Can You Trust Restaurant Reviews?

Nancy - Food Critic: Hey, Sylvia, in 1975, the New York Times food

critic won a dinner in Paris with a $300 bid to a public charity auction

$300 for dinner in Paris?

Nancy - Food Critic: I know.

I can't believe it.

But the bill, listen to this one, came to $4,000.

31 dishes, nine wines, and one of them was an 1835 Madeira

I wish I could have been the plus one for that dinner

Nancy - Food Critic: For sure.

but back then the food critic was just one person with a newspaper column, nothing fancy

But now, Yelp has over 330 million reviews

Nancy - Food Critic: Whoa.

So do stars still matter in that case?

Absolutely they do.

A Harvard study found one or more stars on Yelp meant 5 to 9% more money, especially for independent restaurants

Nancy - Food Critic: Whoa.

Oh my God, that is really something.

This season though, we're trying something a little bit new here.

It's called Food Fights

Every episode, we pick an argument people have at the table and trace it back, that history and mystery

Nancy - Food Critic: Mm, that's the part that I like.

So Sylvia, do you remember the food fight in Fried Green Tomatoes?

I do, and I love that one.

. Idgie and Ruth in the Whistle Stop Cafe with flour and blackberries flying,

and the sheriff even gets hit with a big bowl of chocolate frosting.

You know, as a good Southern girl, I love a good fried green tomato.

. I actually make them

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I am not a fan.

I have tried them however as a good New England girl, I will take a bowl

of baked beans and a good homemade black bread anytime over that

Well, they're a great use for tomatoes left at the end of the

season, which is not a big deal here in Florida, but in Omaha, Nebraska it was

Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, my tomatoes usually just dried up and shriveled up at the end of the season on the windowsill.

I can only imagine

Nancy - Food Critic: But take that image out of your mind, folks, and we

wanna thank you for being here because we're glad that you're listening today

If you like what you hear, follow the show and leave a review.

That's how other people find us

Nancy - Food Critic: And so let's give a big shout-out to Norm Dempsey in Sarasota, Florida.

What do you say, Sylvia?

Oh, I love Norman.

He is a super fan.

Not only does he comment on all of our episodes, he sends me food videos all the time.

Nancy - Food Critic: Ah, that's my kind of guy.

So we'd like to hear where you're listening from too

today's fight is ours.

Nancy and I use reviews in completely different ways

Nancy - Food Critic: So ever read a pile of reviews and still not know who to trust?

By the end, you'll know what to look for and why it matters more now that AI can write a review

Nancy - Food Critic: Scandalous for sure.

But first, speaking of scandal, I think we need to have a little bit of a toast

In honor of Iggy and Ruth, tomato juice with a splash of something extra, I think

Oh, are you telling me a Bloody Mary again?

Okay.

Nancy - Food Critic: I'm not gonna stop on that one.

Yes.

to every restaurant that ever got a star and fed us anyway

Nancy - Food Critic: Cheers, and even those that didn't.

I check reviews for everyday meals.

Google, Yelp, sometimes TripAdvisor

Nancy - Food Critic: Everyday meals?

Oh, come on, Sylvia

Hey, I love a good deal.

I like the cost-effective breakfast, lunches, dinners, happy hour deals, and of course, early birds.

, I understand you look when it's only for a hoity-toity expensive dinner

Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, well, if I'm putting out good money, I mean a

lot of good money for a fancy meal, I wanna make sure that it's gonna be good

Miss La-Di-Dah yet again

Nancy - Food Critic: I know.

I am called Fancy Nancy by my friends here in Brooksville.

When I look, I want to find at least three stars.

Then I check the health inspection score.

Yelp shows it for a lot of restaurants now

Nancy - Food Critic: And if there are none there

You can actually call your local health department.

Usually they post them online and sometimes even in the window

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I've seen that up in New York and certainly in Connecticut.

If it's got a C, I'm probably not going in

Smart girl.

Nancy - Food Critic: Or at least if it does have a C and I'm not feeling well the next day, I know why.

But I talked about, Duncan Hines in an earlier show.

You know the guy, Duncan Hines?

Before his name was on the cake box, he actually used to be a traveling

salesman who checked the restaurant kitchens before he went to eat there.

Now, that's a picky eater

That's my kind of guy though.

He just didn't wanna get sick

Nancy - Food Critic: So, but when I'm spending Le Chambord money, I do open Michelin or Fordor's

You know that Michelin was actually a tire company.

In 1900, they gave drivers a free guide with maps, gas stations, and places to eat.

You know those marketers again, , the more you drove, the more tires wore out

Nancy - Food Critic: You know, it's just planned obsolescence.

But for all your checking when we eat together, neither of us are really looking at anything that I think

No, we go somewhere that we know is solid.

Cooper's Hawk is somewhere we frequent

Nancy - Food Critic: I like that place.

Or, the place over by the International Plaza, we know that's pretty solid too

Which is what the Harvard study found out.

