Does anyone here use YELP.COM for reviews of restaurants, stores, medical doctors, etc.?

[Dover]

I'm technically and cyberly challenged so I'm guessing this is probably old news for you guys, who are like 'duh, dover'. :eyes:


But for those who also live in a cave, it's like a huge consumer reports - only the "professional opinions" are given by anyone.
It's kind of like what Amazon does for its books and products only more expansive.
I was going to be in a city I was unfamiliar with and overheard a store clerk talking on her cell phone to someone (while I waited patiently!) about a review on a restaurant she'd read about on yelp.com. I asked her if that would be a good source for discovering restaurants in the city I was going to and she looked at me like, 'duh...like of course!' and said everyone she knows uses it and posts reviews. She said she even found a great dentist using it. I asked her how reliable the reviews have been compared to her own experiences and she replied that she has agreed with pretty much ALL of them.


I do feel some sense of vindication re: my resistance to becoming a cyber-sleuth - when I dutifully checked into the family facebook site mainly to make sure they were all still there...hehehe... I saw a comment from my 16 year old niece who said she had officially decided that Facebook was stupid and a big waste of time.
And surprisingly she got a number of 'thumbs up' from her friends. haha.

[cbayer]

1. I use yelp a lot when traveling.

I also use tripadvisor frequently.

Both sites have enough volume to make the recommendations worth paying attention to.

I have found some amazing little restaurants and places to stay when on a road trip or even locally.

:hi:

[beac]

2. Like cbayer, I've found Yelp helpful when traveling to an unfamiliar city.

I was just on it yesterday looking for a good place to stop for lunch on a long road trip we have coming up next month. I've found it's much more useful in big cities. Small towns like mine just don't get enough reviews.

IgoUgo is another site like Tripadvisor. The reviews in their "Destinations" pages are helpful and they have a good forum for asking questions.
http://www.igougo.com

[cbayer]

3. Roadfood.com is a great site for finding little local places in remote locations.

I paid to join in order to get the Google Earth option and am actually using it to design a cross country road trip we plan for this spring.

:hi:

[beac]

4. Cool. I'll check it out.

Urbanspoon is another good food review site: http://www.urbanspoon.com

[Sentath]

5. I've used UrbanSpoon, but

I've actually contributed to Yelp

[Dover]

6. Wow, you guys know some great cyber resources. I'm bookmarking them all! n/t

[beac]

8. Add Chowhound to those bookmarks too:

http://chowhound.chow.com


Oyster.com is another travel site, but they only cover a few big cities and a few major tourist destinations, like Aruba and Hawaii: http://www.oyster.com/

[Phentex]

7. I learned something quite fascinating on Yelp...

I like to read reviews of places not just to hear about the food but also get the scoop on things you might otherwise not find when looking at the restaurant website...like what the parking situation is, how long the wait might be, or places that don't accept credit/debit cards...that sort of thing.

But the most fascinating thing was finding out what my dinner companion REALLY thought of the place, lol. I have a friend who is extremely picky but totally denies being picky and likes to think of herself as open to trying new things. I think everybody knows a person like this. We both read the local food blogs and every once in a while I can talk her into trying some place. Well, I went to yelp once after we had eaten out and I read some of the reviews. One of them sounded very similar to the experience I just had and that's when I found out this friend wrote reviews for Yelp. I stalked her reviews (you can click on the person's profile and see all of their reviews) and it was fun to read her comments about what she really thought and some of which were just outright NOT TRUE based on the times I had eaten with her. Made me wonder what kind of person feels the need to write an inaccurate review of a restaurant. But perhaps a REALLY PICKY person does! :)

Sure enough, we went to brunch a couple of weekends ago and her review was listed the very next day. HA! I am a voyeur.