Picking a Winner: Chit Chat #47
How do you decide where to eat when you travel?
How do you decide where to eat when you travel?
Do you use crowd-sourced recommenders (think Yelp) or something else? I want to know how you do it.
My take? I think crowd sourcing via the typical channels is a waste of time and simply reinforces mediocrity and lowest common denominator stupidity. If I am headed to Cleveland, I don’t go on Yelp to see what John from Oshkosh liked when he was there. I want to look on the internet for a few local food writers, a few chefs, a few local celebs and follow them. Then, I hit their timeline and start writing down places they ate at and liked. Shoot them a question, people really answer. Look for roundups in local glossy magazines for their last “best of” restaurant editions, do the same for local newspapers, they are all online.
Yelp, Trip Advisor, paid influencers, Google search, etc., are all horse shit. Compare what Trip Advisor suggests versus Cleveland Magazine’s “25 Best”. I go with local wisdom every time.
I do look at Trip Advisor and Yelp ratings but I ask locals what restaurants they think are best, and I look up menus on-line to see which restaurants have traditional local or regional dishes. This is especially true when traveling internationally. Game meat dishes are a favorite of ours. If an area is known for a particular dish or type of cuisine, we want to try the best representative that we can find.
I ask the locals where they eat or I look for where the truck drivers eat if I want a casual and fantastic meal.