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“I MADE MY shed the top rated restaurant on TripAdvisor”
This article by Vice feature writer Oobah Butler is garnering much attention online this week. In it, the London resident outlines how he made up an entire restaurant and through various nefarious means, got it to #1 on TripAdvisor.
He then actually set up shop in his back garden and served food from Iceland (the store, not the country).
Some people enjoyed the experience.
It got us thinking about online reviews and how often we use them. How about you?
Do you pay attention to online reviews when picking restaurants?
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Personal recommendations from family or friends tend to be more reliable.
@Fiona deFreyne: definitely, but when you’re away or you don’t have any recommendations it is useful
I don’t put much weight in the overall score but try to pick trends out of the comments e.g. if people regularly comment that food is overcooked or staff are unfriendly it would indicate an issue
Yes, but I ignore any with multiple mis-spelled words or exclamation marks. A better rule of thumb is never to eat anywhere they have pictures of the food outside.
@Ben McArthur: Also never eat anywhere where the price is displayed outside. Or anywhere that serves both kebabs and pizza.
@Ben McArthur: Agreed, or where the reviewer is always negative and sounds impossible to please, has a bone to pick wherever he goes.
The great thing about Trip Advisor is that it makes you think about what you’re looking for in a place, and what you expect. “Nice food & staff” is as useless a review as “AVOID!!!” If climbing a hill, stairs, or no parking doesn’t bother you, grand, but someone might not go if that’s a problem. Often reviewers complain that a place didn’t meet their expectations because they expected it – food and service – to be just like home, without having to ask. Those people need a doting mammy, not a restaurant.
Overrated places will get more good reviews as people contribute to the hype due to a subconcious desire to drum up more exclusivity for said overrated place, the owners of the place then become liable to cutting corners to meet the new-found demand and the temptation to maximise profits by reducing quality.
Any place that has poor reviews will have people being more critical about it and run the risk of ending up in a terminal downward spiral due to these bad reviews regardless of wether or not they have improved their service
@Quiet Goer: I have to stand up for TripAdvisor here. I’ve seen plenty of hotels and restaurants on Trip Advisor go up in the ratings as people report a big improvement, a change of management, a swimming pool… Rightly so. There were some dire places out there. People booking a wedding, say, can’t travel all over Ireland to check, they have to narrow it down somehow. And regular travellers do contradict a poor review, do offer credit and tips on the best rooms or the best time to go. Or a new chef, or that the chef has Mondays off. For better or worse, it’s a useful site. The best places are able to acknowledge feedback and improve.
Pretty much anything 4 stars or more. But I accept that there’s a lot of other factors that affect the ratings. I almost went to a Michelin star restaurant that was only rated 4.1. I’m more concerned about avoiding a bad restaurant.
Usually find it’s a good sign if it’s been recommended recently by Bridgestone or Georgina Campbell.
A Bridgestone plaques costs about €200 Pay your money get the best in Ireland plaque I know it’s mad but but it’s true
@David Grey: Still, the ones I’ve tried were very good, and I only noticed the plaque outside after the meal. I didn’t know they paid to enter, but they must have been confident that their menus were worth it to seek a rating.
No if I like the look of the place I go there
Next poll
Do you believe in Santa?
@Bart: Put it on FB and twitter and everybody start to believe.
I believe everything I read on internet – especially that slickly directed stories and reviews with professional pictures and staged choreography. If goggle say it’s true, it must be true.
Trip Advisor is usually not a bad yardstick. Fair enough, somtimes it’s a bit skewed by the factors referred to by other commenters here but I find it pretty useful.
Found a fabulous restaurant a couple of weeks ago near Murcia on the strength of it.
@Tuesday Paddy: would you care to share it Paddy, I am a regular to Murcia!
I don’t know the person leaving the comment and I tend to have very specific in my tastes or fussy if you like so I tend to make up my own mind. I went to Terre Madre cafe on Bachelors Walk and it was very unorthodox but the food was amazing and no internet needed.
@Deborah Behan: I just actually made a recommendation and irony is now dead!
Tripadviser is easy to manipulate I know a guy with a restaurant in Navan with 280 + reviews most 5 star If he is having a quite night he just sets up a new profile and gives himself another 5 star review The key to spotting fake ratings is one of 5 star reviews were the reviewer does just one review ” a one and only 5 star “
We don’t have enough positive reviewer to justify the rating most places receive. Irish people tend to only respond when they receive something unexpected.
I ignore the glowing reviews and look at the average score ones . The reviewers of the hype always seem to have just posted one review or so, suggesting they could be written by the owner or manager.
I ignore one star reviews. More times than not they are from people who waited 15 minutes & left.
I look it up if I’m in a strange city. A restaurant might be great, but if they are well down the rankings (which happens if they don’t have regular reviews, no matter how good) or if their most recent reviews aren’t great, I’ll usually skip over it. I’m well aware how damaging and how downright unfairly wrong it can be, but it’s a bit of a guide. I think you only have to look at trip advisor for your own local town or a town you know well to see how skewed it is.
I prefer collating different sources, but give more weight to professional reviewers (McKenna, Egon Ronay, Michelin, Routiers, etc.), as well as people I know and trust.
Sadly, I’ve got litt
@Finn H. Schoyen: …little faith in community driven sites such as the likes of Trip Advisor, because I often hear about people who write fake positive reviews for a living.
In matters of the stomach trust only yourself.
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