How do you choose new restaurants to try?

At 10:15, Kerri is joined by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Lenny Russo to discuss restaurant reviewing. When anyone can set themselves up as a reviewer on crowd-sourced sites like Yelp, who do you trust?

Do you mainly trust the professionals, word-of-mouth, or a particular site? Why?

And what new restaurants do you like?

–Stephanie Curtis, social media host

About the blogger

Stephanie Curtis

scurtis@mpr.org • @stephcurtis

Stephanie Curtis has produced events, daily news shows, documentaries, conferences and call-ins for MPR News. She also was among the pioneering producers who launched The Current. You can hear her discuss movies every Thursday on The Cube Critics.

Mark H.

I used to be the chief concierge two of the most well-known hotels in downtown Minneapolis. My goal was to eat as anonymously while still having a good relationship with the staff so that I could recommend the restaurant to my guests (and get them in). When they knew who I was, there was sometimes a little too much fawning, so I was not sure if I was getting what considered “normal” service.

Ray

Randall Munroe on XKCD.com has the best take on Star Ratings: http://xkcd.com/1098/
Lucy

I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years. Many upscale restaurants, when I call to make a reservation, glorify their chefs as making the best vegetarian/vegan food. Most of the time, I am thoroughly disappointed- a bunch of steamed veggies, really (Meritage? HEARTLAND is the best Minnesota upscale restaurant for vegetarians. They have a “flora” as well as a “fauna” menu. First and foremost I look at a restaurant’s vegetarian options!
Lucy

(That went out too soon; didn’t mean to dismiss a local restaurant by name a lot of people like.) I also meant to mention that many reviews rarely look at vegetarians.
will

I follow the chefs, rather than the restaurants. Steven Brown, Jack Reibel, Lenny Russo, Doug Flicker, Alex Roberts, Isaac Becker, Matt Bickford Toby Nidetz, Vincent Francoul..etc..You follow the food, the philosophy, the attitude, and this leads you to Picolo, Tilia, Heartland, Be’wiched, Alma, Heidi’s..We have a abundance of good restaurants in the Twin cities, and even a few great ones..and regrettably lots and lots of mediocre ones.
Sam

I read blog posts / newspaper reviews and base my opinion on those. I don’t rule out somewhere neccessarily even if it has got a bad review.