Is Tripadvisor rubbish for food recommendations?

A recent Tripadvisor poll has London down as the worst European city to dine out in, closely followed by Liverpool and Birmingham.

I must admit I was kind of shocked to read this, but then I tought the poll, based on 3,000 respondents, may be measuring stereotypes about British food rather than actual realities. I've lived in London for five years or so, and it is one of my favourite cities in the world to dine out in - not at least because you can get real quality food without spending a fortune.

Katie Parla suggests that Tripadvisor may in fact be rubbish for food recommendations. As her I find it useful for researching accommodation, in fact I find it invaluable for this purpose. If I'd only listened to user reviews of the place I stayed on my last trip to London in June I'd found a place much more gentle on my back (which sort of tied itself in a knot after sleeping three nights on a very hard bed). But food?

"...when it comes to food, I cannot think of a worse source of information. I am constantly perturbed by their Rome restaurant rankings, which place some of the most ridiculous tourist traps near the top of the list. Tripadvisor once again offended my dining sensibilities earlier this week I read this news item. According to 3,000 readers, London ‘has worst food in Europe’. This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Just because visitors didn’t take the time to research their dining options, doesn’t mean London, one of the greatest places to eat on the planet, should be punished," she writes, and goes on to suggest a few reasons the Tripadvisor poll is rubbish.

Miraculously, of the many excellent-sounding places she suggests, I've only tried The Wells, a gastro pub in Hampstead which Cathy had a lovely review of recently. I love gastro pubs though, they are such good value for money, and I enjoyed a rather sophisticated take on fish and chips at The Flask (one of my favourite gastro pubs) in Highgate when I was in London in June:

Other favourites are Restaurant Ran in Great Marlborough Street (runs paralell to Oxford Street), which serves excellent Korean food, good value for money, prepared on open barbeques on your table; Yauatcha in Soho (Hakkasan's little brother), which serves divine dim sum and fantasticly refreshing tea cocktails to reasonable prices, and Loch Fyne, which has some really great Scottish seafood with a terrific wine and whisky menu.

I must admit I've never dined at the current London restaurant of Loch Fyne, which is situated in Gracechurch street,  Leadenhall Market, in the city, but I loved the one that used to be in Crouch End - a great place for good restaurants - and I've also had an enchanted experience dining in a Loch Fyne in Basingstoke, slightly north of London, with good colleagues. There are many other good restaurants in London of course - I also love The Baltic (Polish), at Southwark, the one in Petersham Hotel, Greenwhich, and the restaurant in the cellar at The Bleeding Heart, Clerkenwell - but these are the first that spring to mind now.

As for Liverpool I've mostly been living on the cheap when I've visited friends there, and it's a great city to do just that. I love Lark Lane, but it's cheap, cheerful and relaxed more than anything else. Alma de Cuba , located in one of Merseysides oldest churches, is an amazing place, and has a great Rum menu, but I've never had anything to eat there. Still, I like the look of all the reastaurant concepts by the guy who designed the place, and though his name escapes me right now I've also heard great praise for his restaurant in the docks, PanAmerican...

For the record: in a previous life (2005 - 2007) I used to do PR for VisitBritain.

Comments

[Phil Graham]

I agree totally. In the reviews for our home town of Alençon in Normandy, one of the "top rated restaurants" is actually a bakery, it only got a ranking as a restaurant on TA because someone rated their croissants!

If the restaurant reviews are generally rubbish, the "polls" are even worse as they are just a bunch of people who choose to respond. Most of them haven't a clue about the places they are rating. But TA churns out these useless polls on a weekly basis just for publicity.

Phil

[Kristine Lowe]

Ah, that's illuminating. I'm only familiar with Tripadvisor as a great source for hotel reviews (as in: to get an indication of what those who've stayed at a certain hotel think about it), and only stumbled across this poll by chance. I had no idea they churned them out on a weekly basis