Like many of you I seem to get lots of enquiries asking for a restaurant (or hotel, winery or tour company) recommendation for not only Vancouver but for other places around the world. I am somewhat flattered to be asked and pleased to try and help. However in this digital age I wonder why more people don’t rely on their own searches from the numerous critics on the web and the most popular websites out there. Must be a question of how reliable they are and whether in fact the postings are all real. Raises also several legal questions including free speech and who is posting and who is monitoring. Are overly positive posts being made by public relations agents for the establishment or strongly negative ones by competitors or ex-employees with their own agenda? Much more personal to rely on a close friend or an IWFS member who can be trusted for reliable tips from their home city. Magazines and local newspapers can sometimes be good references for the best current up to date information. There is an interesting site that lists and reviews their Top Ten Restaurant Review Websites at www.restaurant-website-reviews.toptenreviews.com. They list Zagat, Yelp, Urbanspoon, Gayot, Dine.com, and Fodor’s as their top 6 but leave out of their list Trip Advisor, OpenTable, Chowhound, Foursquare, and others. Nothing beats personal knowledge of a place. However, I will sometimes look at Trip Advisor, Wine Spectator and Zagat for a rough indication taking these reviews usually with a grain of salt. Vancouver Magazine and scoutmagazine.ca do a good job in this part of the world. Do you have a personal recommendation for what helps you make your decision on which restaurant to visit locally and while travelling?
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Members should go to our own IWFS website and enter reviews about the restaurants in their area. It won’t take long before the IWFS site is the “most reliable restaurant review website”. Go to http://www.iwfs.org/recommendations and start posting away!