Despite its mediocre reputation in New York's food world
December 11, 2019 10:25 AM Subscribe
Tell me straight: is it as bad as Yelp?
posted by hilberseimer at 10:59 AM on December 11, 2019
posted by hilberseimer at 10:59 AM on December 11, 2019
Definitely check out the story on how a guy got his fake restaurant to #1.
posted by obol at 11:11 AM on December 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by obol at 11:11 AM on December 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
I used Yelp for limited purposes: to tell when a restaurant was open, whether it takes reservations, where it is, and, you know, whether it still even exists. Google maps wasn't so good about that last bit. But lately google maps has been pretty accurate and I rarely use anything else. It's reviews are pretty useless, IMO, since everything is rated 4.6 or thereabouts; one wonders why they even bought Zagat. I guess they wondered that too since (as I just learned) they sold it off last year.
TripAdvisor is pretty spotty but I guess they are good to point tourists at touristy things. My own experience is that any information is at least slightly better than no information. Picking a restaurant at random when you are hungry and in a tourist destination can be harmful to both your palette and your wallet. I generally ask the host or concierge (or any other local I meet) for recommendations and pin them in my maps app. That's worked really well for me.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:11 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
TripAdvisor is pretty spotty but I guess they are good to point tourists at touristy things. My own experience is that any information is at least slightly better than no information. Picking a restaurant at random when you are hungry and in a tourist destination can be harmful to both your palette and your wallet. I generally ask the host or concierge (or any other local I meet) for recommendations and pin them in my maps app. That's worked really well for me.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:11 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
I used Yelp for limited purposes
I use yelp to plan what I will order at restaurants I already know I am going to. I check out what dishes look interesting and look at portion sizes and such.
I ignore the ratings mostly because every single restaurant in Chicago is either 4 or 4.5 stars anyway so the ratings really don't help discriminate between options.
I also use the Google Maps listings for restaurants to look at the place's interior. Mostly because I hate eating at places that are all stools or benches (every single goddam brewpub in Chicago it seems!).
Then I check the places actual website to find a beer list.
I want to be able to eat a good meal, drink a good beer and lean back.
posted by srboisvert at 11:52 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
I use yelp to plan what I will order at restaurants I already know I am going to. I check out what dishes look interesting and look at portion sizes and such.
I ignore the ratings mostly because every single restaurant in Chicago is either 4 or 4.5 stars anyway so the ratings really don't help discriminate between options.
I also use the Google Maps listings for restaurants to look at the place's interior. Mostly because I hate eating at places that are all stools or benches (every single goddam brewpub in Chicago it seems!).
Then I check the places actual website to find a beer list.
I want to be able to eat a good meal, drink a good beer and lean back.
posted by srboisvert at 11:52 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
I've started using google maps to streetview my seamless orders so I know what the physical restaurant actually looks like - I've found that more helpful than the listed reviews.
posted by The Ted at 12:09 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by The Ted at 12:09 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
I rarely use TripAdvisor, but a few years ago I was tasked with finding restaurants in Venice, which has always been hard, but has become harder in the last decade or so. Then I looked as much at the bad reviews as the good ones. Real Venetian food is nothing like standard Italian food in the US or Northern Europe, so if someone had complained about the lasagna, or that they couldn't get some southern speciality, I knew it might be a good place where the owners didn't feel the need to cater to tourist sensibilities. Complaints over waitstaff and bills can also be a good sign if they are based on misunderstandings: again it can mean that the owners are confident enough in their ways that they feel no need to adapt to international styles. We had great food at every meal. On preview: yes, I use streetview as well.
I'm sure there is a lot of fakery going on, but it's also that TripAdvisor users trend towards something safe and what they probably see as value for money. I live in an area with a lot of places where chefs go on their day off or after work. It's fun to see how their hang-outs are low-rated at TripAdvisor. I thinks its the same as in Venice; they are always fully booked and don't bend over backwards for people who are clearly "tourists" (maybe just from the next borough). You won't get bad service there, don't get me wrong, but you won't have them compensating you if your meal was up to standard either. A lot of TripAdvisor posters seem to return parts of their food all the time.
posted by mumimor at 12:26 PM on December 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm sure there is a lot of fakery going on, but it's also that TripAdvisor users trend towards something safe and what they probably see as value for money. I live in an area with a lot of places where chefs go on their day off or after work. It's fun to see how their hang-outs are low-rated at TripAdvisor. I thinks its the same as in Venice; they are always fully booked and don't bend over backwards for people who are clearly "tourists" (maybe just from the next borough). You won't get bad service there, don't get me wrong, but you won't have them compensating you if your meal was up to standard either. A lot of TripAdvisor posters seem to return parts of their food all the time.
