We've all been there. You're in a new location and starving -- never a good combination. You have a hankering for a Vietnamese food but don't have the slightest clue where the best Pho can be located. Have no fear, 21st century is here with the trustworthy app on your iPhone that doubles as an encyclopedia for anything you may need -- from cafes to hair salons. But where do we draw the line? Unfortunately, although many cannot remember a time before Yelp was there to come to the rescue. (What is a Zagat review anyway?) This wonderful app has its caveats that may actually hinder your experience.
1. It robs you of your own experience.
While one of the best parts of Yelp is the fact that you are able to gather insight from past patrons of a business, reading their reviews of what they ordered and how they felt about their order robs you of being able to look at a menu and decide what looks most appealing based on your tastes, not Carla S. who went there two months months ago when she was starving after a day of being a rental princess at four year old's party and didn't know the area. Carla S. would have been satisfied with Slim Jim, and her review of baja fish tacos from an Italian restaurant should not bear as much weight as you're giving it.
It's important to keep in mind that some people may have food allergies or dietary restrictions that limit their choices, and if you love yourself some Argentinean style hangar steak, but Brent R. passionately proclaimed that you must try the cheese empanadas, then it could be because Brent R. doesn't eat food that formerly had a face, but if you are a carnivore, that doesn't mean you should prohibit yourself from having some juicy delicious steak.
2. It holds the restaurant accountable for changing its menu and/ or design of food.
One of the best (and worst) parts of Yelp is that patrons who have visited a particular restaurant (or other business) can take pictures of what they ordered. While this is awesome in the sense that you know what the item looks like and some idea of what it will taste like before committing to ordering it, but it's also drawing you to order a picture of the food you've seen and therefore creating a bias because, like when Chili's has a picture of a dish on it's menu, the natural human proclivity is to order that meal because your salivary glands must be directly linked to your ocular glands in your brain.
Unfortunately, restaurants tend to change their menu and how they design their food. This leads many patrons to be disappointed if their Nutella bacon french toast isn't in the same Instagrammable symmetry that was shown on Yelp. This may lead some to feel as if they were deceived by Yelp.
3. It rarely accounts for the middle ground.
Similar to ratemyprofessor.com, people are usually only inclined to write reviews on yelp when they really enjoy a place or if they really didn't. This means that the "norm" is usually excluded and a user is limited to only reading two extreme examples of what they can encounter at a particular dining establishment. Maybe the author of a really harsh review just had his car towed and was spilling his rage from that into this review? Thus, letting one lackluster review deter you from trying that new Thai spot may be cheating you of a chance to try the best pad Thai of your life and that would be a shame. Don't let other people's bad days influence your perception of somewhere you want to go.
All in all, Yelp is still a business. It provides a platform for users to share their opinions about businesses and what they like or don't like about them. Most of the time, this turns into a litany of life stories that somehow connect with their experience at a particular place. Next time you use Yelp, try to take the stars and comments with a grain of salt and remember: these are just the opinions of regular people who may or may not have had an earth shattering experience because of an acai bowl from that one place. While it would be cool to also have your earth shattered by blended berries, feel free to be brave and venture off and create your own memories-without the influence of strangers. Who knows? You may actually enjoy finding gems (and even busts) all by yourself.
