Buzz
With so many excellent restaurants out there, it's easy to waste both time and money on a bad meal. But how can you be sure you'll enjoy your choice? Try this simple yet brilliant restaurant recommendation trick from Reddit user Sauwa, shared on the lifeprotips board. By doing this, your chances of having a satisfying meal will increase dramatically. Here's how: Instead of trusting overall ratings or star counts on Yelp or other review sites, find a glowing review for a place you already love, then see what the reviewer liked and disliked. If their preferences align with yours, check out their other posts and visit the places they recommend.
In a way, you're assigning the role of a food critic to a stranger, just like the ones who used to write for newspapers—only without relying on the opinions of the editorial staff at The Sheboygan Press. The person you're following on Yelp is more likely to share your taste and guide you to a great meal than a generic algorithm that aggregates all users' reviews.
Why crowds may not be the best guide when choosing a restaurant
The process of gathering multiple user ratings and averaging them is a variation of the 'wisdom of crowds' concept, first introduced by Marquis de Condorcet in 1785. Here's a simplified breakdown: Imagine a niche question with a true or false answer. You wouldn't be able to tell if one person’s response was correct, but as more people answer, you can trust the crowd's collective wisdom. Even if only a few respondents actually know the answer, the incorrect answers would balance each other out, making the correct one stand out.
The 'wisdom of crowds' works well for certain types of reviews, especially for products with clear functionality. For instance, if 90% of people who buy a hammer say it works well, it’s likely a good hammer. However, when it comes to experiences like dining at a restaurant, watching a movie, or reading a book, the matter becomes much more subjective. While some things are universally agreed upon—like restaurants should never serve raw chicken—the finer details vary. My ideal burger might be different from yours, and a great hole-in-the-wall rib joint may receive poor reviews from those who prefer more refined cuisine.
Napoleon Dynamite and the 'love it or hate it' effect
In 2006, Netflix offered a million bucks to anyone who could improve its movie recommendation system. While updates were made—since most people's movie tastes are surprisingly predictable—algorithms kept failing when it came to Napoleon Dynamite. It seemed impossible to predict how someone would feel about the quirky 2004 indie comedy based on their preferences for other films. But people have strong opinions about Napoleon Dynamite: they either love it or hate it, with little in between. As a result, review aggregation gave it something like 2 1/2 stars out of 5. Average. The least likely response you’d expect after watching it.
This phenomenon can apply to restaurant reviews as well, particularly for 'non-traditional' foods or experimental dishes. For example, if you’re a fan of spicy food, a restaurant serving authentic Korean Galbi jjim would deserve 5 stars. But if you’re not into it, the dish would be inedible to you—just one star. Averaging the ratings would place the score somewhere in the middle, which isn’t helpful to anyone.
The possible deceit behind review aggregation
I can't say for certain whether the reviews on popular restaurant rating websites truly reflect the opinions of users, but I’d bet my money on 'no.' Setting aside the honesty of the websites themselves, many businesses rely heavily on positive reviews to stay afloat. It's not hard for a business to either boost its reputation with fake positive reviews or sabotage its competitors with negative ones. It's estimated that 20% of online reviews are fake—enough to skew the overall ratings, especially for newer establishments with only a few reviews.
While it’s tough for large platforms to eliminate fake reviews (although they do try), it’s pretty simple to identify a genuine reviewer on your own. To spot the fakes, look out for reviews that use generic, cookie-cutter language, especially if the same wording appears across multiple places. If you’re feeling like an internet detective, try running a reverse image search on the profile and food photos to check if they’ve been stolen from somewhere else. Once you’ve done this, you’ll have discovered your personal food influencer, and soon enough, the best burritos in your city will be clear to you.
