The best way I can think of, and not to mention the most fun, is to check them out yourself. It may be more time-intensive than you'd prefer, but it'll leave you remarkably well prepared for the next such occasion.

First, gather whatever information you can- track openings and closings in the news, monitor licensing through your local government,etc..

Second, do a little research on your own to find local classics. For instance, it was only through talking with a friend who grew up here (after I'd lived in DC 4 years ) that I learned of Tabard Inn, a fantastic brunch spot.

Third, try the places that interest you! If you limit your trial to an appetizer and a drink, you'll get a good sense for the ambience and service -and- a taste of what should be the restaurant's 'best foot forward'. Plus it's not a huge commitment; $10 or $15 is a small price to pay to satisfy your curiosity and find a new place you like.

I just hope that there are enough restaurants in your area to make your search interesting.

ebcindc

@GlennA:

Actually, I reached that stage for certain things years ago. And like many folks, there are days when I feel like being more adventurous and days when I feel less inclined to be that way.

Deprong Mori

I would recommend the new site featured just today, foodiebytes.com. Although coverage would be issue for most people, I love the idea of looking up my fav food in a new place or some exotic food item and trying it out.

I hate the Yelp psychobabble.

King1

@Deprong Mori: Being "non-adventurous" has nothing to do with, as you call it, "dumb". As one grows older, one's digestive system tends to become more sensitive to "adventurous" foods or simply changes in diet--what you could once eat with impunity becomes problematic. Clearly, you haven't reached that stage yet... but you will. Plus, some people simply eat to live, not live to eat--variety in food is not of much concern, though quality may be. I'll take "steak-and-potatoes" at Ruth's Chris any day.

GlennA

I wouldnt take any of these websites advice. How many times do you read a movie review, and and see it anyways and turns out the advice was totally wrong? Or pretty much any suggestion from someone. Its all personal opion.

What you should do is go out to eat at some new restaraunts and pick your top 4. Its not that hard. Why would you put your rep on the line from some blogger you dont know?

holymogwai

I third Chowhound. Restaurant reviews are really hard to trust though, since everyone has a different taste. Ideally there would be something like Netflix recommendations for restaurants---if you liked this restuarant, you might also like these restaurants...

slip

Oh, and for you Seattlites, check out [www.roboticgourmand.com] - he writes great reviews and has an average budget.

mahalie

I'll check out chowhound and don't like Yelp much either. I use 43places.com to find good restaurants by looking at the review lists of other people who love my favorite restaurants. It's been very useful! I think it helps that 43places was started in Seattle, but coverage is global.

mahalie

Second the recommendations for Zagat and Chow. Zagat particularly useful for its ability to sort and filter. For instance, find me all the restaurants w/i 2 miles of the theater that have a food rating of 20 or above, sorted by the cost of dinner.

If you're looking in the Washington, DC metro area and like ethnic foods, Tyler Cowen's blog and searchable guide is a gem:
[www.tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com]

mypod

I wrote about this a few weeks ago after a trip to Boston, but it certainly works for the city in which you live as well.

[www.eatingcleveland.com]

Eating Cleveland

I live in Jersey, southern, so most web 2.0 sites out there don't index anything that I already don't know about. My wife and I are actually avid restaurant goers, so we are always looking for new places. So, what we do, is just get lost every once in a while and check out what's around us and make note of it in a massive notebook. That way, if we are ever questioning where to go, we just break out the big book and see what we haven't been to yet or haven't been to recently and would like to revisit.

conedude13

Review aggregators like Openlist and Yellowbot can be a good source of info as they crawl most of the sites listed above.

yoinkyoink

@enjar:

Your points are valid, although the majority of restaurants around here (SF Bay Area) can accommodate dietary restrictions (we have lots of people with food preferences here).

Also, most restaurants have a certain number of menu items that are dumbed down for non-adventurous eaters: your steak-and-potatoes crowd. If you ask around (or if you've lived in an area), you'll quickly learn of "safe" nice restaurants with non-adventurous menus. Typically, these restaurants have a much older clientele.

At least here in Cali, most steakhouses actually do a good job at offering restricted-diet menu items, fish, vegetarian (salads, pastas), as well as have menu items for highly conservative eaters.

Deprong Mori

When looking for places in cities I'm visiting I often ask wait staff (or given the chance the chef/cook) at a place that I've enjoyed to recommend something. By playing with the criteria of how you ask you can find places that meet your specific needs. Something as specific as "I really enjoyed the kiwicha. Do you know somewhere with good maca?", as simple as "Where do you eat besides here?" or somewhere in between. If you get the right bartender or cook you can really find some good stuff.

Chowhound [www.chowhound.com] has many regional forums and has a good reputation for honesty and completeness. They used to be independent but were sold to CNET with IMHO minimal loss in integrity. Do a search for somewhere you already like and see what else pops up as comparable.

martyd

I'd second (or third) the recommendation to look at chowhound. Great message boards for people who are genuinely into good food. I'd also look for local Yahoo or Google groups. Where I live, the local Yahoo Group is one of the best sources for information about nearly anything local.

Max

For veg*n restaurants/markets there's the HappyCow global directory at: [www.happycow.net]

sharing

Keep in mind your audience when making reservations, too. If you are taking the boss out and you make a bad pick, then it could reflect badly on you. You might want to do some advance scouting by going somewhere before making group reservations.

Or, I've discovered that not everyone shares the same tastes, so while you may be tired of the local places, the other people in your group may not appreciate "new" cuisine. A lot of times, you need to find the lowest common denominator to include everyone.

