Features F&W Pro There's a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Read Online Restaurant Reviews Anyone can write a restaurant review, but that doesn't mean they're all worth your time. By Darron Cardosa Darron Cardosa Darron Cardosa, also known as the Bitchy Waiter, is the voice of restaurant servers. His decades-long career in the restaurant industry and his very active social media presence have made him an expert on all things service related. He says out loud what other servers wish they could say.Expertise: food service, restaurant industry, waiting tables.Experience: Darron Cardosa is a food service professional with over 30 years of restaurant experience. He has waited tables in diners, pubs, chain restaurants, neighborhood bistros, clubs, and had a short stint in a celebrity-owned restaurant before he was fired for blogging about his experience.Over the last 15 years, he has written more than 1,500 articles and blog posts, each and every one about the food service industry. He has written for Food & Wine, Plate, the Washington Post, and others. Darron has been seen on NBC's the Today show and CBS Sunday Morning discussing the service industry. His book, The Bitchy Waiter, was published in 2016, and his years as a professional actor eventually led to the creation of his one-man show, The Bitchy Waiter Show, which tours around the country. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Published on November 14, 2024 Close Photo: Food & Wine / Photo Illustration by Doan Nguyen / Getty Images Gone are the days of spontaneity when we could walk into an unfamiliar restaurant based purely on its aesthetic and menu. In the olden days, pre-World Wide Web, maybe you had a dog-eared Zagat book of restaurant reviews, but for the most part you went in cold. Nowadays, we have health inspection ratings, Instagram influencers, and online reviews to consider before setting foot inside a restaurant and ordering just one meal out of tens of thousands in our lifetime. It shouldn’t be this complicated. If you want to live life on the edge, go into a restaurant as unprepared as I was for my SAT in 1985, but if you’re going to take the time to look at online restaurant reviews, be sure to read them the right way. Look at the big picture Always look at the overall rating first. There can be 3000-plus reviews, but if the overall rating is a 4.6 out of five stars, it’s a pretty solid restaurant. Likewise, if the rating is 2.2, it might be a little chancy. You never know though because, even with a 2.2, there’s always someone who gave it a five and shouldn’t their opinion matter just as much as anyone else’s? Personally, I can usually look at the overall rating and decide from that if I want to eat there or not. If you need to dive in a little deeper when looking at online reviews, there’s even more to think about. Before You Write That Negative Restaurant Review, Know This Filters are your friend Always filter the reviews to see the most recent ones first. You would think that would be the default for posted reviews, but that would make too much sense. Instead, they’re often shown as “featured” or “most helpful” first, but you want to see what’s happening at this restaurant now. Reginald P. might rave about how mouthwatering the pork cotoletta was and how his server Janice went above and beyond, but if it was four years ago and both the pork and Janice have moved on, that review is not helpful. Filtering to the most recent is going to give you a better idea of what to expect. And limit yourself to the last six months or so of reviews unless you truly enjoy reading the opinions of random strangers. Some people love sour grapes If you see a particularly bad review of a restaurant, take that review with a grain of salt. In fact, some reviews need an entire salt lick because reviews are, by their very definition, one person’s opinion. That person may be a Negative Nellie who only bothers to post reviews when they’re unhappy. People are generally more apt to complain about something than compliment. When I see a really awful review, I will click that reviewer’s profile to see what kind of other reviews they have written. Too often, it’s a litany of complaints. The only time they write reviews is when they are dissatisfied and if they are always perceiving things to be horrible, maybe the problem is with them and not the restaurants. The Fine Art of Writing a Yelp Review Consider the source Also, consider if the review is based on facts. Someone can leave a great review but when you read it, it’s because they had a wonderful time that had nothing to do with the food or service. “I got engaged here! Five stars!” does not tell us anything about the restaurant itself. And a one-star review because they couldn’t find a parking place is also not helpful. Consider if the review is biased. Does it sound like a disgruntled employee trashing their former place of work or does it sound like someone got a bonus if they received a five-star online review and they wrote it about themself? Both are possible and I can admit that I have done at least one of those. 'Bitchy Waiter' Darron Cardosa Talks Tipping, Washing Gravy off a Steak, and Why He Chased a Customer Down the Street Trust your gut Online reviews are a great help when deciding whether or not to visit a restaurant, but they shouldn’t be the definite decision maker. They are not required to find a great restaurant. One of my favorite restaurants is a place I discovered in Brooklyn in 1994, before I had the internet. I chose it based on the fact that the menu sounded great, it looked adorable, and the seats were always full. Their croque monsieur continues to be my favorite thing there and no online review is going to change that for me. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit