I'm trying to find decent places to eat without ending up disappointed. Lately I've seen some restaurants that look promising online but then turn out to be total letdowns. What are the signs I should look for to figure out if it's actually worth going?
I've been in that same situation plenty of times, and eventually I figured out that nice photos online mean nothing if the place turns out to be disappointing. What actually works is looking at reviews, but not all the same way. If you see a restaurant with only super high ratings, they're almost always fake, so be skeptical. Look instead for ones with an honest average like 4 out of 5, where you find both positive comments and constructive criticism. Read especially the recent comments, because a restaurant can change a lot over time - maybe they switched chefs or the quality dropped.
Another signal I always use is checking whether people actually go there, not just for an ad photo. If the restaurant has up-to-date social media pages with real customers eating, if you see stories of people going back, that's a good sign. The menu is worth checking out beforehand too: a serious restaurant has prices that match what they offer, and the menu doesn't change in some weird way every week. If they do everything badly, better run away.
The last trick is calling them directly on the phone, like an hour before rush time. If they answer right away and are willing to give you info, they're people who care about service. If nobody picks up or they seem annoyed, the service will probably be terrible anyway. And if you really need to make a good impression, go somewhere already tested by people you know, don't just trust algorithms and influencers.
In my opinion, the trick is to go in person once without high expectations, maybe at an odd hour when the place isn't packed! That way you really see how they operate and whether the quality holds up, not when they've got 50 covers and the chef is stressed out. Reviews on Google and TripAdvisor give you an idea, sure, but with edited photos and fake comments these days it's hard to tell what's real. And if the restaurant has a decent number of specific negative reviews (like "food was cold," "rude staff") instead of generic ones, that's a red flag!
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