Another important thing to keep in mind are food allergies for your group. I am extremely allergic to shellfish, so a work outing to a lobster pound or crawfish boil would be something I would need to skip.

enjar

No way, not Yelp by a long shot.

The best way by far is to ask a trusted friend with a good palate. Depending on where you live, your local newspaper might have a reliable food critic: certainly San Francisco has its share of paid food critics, but the most famous ones are actually pretty reliable.

The value of Yelp-style food criticism is marginal at best. A lot of commentators simply don't understand the restaurant business and don't bother to do the typical research that a professional critic would do. Some of the food boards (like the aforementioned Chowhound) have much higher quality participation; Yelp is one of the last online resources I'd use.

Deprong Mori

In my area, there is a local blogger who likes to try new restaurants and write reviews. This obviously doesn't apply everywhere, but if you can find a local blogger who writes restaurant reviews (try google), it is very nice.

benanna

Depending on where you live, Citysearch, Yahoo Travel, AOL, Time Out, etc. should have a few listings. Look for terms fusion, international, eclectic, or similiar language so that you can appeal to a wider group. Ask them to fax a menu or look it up on-line.

ARP

Yelp was recently proven to be a poor source of ratings since only people who really hate or really love the places bother to vote, thus making the results rather skewed.

If you look for restaurants on any kind of regular basis, an online Zagat subscription is well worth the money. And for serious foodies, the Chowhound boards are where it's at.

[www.chowhound.com]
[www.zagat.com]

nick_r

I use All Menus for my area- though that might not cover places out in the sticks. This is especially usefull if you have a vegan or other special diet needs person coming along.

[www.allmenus.com]

HRHKingFriday

I try to have breakfast meetings, if possible, and I use the Mr Breasfast website to find suitable venues.

The Consultant

I often use this flash-based gem, called the "Wheel of Lunch." It's neither comprehensive nor particularly location-sensitive, but it's fun, and kind of funny:
[www.coverpop.com]

Myrddin-Wyllt

We live in a rural area so the online sites don't help a lot. I have started a website for our area for this purpose. Usually it is word of mouth though. When traveling to a new area, I check out google maps and search for restaurant and try one of those.

geekender

@holymogwai: Sure, it's fine to try out cheap-to-moderate restaurants on your own without any prior research... but if we're going to be dropping $200-300 for dinner for two, I really want to know that the establishment in question has an impeccable reputation among people who know food. That's when reviews come in handy. And no, I'd never trust a single person's opinion, but Zagat is useful because it's a composite and on Chowhound you can find lots of diverse views.

nick_r

@Eric Lai:

I still think there are a plethora of online resources that feature more thoughtful, consumer-provided restaurant comments than Yelp. Yelp is pretty much the last place on the Internet I'd want to visit for restaurant reviews.

Basically, there are other platforms for 'normal' people that are more worthwhile than Yelp. Do I have a personal axe to grind with Yelp? No, not at all. I just see their overall quality level as being very poor compared with what's already out there.

And again, I must reiterate that the best resource is a friend with a trustworthy palate. In many cases, the best people to ask are former and current restaurant industry workers, whether it's cheap eats or the trendiest places.

Deprong Mori

I always like going to www.writingwithmymouthfull.com for New York City restaurant reviews.

ext212

@Deprong Mori: Yes, I agree with you in that some Yelp reviews are completely unjustified in their criticism, and that professional critics have their place. But I'd argue that Yelp serves as a platform where 'normal' people that go to these restaurants (which far outnumber food critics) can tell it like it is. So even if they leave a bad review without understanding the workings of the restaurant business, if it's a sincere comment, in the end it's those paying customers that are either happy or unhappy with that establishment.

Foodhound is really great though, and here in Austin we're lucky enough to have The Fearless Critic which is full of reviews - I think they have one for Houston as well. [www.amazon.com]

Eric Lai

How about the Porcelain Room...?
[tinyurl.com]

Capone

We're building an application for Facebook that provides restaurant reviews for your area based on the collective opinions of your friends. As Nick_R mentioned, I'd never depend on a single person's opinion, but I do trust what my entire group of friends has to say.

We're looking for people like yourselves to test out its functionality, if you're interested, check it out at [apps.facebook.com]

Note, we only have Canadian data right now but we will be adding US cities soon (and can upload city data on request).

I'd love to hear your thoughts since it seems you're all very passionate about going out to eat :)

Sebastiant

Another facebook app plug, we launched Where I Hang a few weeks back, and are currently rolling in the top user feedback to our next update. [apps.facebook.com]

If you're a veg*n in the SF Bay Area, I highly recommend BAVeg. [www.bayareaveg.org]

davecort

Gotta plug Hngry! [hngry.com]

richard

I've been using RestoMontreal.ca, it's pretty great for stuff in the Montreal area, comprising reviews and often even PDFs of menus. You can also filter restaurants according to various criteria, including location, bring-your-own-wine, food styles, etc.

Skrud

If you want good food cheap and you're in an area unfamiliar to you, ask at the local fire station, or ask a cop. For that matter, I won't eat anywhere a cop refuses to eat.

mdebusk

For restaurant reviews by locals, try 43 Places. Works better for some cities than others.
[www.43places.com]

If you feel like leaving it to fate, try the Wheel of Lunch.
[www.coverpop.com/wheeloflunch]

threlkelded

When you go to the places you do love to eat at, ask your server for a recommendation. Waitstaff tends to have other friends in restaurants and knows some great places to eat.

MariGarza

[TasteSpace.com] has a pretty cool feature called Take Me Out, where you can enter the kind of party (friends, co-workers) and the location and they show suggestions. It actually works pretty well.

Kaobear