I'm a very fervent researcher. I research almost everything before buying it - whether it's a book, or a household appliance. This is especially true when it comes to restaurants I want to try out! The running joke with my friends and I is that I have to spend hours checking out reviews for a restaurant before I'm willing to try it out (unless, of course, someone else is paying the bill). It's my money and I want to make sure that, if I eat at a fairly expensive place, I'm having a very pleasant experience. What about you guys? Do you read reviews for restaurants first before eating there? Do you think that reading about the experiences of previews customers destroys or shifts your own experience? Or are you like me, who is very conscious about how she spends her money?
I only do that if I want to go to restaurant that it is a bit on the expensive side. If it's a known and reputable restaurant, I will read reviews about it and see what's on the menu. And especially make sure to look at the menu because I'm vegan, so I want to make sure there are things that I can eat there.
I always read reviews and or blogs about restaurants when I'm traveling. You can always find articles about the best places to eat in certain locations. I usually do this prior to traveling so I know exactly where I'm going when I get there. When I'm local I usually go by word of mouth to a new restaurant and go to a place in familiar with.
I do research before hand sometimes to see if I can get coupons, or benefits from signing up for their insiders club. Many restaurants will give items like free appetizers and the like if you sign up for their insiders club and allow them to send you emails and so forth. They also will frequently offer free items on your birthday, maybe even a free meal so it is well worth the time to sign up IMHO.
No, not me. I don't do any research at all before I try out a new restaurant. In the first place, I don't go out to eat very often. When I do, I go with friends. My friends already know which restaurants are good and I follow their lead. So far, their taste and mine have coincided. What they felt was good, tasted good to me, too.
There are some cases that I do research for a review of a certain restaurant if I got curious about how good or what kind of food do they serve. There's this one particular restaurant that I would like to visit but it's like a miles away from our place that's why I don't have the chance to visit the place especially on our busy days. So I did some research about this particular restaurant and I was intrigue because of the good reviews and high ratings of the said restaurant. They serve delicious foods, desserts and dishes, not to mention the price is actually not costly. It's been a while since I've heard of that restaurant and up to now I still haven't visited it yet. But hopefully one of these days
We have had sad experiences with fine dining restaurants. It's all right if the restaurant is cheap, all I would say is never to go back. But after paying the bill that costs a fortune, it really bothers me to think that I was duped. As much as possible, we try to make a research by asking friends and relatives on their experience in a particular restaurant. On Friday we have plans to sample Wensha, it is a spa with buffet food. Just to be sure, we are asking around for feedback and the only feedback I got is from the internet that said the food there was not good at all, bland taste, they will not come back just for the food.
To me, reviews don't mean anything ever since I've read reviews online giving a restaurant a horrible review and I went anyway and I loved it. I prefer spending a few bucks and trying it out myself. Looking for reviews and just finding a few bad ones might prevent you from visiting a great place. Remember, some places that review mostly give reviews because they are angry or are lying and try to blame the bad experience on the restaurant itself.
If it's a popular restaurant that is well known everywhere I do not bother to do a thorough research before going to get my food for the first time. I just believe the restaurant is already of good quality to have had a high reputation and popularity. On the other hand if the place is a quite one or strange to me I would like to either read get reviews about the food center or gather info from locals or people already using the place.
Checking reviews goes hand in hand with other smart shopping aspects, if you ask me. So, yes, I do usually look at reviews first before trying a new restaurant (or especially if I'm traveling). You can get the consensus fairly quickly. There will always be complaints, but if the majority of reviews say that it's good, I'll probably give it a chance. I also like to read reviews, because they go into detail. They might mention how a dish is prepared, for example, which could be different from what you're used to. They might mention that the food is good but the service is bad or that the place doesn't look too clean or say everything is great. You can find out lots of things by reading customer reviews and looking at customer's pictures rather than only viewing management photos (same for hotels). Pay attention to the dates though. Old reviews might not still be accurate. If there are no newer ones, the place may have gone downhill.
In this day and age I guess we're lucky enough (or is that unlucky?) to be able to read reviews on nearly everything and restaurants is the big one. Before we book to eat anywhere I think that we all like to have a quick look at what others have said about the place whereas in the past it was just a matter of hit and hope. As with any review though, we have to be able to spot the fake ones, and in the past I've not eaten in a certain place because of one poor review, only to find out later that it was written by a competitor of that restaurant, a complaint was made and the site had to delete it and apologise, so it's always worth reading as many as we can if we'e going to read them at all.
No, I don’t research any restaurants before going there for the first time. Usually there are restaurants which are well known. About which we have heard before, about their service, food quality etc. So, I suppose I go to a restaurant based on the recommendation from my friends and relatives.
