Do You Review Restaurants/Pubs/Places you´ve been to?

karadekoolaid

karadekoolaid

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I´ve got no aspirations as an online "Influencer", but I generally leave a review (usually on tripadvisor) when I go to a new restaurant or pub. Given that the option exists, I consider it just another way of showing my appreciation for the food and service or, on very rare occasions, advising others that a place may not be up to standard.
I was reading the news this morning and came across this: Reviews: the owners strike back! Wow - it seems some people are just never satisfied.
If I go to a pub, for pub food, then my review is strictly limited to that. I´d quite happily give out 5 stars to a place that does a good Ham, Egg & Chips, just as I might for an upscale restaurant. Different standards, but if they live up to their standards, then the owners/landlords/providers fully merit their rating.
So my question is this: do YOU regularly (or irregularly) rate places you´ve been to for food, drinks or entertainment?
 
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I don’t. I also place zero confidence in online reviews, because I know owners/employees (and their families and friends) submit inflated reviews, and because dissatisfied customers seem to feel the need to leave ridiculously bad reviews - they’re just useless to me.
 
TastyReuben said:
I don’t. I also place zero confidence in online reviews, because I know owners/employees (and their families and friends) submit inflated reviews, and because dissatisfied customers seem to feel the need to leave ridiculously bad reviews - they’re just useless to me.
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I don't often leave reviews but if I do I try to make them quite detailed. I reckon I can spot 'fake' reviews pretty well. But maybe in the UK that's less of an issue. 🤷‍♀️ Any review that is perfunctory or downright rude I tend to ignore. But if reviewers go to the trouble of detailing what they ate, the service etc. then I do take note. With trip advisor you can look at the other restaurant reviews a punter has made which gives some idea if they are simply 'friends and family' or genuine restaurant goers.
 
I do if food/service is at one end of the spectrum or the other. If it's a place that's okay but nothing special I usually don't. I also give a fairly detailed explanation, especially when leaving a negative.
 
I occasionally do, never for a chain or a place that has a mountain of good reviews anyway. When there is an independent restaurant or small hotel that is doing something great then I am happy to bolster their tripadvisor score. I do try to pick out particular points for praise, like MG as reviews of "Decent pasta, would go again" help nobody.
I have only given bad reviews twice, and they were for larger establishments that were lazy and below par in their offering. I would never kick a small guy when he is down.
I do read reviews and use them to make decisions, so I can spot fake or purchased reviews a mile off, and as soon as I see them I reject the place.
 
Not routinely, no.

I've left a few reviews over the years typically if I've received exceptional service or the place hasn't had many reviews and was better than expected or went out of their way to help. I have left a review for some friends. They became friends of ours as a result of us first staying with them. We didn't previously know them and they didn't have any reviews which really surprised us.

But I do often read reviews and dismiss what people have been critical of, or take one look at it and report the review because it is critical of the delivery of something and it is in the item review not the supplier review section...

I know that the beach we went to at the weekend had a cafe and both the beaches and the cafe were rated really highly. They were not in our book. We didn't eat at the cafe, not even a snack. We tried to but... yeah not a hope. I've no idea why people thought so "highly" of it.
 
No, other than to tell friends about the places, especially if they are really good, or really bad. Like TR, I find online reviews unreliable, as there are too many trolls out there with nothing better to do than trash restaurants -- or on the other hand, there are friends and family of restaurant owners who load up reviews with praise.

CD
 
caseydog said:
there are friends and family of restaurant owners who load up reviews with praise.
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I have several family and friends who have various careers in food service & hospitality. Any time any one of them changes jobs, they’ll send out an email blast with the name of their new restaurant or hotel, reminding everyone they know to be sure and go out to Trip Advisor, Yelp, etc and leave positive reviews. Seems to be the industry standard now.

Way back decades ago, I worked for a small company, associated with online recruiting and online job boards. My first job was to help set up a “clicky farm” - a series of computers that rotated through a pool of IPs and hit our company URL, over and over, 24 hours a day, in an attempt to keep our name up in all the internet searches and to make it look like our site incurred a lot of visits. It’s all smoke and mirrors! :laugh:
 
I do enjoy reading the couple of very bad reviews of a place that is generally praised because they tell you so much more about the reviewer than the venue.

Edit: Example, here is a contribution about my local that is in the top 40 eateries in Leicestershire. Enjoy the poetry, the construction and wonder at what the hell happened to make this person join Tripadvisor to type this.

90854
 
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The Velvet Curtain said:
I do enjoy reading the couple of very bad reviews of a place that is generally praised because they tell you so much more about the reviewer than the venue.

Edit: Example, here is a contribution about my local that is in the top 40 eateries in Leicestershire. Enjoy the poetry, the construction and wonder at what the hell happened to make this person join Tripadvisor to type this.

View attachment 90854
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I don’t care if you are a OAP, you tell me my stark is tough, you’re getting banned! :laugh:
 
The Velvet Curtain said:
dit: Example, here is a contribution about my local that is in the top 40 eateries in Leicestershire. Enjoy the poetry, the construction and wonder at what the hell happened to make this person join Tripadvisor to type this.
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Evidently, this poster is a Ph.D in modern languages from a renowned university. His command of the English language is impeccariable. A oap is clearly millenial syntaxis. And to have a tough stark, he must have worked with Games of Thrones. :hyper: :hyper:
 
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