelp almost never removed the negative reviews, but they did remove plenty of positive ones that they deemed "too" positive...suspected that they were penned by employees or family of the owners.

So anyhow, I don't know how fixed it is. You really have to make a convincing case to get a bad review taken down.

But to answer the OP...I am a bit obsessed with online review sites. They are generally accurate, if not slightly exaggerated in one way or another. Bad reviews don't stop by from visiting a place though.

 

I read the restaurant section of yelp. It is pretty spot on as far as the top rated restaurants in my city. I don't really pay attention to reviews, I just look at the type of cuisine and overall rating to get good ideas of where to try next.

A lot of reviews are obviously written by overly picky, entitled jackasses - anyone who has worked in the service industry knows and dreads that type of customer. The kind who complains about everything, runs the server ragged, doesn't tip, demands free food after they eat 95% of it. I can't trust the opinion of this type of person so a bad review won't stop me from visiting a restaurant, I would rather see for myself.

 

Okay bozo.

 

don't mention it, glad to be of service

 

for restaurants, not at all. i'll consider word of mouth reviews from people i know, but generally if i'm going somewhere new i'll just randomly select a place and try it out.

the only time i really read online reviews is when i'm shopping for products online, which i really only do for work.

 

resteraunts? try each place i see walking or bus riding by. rather satisfy my own curiosity, and taste with my own tongue then someone else's words.

comparable sort of thing, for anything else reviews. if i turn out to not like, i just don't go back.

not like someone else's cooking is any big thing in my life anyway.

i don't need to splurge for five stars, but i do like buffe'ttes.

and i don't need reviews to avoid franchised cheeseburgers and pizza joints.

 

no

 

I concur. One of my favorite dive bars got a lot of 1-star reviews from tourists and non-regulars because they felt the atmosphere was too grungy and didn't meet their expectations of a classy diner. Reading through those reviews made me mad because having a grungy dive bar atmosphere was part of the charm about this place. If you read most of the one star reviews closely, you can see whether or not the reviewer is being a self entitled jackass like you mentioned. I've worked in the service industry, and I've run into plenty of customers like that. Yet at the same time, the restaurant does make valid mistakes, and customers can be very unpredictable toward these mistakes. I've had terrible service at stores and diners before, but I won't write a nasty review if I wasn't treated like royalty. South park made a good episode about the entitled Yelpers recently.

 

Only when trying Kelp - Kelp Smoothie anyone?














































Hotwater

 

I look for consensus. One or two bad reviews... that doesn't prove anything. Half a dozen is convincing.

 

I've noticed my favorite ethnic restaurants get horrible yelp reviews for service, but people don't understand the restaurant culture is completely different in other countries. Not every country expects the waiter to do a little song and dance routine for tips. It always irritates me to read these reviews because it could stop someone from trying a really phenomenal family owned restaurant.