"Best Restaurants" incorrect in your area (TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon, etc.)?

[Fishingmn]

Chinese and Mexican ones are the worst. As we were dining one day at a table next to a wall, we saw a good size cockroach slowly making its way across the wall. And the cockroaches are nocturnal to begin with. Imagine how many will come out when the lights go out in the restaurant at night. Needless to say, we never went back.

I could link to this posting from the thread entitled "Why the Midwest"

No cockroaches here in Minnesota

 

[MichaelB]

I could link to this posting from the thread entitled "Why the Midwest"

No cockroaches here in Minnesota

Sure there are cockroaches in the midwest. But they are friendlier and don't have attitudes like the ones from the coasts.

 

[robnplunder]

I could link to this posting from the thread entitled "Why the Midwest"

No cockroaches here in Minnesota

Cockroaches can be a source emergency food in case of a nuclear blast, a meteor strike, etc.. They live on nothing, and multiply like crazy. Minnesota should introduce these cockroaches in all their major cities.

 

[FIREd]

I get the feeling that the ratings are pretty accurate for my area. We are in Yelp country and restaurants get many reviews, which probably increases accuracy.

 

[audreyh1]

The local paper or other local organization is usually the best source of ranking by local voters. The review based sites are often highly skewed, but reading an individual review can be very useful, and places with lots of reviews are worth paying attention to.

 

[FUEGO]

I'm very reluctant to broadbrush Chinese or Buffet Restaurants... The proof is in the visit.

I've heard the "OMG buffets are gross who would ever want to eat food from a trough what is wrong why not find a real restaurant?" comments before.

I don't get it. Is the food good or not? Sure, the food is sitting in a steam table but does that severely impact the quality, flavor, texture, etc? Sometimes the food is good enough. I'm okay getting 4 star food if I can get a wide variety of 4 star food.

Variety is good, especially when you have kids. And a wife that likes sushi more than you do. We have a nice Chinese buffet in the neighborhood that's pretty good (though not the best at any one particular thing). Every few months we hit it up and DW gets her fill of sushi and I eat a few pieces but mostly enjoy other stuff. She says the sushi is good but a little light on the fish/eel/whatever compared to the more expensive sushi places she occasionally visits.

More often, I'll walk to the restaurant and grab a plate of take out from the buffet. $4.29 per lb means it's almost as cheap as buying the ingredients at the grocery store. In fact, we get a lot of dumpings/potstickers that are $6/lb or more at the Asian grocery store, so we are actually saving money by buying off the buffet.

Rarely are we disappointed. You can usually tell if something has been sitting out all day. I also pay attention to the time of day. Visit at 3:00 when they aren't very busy and you might get lunch leftovers that have been sitting in the steam table trays for 2 hours. Visit at 5:30 and you'll probably get steaming hot freshly cooked food since they are packed with diners and replacing the food as fast as they can.

 

[robnplunder]

I've heard the "OMG buffets are gross who would ever want to eat food from a trough what is wrong why not find a real restaurant?" comments before.

I don't get it. Is the food good or not?

Typically not good food in "cheap" Chinese buffet restaurants. It's quantity over quality for many, IMO. They typically cook in large pots and some part of food won't be cooked evenly. Because profit margin is so thin, they will have to use lower quality meat/fish, employee lesser cooks, etc.. We eat at Chinese buffet for a quick bite when we are very hungry.

 

[Elbata]

A friend was a restaurant reviewer for a local paper. I would go with him at times to the restaurant. He told me he was never to give a bad review.

 

[FUEGO]

Typically not good food in "cheap" Chinese buffet restaurants. It's quantity over quality for many, IMO. They typically cook in large pots and some part of food won't be cooked evenly. Because profit margin is so thin, they will have to use lower quality meat/fish, employee lesser cooks, etc.. We eat at Chinese buffet for a quick bite when we are very hungry.

I usually visit a bad chinese buffet exactly once. After that bad experience it's on to the good ones that are consistent. Are the ingredients cheaper? Some are. Chicken and pork is rather cheap locally, so that tends to be the bulk of the meat. It's also the majority of the meat we consume at home!

But the salmon and beef don't seem to be inexpensive. The salmon is almost certainly previously frozen, as is almost all the salmon we buy at the grocery store for under $10/lb.

 

[kcowan]

It is a popularity contest in PV MX. The ratings do not mean anything because there is no standard.