posted by mumimor at 12:26 PM on December 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
That's funny, I find Yelp to be way better (for better or worse) than Google Maps at filtering and finding nearby restaurants that meet certain neighborhood/price/atmosphere/alcohol criteria. I don't really trust or care about individual yelp reviews because most online review people don't know what the fuck they're talking about with regards to "reviewing" food nor do they know how to behave politely in a restaurant and interact with staff like a decent human. Buttttt it is good for researching a place like, "oh they don't serve alcohol - oh nvm scanning the reviews it looks like it's BYOB, that's cool" or it can be good to search the reviews to see if a place with long waits take down your phone number and text you when your table is ready rather than make you wait outside on the sidewalk like a shmuck.
These are things I do want to know about a new restaurant especially if I'm picking it and meeting some friends there and want it to be a smooth experience for everyone; overall though I don't care if some asshole thought the waitress was giving them stink eye the whole time. Google has gotten better at this over the past year (like being able to check cash-only/credit cards, alcohol served, etc is something I want to very quickly see right away) so I might switch to that but for now Yelp - unfortunately - has some good uses.
I have never considered TripAdvisor because for some reason the last people's opinions I would ever care about is a bunch of tourists but I'm not surprised its being completely gamed.
posted by windbox at 12:38 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
These are things I do want to know about a new restaurant especially if I'm picking it and meeting some friends there and want it to be a smooth experience for everyone; overall though I don't care if some asshole thought the waitress was giving them stink eye the whole time. Google has gotten better at this over the past year (like being able to check cash-only/credit cards, alcohol served, etc is something I want to very quickly see right away) so I might switch to that but for now Yelp - unfortunately - has some good uses.
I have never considered TripAdvisor because for some reason the last people's opinions I would ever care about is a bunch of tourists but I'm not surprised its being completely gamed.
posted by windbox at 12:38 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
My secret tip in Italy, France, and other food loving but touristy countries: only look at Tripadvisor/Yelp/Google reviews in the local language!
When living in Rome, we found that Americans and northern Europeans wrote glowing reviews of even the most mediocre places because it was Real Italian Food (and probably much better than where they are from) and served in Real Italy by Real Italians.
Italian reviews, on the other hand, were particular about the food and very useful.
posted by mkuhnell at 12:58 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
When living in Rome, we found that Americans and northern Europeans wrote glowing reviews of even the most mediocre places because it was Real Italian Food (and probably much better than where they are from) and served in Real Italy by Real Italians.
Italian reviews, on the other hand, were particular about the food and very useful.
posted by mkuhnell at 12:58 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
Italians are very particular about their food and the one thing they all agree on is that nobody makes it like nonna.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:03 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by sjswitzer at 1:03 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
Obviously, fake reviews are bad. But otherwise I think TripAdvisor does what it's supposed to do. Even the thing with the owners/communication people replying to all the reviews is in the spirit. TripAdvisor posters are not foodies who read the latest news on Eater or love finding that little special place through someone they met in a bar. They are people who want to have a nice, safe holiday or night out with no food poisoning or bedbugs and friendly people all over. That is a perfectly legitimate way to travel, IMO. I wish my dad had had TripAdvisor when we were kids, driving all over the place in our tiny car and never knowing if we would even find a place to sleep or eat. He had the Michelin Guide books, but since he didn't speak French or Italian or Spanish, he couldn't call ahead very well. He would also have preferred the top-rated restaurants on TripAdvisor to the ones that get good reviews from real critics or Michelin inspectors.
posted by mumimor at 1:29 PM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 1:29 PM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
I still find TripAdvisor good for one thing: user-submitted photos of hotels—especially low-to-mid-level hotels. I've traveled quite a lot, and the photos that hotels use for their own websites are generally worthless for judging a place. Sometimes the photos are just stock photos. User's photos give a much better overview of what the place will really look like when you arrive. I'm sure some places can game even this system of mine, but over the years I have found that user photos have served me well for scouting where to stay... and where not to stay.
posted by SoberHighland at 1:52 PM on December 11, 2019 [19 favorites]
posted by SoberHighland at 1:52 PM on December 11, 2019 [19 favorites]
I find TripAdvisor's restaurant reviews useless. So is their search function. I find Yelp's search function useful for finding places near me that meet certain criteria and which probably won't totally suck.
