Hey, AsianHomestyle cooking. I appreciate the message and your interest in my food reviews. To answer your question on why I base my yelp reviews solely on food taste/quality, I do so because I feel that's the best way to review a restaurant. You go to a restaurant to EAT, not to chill or stare at the pretty scenery. It's like watching a movie and appreciating it only because it has big name stars, CGI effects, high budget, and all that crowd pleasing element when the thing that should really most matter is the STORY. And maybe the directing. I tend to feel really bad for restaurants that get bad reviews mainly because their ambience is bad, their prices are too high, or because the service sucked. If their food is amazing, it gets totally lost within these barrage of reviews, and that's the hidden magic that I seek to discover in any restaurant. Finding great food in every cuisine and price range of restaurants, whether it be a cheap family style joint or an upper class establishment. Their goods and bads to everything, just like there are great blockbuster films at times, and poorly made indie films in other instances.

Of course, I do take some considering of the other factors in restaurants like ambience, service, etc. But their impact is only minimal. I would never give a 5 star rating to the most gorgeously decorated and serviced restaurant if the food is only 2 star quality. That's like giving a 5 star rating to Transformers, great production values and eye candy but little substance to back it up.

I think, ideally, the best restaurants would be if the food is 5 star and the ambience and service are 5 stars as well. Then you have a golden restaurant. But I rarely see those.

To answer your last question, I decide whether to eat at Yelp restaurant based not only on the high average reviews, but analysis of some individual accounts. I read to see if they know what they're talking about in regards to food, then I'll go if it looks safe. I do find Yelp reviews helpful, and that's what I use to eat at a lot of the restaurants I go to these days.

Anyways, hope your paper goes well!

What do you think of Yelp?
It's helpful but cannot I would not go by it without checking another site's reviews.
If you use it, why do you use it? Is there another website you prefer to research restaurants?
I use it to search for places ( tailor shops, hair salons, and restaurants!) I like citysearch.com more.
Do you think it's useful / useless / neutral?
It's useful.
Will you try a restaurant that has bad reviews?
Mixed reviews, but not bad reviews.
Will you try a restaurant that it turns out has written fake positive reviews about itself?
Nah.

What do you think of Yelp? I love it! It's where all the cool 20 and 30 something's write their reviews!

If you use it, why do you use it? Is there another website you prefer to research restaurants? Yes, I write and post pictures, just like I do here. I read local food blogs but Yelp is easy to read, and easy to navigate.

Do you think it's useful / useless / neutral? Totally useful.

Will you try a restaurant that has bad reviews? I'm probably the few who say yes, just to see how bad it is. I have to taste it myself!

Will you try a restaurant that it turns out has written fake positive reviews about itself? Oh gawd, no!!

Any other comments on Yelp (or on-line restaurant review sites in general). I love it, especially with pictures!!

@stevejcha - Thanks! haha Nice movie analogy. =D

@mOoShimAnGo - I've been depending on just Yelp less these days and using other sites too like citysearch. :)

@foodpics - Pictures are always awesome!

I don't use Yelp. I normally use CitySearch. I think there will always be bad reviews no matter how good most people think the restaurant is. So, no, I don't mind if there are bad reviews as long as the majority of them are good.