Yelp! Get the local lowdown...

October 5, 2006 at 10:08 AM by cb

Since I only recently moved to Chapel Hill, any information I can get about the area is helpful. Yesterday, I discovered Yelp, a website for posting reviews of local restaurants, attractions, businesses, etc. While enormous cultural centers, like New York City, have a much more comprehensive listing of reviews (for example, over 4500 restaurant reviews and 1034 shopping reviews), even small cities like our own Chapel Hill have a pretty decent amount of their own. By the way, in a span of 10 minutes, the restaurant listings in New York City grew by 200 reviews. Wow! Keep in mind that the reviews are written by all kinds of people with all kinds of points of view, so don't be suprised if someone pans your favorite place to eat or gives that grungy pizza joint that uses fake parmesean cheese top ratings. Incidentally, I checked out the reviews for Penang, a chain of Malaysian and Thai cuisine restaurants that has a branch in Chapel Hill. My wife and I actually lived in Penang, Malaysia, so we decided to try the restaurant out only about a week after having moved back to the US. While we admit that some things were a bit off (Especially the prices- compare Roti Canai, a Malaysian bread and curry dish that sells in Penang for US$0.25 to the American version, which sells for US$4.00!), most likely due to the unavailability of certain ingredients, we were generally impressed with how authentic it actually was. However, most of the reviewers don't seem to agree. On the other hand, I also checked out the reviews for Carrburitos, a local burrito restaurant that was highly recommended by fellow account manager and gourmet in his own right, Scott McCall. Carrburritos may have only three reviews so far, but they're all good ones. I am sure that at some point someone will feel slighted by the service or maybe even find a hair in their guacamole, which may bring down the review average a bit. Even so, I will still recommend it! In addition to reviews, Yelp includes some other neat features like maps that can show the reviewed businesses' locations, as well as the locations of other attractions nearby. Reviewers can create profiles, personal lists of reviews, and even communicate through the site. If your town has no listings, take it upon yourself to trailblaze and write the first review!

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