Unfortunately, Chowhound killed off any discussion of Ottawa restaurants when they realigned Ottawa onto the same discussion board as Toronto instead of on the general Canada board and all Ottawa discussion got drowned out. And by 'they', I mean, 'I', because that was my decision, and boy did I not know when I made it that 10 years later I would live in Ottawa and really hate myself for it. It seemed like the right choice at the time, but hindsight is 20-20 and all.
About the best option for restaurant discussion in Ottawa right now, tbh, is r/Ottawa. It's more of an ask-and-answer thing, like Chowhound used to be, than a ready-made information for the taking thing, but if you want to talk about what's good here, that's where you're most likely to get usable results.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:12 PM on December 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
Unfortunately, Chowhound killed off any discussion of Ottawa restaurants when they realigned Ottawa onto the same discussion board as Toronto instead of on the general Canada board and all Ottawa discussion got drowned out. And by 'they', I mean, 'I', because that was my decision, and boy did I not know when I made it that 10 years later I would live in Ottawa and really hate myself for it. It seemed like the right choice at the time, but hindsight is 20-20 and all.
About the best option for restaurant discussion in Ottawa right now, tbh, is r/Ottawa. It's more of an ask-and-answer thing, like Chowhound used to be, than a ready-made information for the taking thing, but if you want to talk about what's good here, that's where you're most likely to get usable results.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:12 PM on December 11, 2019 [11 favorites]
I find Tripadvisor very useful when I end up in the sort of mid-sized, interstate adjacent cities that tend to commercial streets dominated by chains.
The kind where if you just head out of your hotel, you're going to see Applebees, McDonalds, maybe a Macaroni Grill if it's a bigger town.
But if you pull up Tripadvisor, you can find that little pizza joint tucked in a strip mall or the Hungarian place in the bypassed downtown.
That, along with ignoring 5 and 1 star reviews has gotten me some pretty good meals.
To be perfectly fair, it's gotten me decidedly mediocre meals as well. Small town reviewers especially seem to be big fans of Sysco products but even those meals were no worse than I would have gotten at the Outback anyway.
posted by madajb at 4:04 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
The kind where if you just head out of your hotel, you're going to see Applebees, McDonalds, maybe a Macaroni Grill if it's a bigger town.
But if you pull up Tripadvisor, you can find that little pizza joint tucked in a strip mall or the Hungarian place in the bypassed downtown.
That, along with ignoring 5 and 1 star reviews has gotten me some pretty good meals.
To be perfectly fair, it's gotten me decidedly mediocre meals as well. Small town reviewers especially seem to be big fans of Sysco products but even those meals were no worse than I would have gotten at the Outback anyway.
posted by madajb at 4:04 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
I've had the best luck finding local newspaper/website articles giving their list of the "best" (for whatever criteria) of a certain kind of restaurant. Usually there is enough descriptive text to figure out which of the places they list I might like.
Second best, but definitely useful, has been searching on city-specific subreddits.
I have found Yelp and TripAdvisor almost entirely useless, though I admit to not having spent a lot of time digging through either.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:10 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Second best, but definitely useful, has been searching on city-specific subreddits.
I have found Yelp and TripAdvisor almost entirely useless, though I admit to not having spent a lot of time digging through either.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:10 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
They are people who want to have a nice, safe holiday or night out with no food poisoning or bedbugs and friendly people all over.
Fake reviews from fake accounts won't get you that.
posted by praemunire at 5:41 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
Fake reviews from fake accounts won't get you that.
posted by praemunire at 5:41 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
I just had a good laugh at the first couple pages of restaurants in DC. The standard bearer for this problem used to be Founding Farmers, but I think the thing that got the biggest laugh out of me just now was seeing &pizza in the top 20. It's not my first choice for pizza; it's not even my first choice for that particular sort of pizza place. But there it is at number 19! It beats Marcel's! It beats Le Diplomate! It beats Estadio! Komi only manages #47! Rasika West End is down at #76! At least Founding Farmers is down to #107, although that's still much too high. And there are some truly outstanding restaurants even farther down the list (Fiola Mare at #122, Minibar at #139, and so on).
