Food/Hospitality

From a young age I worked in restaurants to support my artistic habit. Eventually it turned into a career.  There is a lot to say about the role that restaurants play in our culture and I look forward to exploring the topic further.

Why Your Local Restaurant Hates Yelp

As it has in pretty much every aspect of our existence—ever—the internet has irrevocably changed the restaurant industry—or should I say the #restaurantindustry.  From the way we order take out to the way we make reservations, software and apps surrounding the restaurant industry have created efficiencies in every corner of operations.  However, social networking and peer review sites as they pertain to restaurants have always been an unregulated, non-curated forum for gossip, misinformation, and bullshit—that is to say, a wasteland where the opinions of idiots rule over those of professional reviewers and the thoughtful dining public.

I am not trying to put up a velvet rope and assert that only reviewers of a certain pedigree should be able to judge restaurants. Quite the opposite, I believe that everyone should be able to share their opinion about any restaurant they choose to support. But I also believe that when you strip that opinion of its subjectivity, which is what happens when a diner assigns a star rating to a restaurant, you validate it as fact rather than what it truly is: an opinion.

Take this hypothetical example: A guy walks into a bar, has some dinner and drinks.  Then a few more drinks. Then a few more.  At some point in the haze, the bartender cuts him off.  Offended, he offers a few choice expletives and begrudgingly settles his bill (no tip, thank you). A day later, he gets a form email asking about his experience.  Still fuming about his public shaming, he composes one of those beautiful, “I would give no stars if I could!” reviews. In my mind, he is an asshole, plain and simple. But not only does his one-star review bring the average review score for this restaurant down considerably, it is weighted equally to all the considerate reviews received by the restaurant. And the kicker: no one reading the review knows the backstory about why this guy is so pissed at his experience.

Walk down any city street and you will doubtless encounter several people of questionable sanity.  Now consider those people eating—ew.  Now give them a big, shiny, and loud bullhorn with which to share their ideas on food, culinary culture, service at restaurants, and ambiance.  That is pretty much where I am coming from. 

I am as entertained as the next person by the rants I read on Yelp, but the fact that they affect the desirability of a restaurant is scary. And no Yelp review or Yelp reviewer is vetted in any way.  While a savvy “Yelper” can look at another user’s reviews to get a sense of who they are and how they review, who has time to do anything but look at a restaurant’s overall star rating?

As it stands, restaurants are constantly on the defensive. Every diner that comes through the door is a potentially good or bad review—and that is not all bad.  The staff at a restaurant must strive for high quality because they always feel watched. In that way, the threat of a bad review safeguards the dining public. But when forming negative opinions, there should be a filter to protect restaurants from unfounded, unfair negativity. 

A restaurant reviewer will often visit a restaurant several times—on different days with different sized parties—to get a thorough sense of how the business operates. They taste through the menu and have a deep understanding and appreciation for the style of food offered. So a reviewer's negative opinion of a restaurant is at least based on something. That is not to say reviewers are not also biased, just ask Guy Fieri, but at the very least, thoughtful consideration rather than knee-jerk libel lies at the heart of a proper review.

No restaurant should be immune to criticism and everyone who dines out is entitled to their opinion on the food, service, and ambiance of a place. But that does not mean that all opinions should be weighted similarly.  The internet is a wonderful force for democratization but in the realm of restaurant reviews, I prefer a more authoritarian approach.