I don't put a lot of faith in Yelp either, but at least it's not that bad.
posted by fedward at 6:46 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't put a lot of faith in Yelp either, but at least it's not that bad.
posted by fedward at 6:46 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
I do think tripadvisor is quite useful. Maybe more for hotels, where it has let me pick out something decent which really adds to a stay. I stayed in an out of the way small city in the Netherlands last week and found a lovely B&B, not on the recommended hotel list from our hosts, which was absolutely lovely. I've stayed in highly rated hotels and B&Bs multiple times that were really well done. I genuinely believe tripadvisor has lifted quality in a big segment of that market.
I do tend to look at the negative reviews as well as overall profile. Very few low ratings is still a good sign, but I like to see what the complaints were and the place's attitude to them. Sometimes the complaints are just from morons and can be discounted.
Regarding restaurants, my small town is touristy and has quite a few restaurants, and I am familiar with a lot of them. I find tripadvisor to be largely a good assessment of their relative quality but I can see some exceptions. The top 5 is pretty much reflective of quality. The issue would be that you would really need to book well ahead to get a seat in them.
posted by biffa at 2:37 AM on December 12, 2019
I do tend to look at the negative reviews as well as overall profile. Very few low ratings is still a good sign, but I like to see what the complaints were and the place's attitude to them. Sometimes the complaints are just from morons and can be discounted.
Regarding restaurants, my small town is touristy and has quite a few restaurants, and I am familiar with a lot of them. I find tripadvisor to be largely a good assessment of their relative quality but I can see some exceptions. The top 5 is pretty much reflective of quality. The issue would be that you would really need to book well ahead to get a seat in them.
posted by biffa at 2:37 AM on December 12, 2019
If available, Tyler Cowen reviews are honest and useful. I also look at HappyCow, which has been key in finding veg friendly places.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:11 AM on December 12, 2019
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:11 AM on December 12, 2019
We use Tripadvisor when travelling, but I use it judiciously. It tells me what restaurants are around where we are, and I can usually cross-reference the ratings with other sources to figure out what's a good place to eat. Bonehead and I have what we call the Timmies Floor (or Le plancher St-Hubert, if we're in Quebec). If a given restaurant in a given town rates lower than the local Tim Hortons, we generally give it a miss. Timmies is no hell, but at least the food is predictable and the place is usually pretty clean. If the place rates higher than Timmies, it's generally going to be a good bet.
This is obviously a bit skewed once you go elsewhere in the world, but it works OK for us. Like someone says above, it's the safe touristy way to travel, but when I'm on holidays I don't necessarily want to take my stomach in my hands so I can be "adventurous". I want to know I won't get sick, the food will taste reasonably good, and I'm going to get back safely to a clean and secure hotel.
If I'm looking for a restaurant for an anniversary dinner (10 years this year!), I'll look at other reviews and recommendations.
posted by LN at 6:20 AM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is obviously a bit skewed once you go elsewhere in the world, but it works OK for us. Like someone says above, it's the safe touristy way to travel, but when I'm on holidays I don't necessarily want to take my stomach in my hands so I can be "adventurous". I want to know I won't get sick, the food will taste reasonably good, and I'm going to get back safely to a clean and secure hotel.
If I'm looking for a restaurant for an anniversary dinner (10 years this year!), I'll look at other reviews and recommendations.
posted by LN at 6:20 AM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
fedward, that Founding Farmers review is hilarious. I like reading the comments too. And it confirms my theory that there is a segment of the population for whom restaurant critic's reviews are not helpful and TripAdvisor can be helpful if you know what you are looking for.
After mentioning my dad above, I looked up his favorite traditional restaurant in Rome. It has 4 stars and mostly five-star reviews with some one and two-star reviews in there for good measure. Mostly people enjoy the big servings (and just ask for extras), the good wine and the warm service.
The negative reviews are often based on misunderstandings, like people complaining they couldn't get something listed on the menu. As an example: Roman restaurants often list everything they ever serve, and expect you to know that obviously you can't get mushrooms in the spring or wild strawberries in the winter. This really puts some people off. Or people order Dover sole and are disappointed that it has been frozen, with tons of fresh fish on display. Or they are Americans expecting American tip-driven levels of servitude, which you just won't get in Europe, where people have a fair wage already.
It's not locally trendy or famous, though it does have local regulars. Katie Parla hasn't mentioned it, and it's not my personal favorite. But it is good value for money, and the family who owns it are friendly and serious. I would recommend it to a lot of people I know.
posted by mumimor at 7:16 AM on December 12, 2019
After mentioning my dad above, I looked up his favorite traditional restaurant in Rome. It has 4 stars and mostly five-star reviews with some one and two-star reviews in there for good measure. Mostly people enjoy the big servings (and just ask for extras), the good wine and the warm service.
The negative reviews are often based on misunderstandings, like people complaining they couldn't get something listed on the menu. As an example: Roman restaurants often list everything they ever serve, and expect you to know that obviously you can't get mushrooms in the spring or wild strawberries in the winter. This really puts some people off. Or people order Dover sole and are disappointed that it has been frozen, with tons of fresh fish on display. Or they are Americans expecting American tip-driven levels of servitude, which you just won't get in Europe, where people have a fair wage already.
It's not locally trendy or famous, though it does have local regulars. Katie Parla hasn't mentioned it, and it's not my personal favorite. But it is good value for money, and the family who owns it are friendly and serious. I would recommend it to a lot of people I know.
posted by mumimor at 7:16 AM on December 12, 2019
I think the thing that got the biggest laugh out of me just now was seeing &pizza in the top 20. It's not my first choice for pizza; it's not even my first choice for that particular sort of pizza place. But there it is at number 19! It beats Marcel's! It beats Le Diplomate! It beats Estadio! Komi only manages #47! Rasika West End is down at #76! At least Founding Farmers is down to #107, although that's still much too high. And there are some truly outstanding restaurants even farther down the list (Fiola Mare at #122, Minibar at #139, and so on).
I'm not sure any list with both Minibar and &pizza on it in any order is comprehensible. One is $10 pizza you have when you don't want to invest a lot of time or effort in getting it, the other is a $300/person experience you spend months planning ahead for. I'm not even sure I'd put something like Le Diplomate, where one could conceivably walk in on a whim, get a table, and get out for less than $50, with the truly high end places. I guess that speaks to the inherent silliness of a lot of these aggregators, because they're shoveling fast-food and fine-dining and weekday dinner spots all into the same list and telling you that these are things that can and should be compared until you find the #1 Best Restaurant, when, at least for me, if I want one of those things I would typically find the others unacceptable.
posted by Copronymus at 10:21 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure any list with both Minibar and &pizza on it in any order is comprehensible. One is $10 pizza you have when you don't want to invest a lot of time or effort in getting it, the other is a $300/person experience you spend months planning ahead for. I'm not even sure I'd put something like Le Diplomate, where one could conceivably walk in on a whim, get a table, and get out for less than $50, with the truly high end places. I guess that speaks to the inherent silliness of a lot of these aggregators, because they're shoveling fast-food and fine-dining and weekday dinner spots all into the same list and telling you that these are things that can and should be compared until you find the #1 Best Restaurant, when, at least for me, if I want one of those things I would typically find the others unacceptable.
posted by Copronymus at 10:21 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't even put Le Diplomate and Estadio on the same list as Marcel's, although they have broadly served the same purpose for me (if the broad purpose is dinner-before-a-show; the distinction being that we went to Marcel's before an opera, dressed up, and took the offered car service to the Kennedy Center, while Le Dip and Estadio are in immediate proximity to Studio Theatre [despite its intentions not as highbrow as the opera] and function much more as neighborhood spots for us).
On the other hand, when my parents came a few years ago they ate one quick lunch at the Five Guys near their hotel and subsequently ate every meal that wasn't planned by us at the same Five Guys, to my dismay. Literally hundreds of restaurants nearby and we gave them personalized recommendations for stuff I knew they'd like. And then when they came for our wedding they ate most of their meals at the restaurant connected to the wedding hotel (which, to be fair, is better than Five Guys and where we had a welcome reception for out-of-town guests). My parents: creatures of both habit and convenience. Maybe the TripAdvisor approach isn't entirely off.
posted by fedward at 11:19 AM on December 12, 2019
On the other hand, when my parents came a few years ago they ate one quick lunch at the Five Guys near their hotel and subsequently ate every meal that wasn't planned by us at the same Five Guys, to my dismay. Literally hundreds of restaurants nearby and we gave them personalized recommendations for stuff I knew they'd like. And then when they came for our wedding they ate most of their meals at the restaurant connected to the wedding hotel (which, to be fair, is better than Five Guys and where we had a welcome reception for out-of-town guests). My parents: creatures of both habit and convenience. Maybe the TripAdvisor approach isn't entirely off.
posted by fedward at 11:19 AM on December 12, 2019
I sometimes don't like metafilter when we talk about food. Food is not the most important thing to some people. Some people just want something they know they will like so they can enjoy the other things they want to do on vacation. When I first moved to Germany, I ate alot at McDonalds. And I felt bad about it! But my sister said something that really stuck with me: when the rest of your life is in flux (whether from moving or vacationing) sometimes you just want something stable and reliable to eat.
But this is a different conversation than how trip advisor reviews affect the restaurant industry for tourism, so I'll save the rest of this thought for another day.
posted by LizBoBiz at 11:50 PM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
But this is a different conversation than how trip advisor reviews affect the restaurant industry for tourism, so I'll save the rest of this thought for another day.
posted by LizBoBiz at 11:50 PM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
The people who think they don't care about food, though, are probably not leaving tourist Manhattan to visit the number one rated restaurant on TripAdvisor. If they aren't too badly manipulated ratings sites can usefully steer you away from truly bad meals at a time when that's your priority, but if you are treasure hunting the number one rated restaurant in a whole city that's not really the goal.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:06 AM on December 13, 2019
posted by jacquilynne at 5:06 AM on December 13, 2019
I think I might seem like one of Metafilter’s bigger food snobs, but the year I lived in Germany I also ate a lot of McDonald’s. Even though you still had to ask for ice in your drink, it seemed like the only place where they didn’t question you when you did, due to a weird belief Germans seemed to have that ice cold drinks were bad for you.
Even better, though: during that year, the fall break in university classes coincided with Oktoberfest and I went to Munich along with, I’m sure, everyone in the western world. One day I needed dinner but every place an American might have heard of had lines out the door. I heard one German on the street tell his friends he was hungry, and they agreed to go get food. I decided I’d just follow them, assuming that whatever Döner place they surely knew about would be better than anything I’d find. They went to McDonald’s. So I did too. The good news was that all the Americans in town were in line for the Hofbräuhaus (or whatever else was in the Let’s Go guide) so there wasn’t a wait.
posted by fedward at 8:33 AM on December 14, 2019
Even better, though: during that year, the fall break in university classes coincided with Oktoberfest and I went to Munich along with, I’m sure, everyone in the western world. One day I needed dinner but every place an American might have heard of had lines out the door. I heard one German on the street tell his friends he was hungry, and they agreed to go get food. I decided I’d just follow them, assuming that whatever Döner place they surely knew about would be better than anything I’d find. They went to McDonald’s. So I did too. The good news was that all the Americans in town were in line for the Hofbräuhaus (or whatever else was in the Let’s Go guide) so there wasn’t a wait.
posted by fedward at 8:33 AM on December 14, 2019
I like to go to McDonald's in different countries. Not often, just once per trip. But it is fun to see and try the different things that are on local menus.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:46 AM on December 14, 2019
posted by jacquilynne at 9:46 AM on December 14, 2019
I just had a good laugh at the first couple pages of restaurants in DC.
Those are . . . interesting choices. I guess as DC's food scene matures (and I will say the improvements are immense in the decade I've lived here), we should be glad tourists are directed to mediocre chains, because otherwise I wouldn't ever be able to get a table.
That said:
sometimes you just want something stable and reliable to eat.
Um yeah. Fast food chains can be super-comforting, especially if you're struggling with language and having fun digestion issues due to an unfamiliar diet and aren't of the globetrotting comfort class but are instead trying to visit e.g. Nagoya on a shoestring because tickets were just barely affordable for a once-in-a-lifetime event and goddamn if McNuggets aren't cheap, filling, and predictable.
Daily fast food isn't great for a variety of reasons, but I'd be surprised if that many MeFites are actually hardcore snobs about that particular problem. And if that's the role &Pizza fills, more power to them.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:00 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Those are . . . interesting choices. I guess as DC's food scene matures (and I will say the improvements are immense in the decade I've lived here), we should be glad tourists are directed to mediocre chains, because otherwise I wouldn't ever be able to get a table.
That said:
sometimes you just want something stable and reliable to eat.
Um yeah. Fast food chains can be super-comforting, especially if you're struggling with language and having fun digestion issues due to an unfamiliar diet and aren't of the globetrotting comfort class but are instead trying to visit e.g. Nagoya on a shoestring because tickets were just barely affordable for a once-in-a-lifetime event and goddamn if McNuggets aren't cheap, filling, and predictable.
Daily fast food isn't great for a variety of reasons, but I'd be surprised if that many MeFites are actually hardcore snobs about that particular problem. And if that's the role &Pizza fills, more power to them.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:00 PM on December 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by airmail at 10:44 AM on December 11, 2019