Stars didn't matter for chains because people already know what they're getting

Nancy - Food Critic: Standardized meal right across the board.

Kind of boring though

Kinda like McDonald's,

Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah.

it's not hoity-toity.

So who's the toughest critic you eat with?

Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh.

Um, well, that's a tough one, but Bob says it's his brother George, who wouldn't

say a word at a restaurant and then sometimes just makes a face later on

So is George picky or passive aggressive?

Nancy - Food Critic: I don't think he's much of either, but he's been to some pretty interesting places.

His business has been the manufacturing and sourcing industry, so he's been to

Pakistan, Bangladesh, the deep jungles of South America, some backwoods of China.

Yeah, some sketchy places.

So I guess his main concern is that he comes out alive more than anything.

He sounds like a smart dude to me.

So, you know, we know what Bob thinks, so who do you think it is?

Nancy - Food Critic: I think it's Bob.

If I liked a place and he didn't, he'll pitch a fit about going back for sure

And Mine, of course, I know it's hard to fathom, but it's my mom.

She's just such a picky eater, - But it's so funny that every time we suggest a restaurant she goes,

"You know me, I will eat anything," and we all just start laughing.

That's why sh- she ends up picking the restaurant

Nancy - Food Critic: I'm laughing on that one

Visit Tampa Bay paid Michelin about $116,000 a year to come eat here

Nancy - Food Critic: They paid them to come?

I've heard that before, but honestly, that's a lot of dough

Excuse the pun.

Nancy - Food Critic: I know.

And the first year, Miami and Orlando got stars, and Tampa got a big zip zero goose egg

Nancy - Food Critic: Hmm.

Well, zero?

That's pretty embarrassing

I know.

Sounds like always the bridesmaid and never the bride

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, thankfully I have never been a bridesmaid.

Ha ha.

You know, you're really lucky 'cause it's really expensive and all you get for it is a really tacky dress

Nancy - Food Critic: That you'd never wear again, obviously,

Never.

No periwinkle blue.

Mm-mm.

Nancy - Food Critic: well, Florida gets overlooked a lot, , but

we're known best for bar-beach food, not fine dining, you know?

Toes in the sand, glass in the hand.

I'm good with that

. Sylvia France: And inside Florida, Tampa Bay gets overlooked next to Miami and Orlando all the time.

However, Michelin says the money only brings the inspectors to town.

It doesn't buy a star.

I don't believe that.

And you know what?

Inspectors even have to pay for their own meals

Nancy - Food Critic: I'm gonna guess that something has slipped to them under the table or

I would guess too

Nancy - Food Critic: But in New York, the guide that I liked that everybody seemed to get as well, was Zagat's.

The Zagat's were on the local news all the time, and I always listened to what they had to say

Didn't… I understand that they were a husband and wife team and they started with regular diners, didn't they?

Nancy - Food Critic: They did.

In 1979,- they actually started with their own wine tasting group.

Every big publisher turned them down when they tried to create and publish their own book, and then companies started

buying their books by the boxes , as gifts for their clients and employees.

They'd print the company name on it on the front cover and make sure the date for that year was on.

So planned obsolescence again

So how many do you think that they published over the years?

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a lot.

But one year apparently Bank of America ordered five million copies.

Can you think?

Uh, I think the copies were somewhere around 29 or $39 a piece

Wow.

And I understand Google bought the whole company in 2011 for $151 million

Nancy - Food Critic: That's a nice retirement package in my book

But I understand, you know, your Michelin's done stranger things than tires.

In 1944, the Allies reprinted a Michelin guide for the invasion of France

Nancy - Food Critic: I hadn't heard that one, but I'm gonna guess it wasn't for restaurants

No, it was for the maps.

And guess what?

They took down the road signs

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, of course, so they could buy the maps

I think to give a decoy so the enemy couldn't find them, and it worked So I have a question.

Who do you actually trust as a critic?

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, depends on whether we're talking formal critic or not.

But on the formal side, my favorite food writer right now is Ruth

Rachel, and I read nearly all her books, not just her reviews.

My favorite is the Paris novel

So I understand she was a New York Times critic

Nancy - Food Critic: Yep, she was.

Restaurants knew her face, and she used to wear wigs and made names for

the characters that she was trying to be when she went out to dinner.

- one story was at Le Cirque, where she went as Molly, a retired teacher from Michigan who was visiting the city

It sounds like she really wanted to be on Broadway to me.

So how was Molly treated?

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a poor teacher from Michigan, , she was treated pretty badly.

And when she went back as herself, guess what?

They treated her like a queen, darling, and she took away one of the restaurant's stars.

I've been to Le Cirque.

I think that was well deserved

I haven't been to Le Cirque.

I'm jealous again.

So your favorite critic proved restaurants treat critics better than mere mortals like us

Nancy - Food Critic: Correct.

I don't think it's fair though

I would totally agree.

Everybody should be equal, especially if you have the money to pay for the expensive dinner.

And the wigs are done.

- In 2025, The Times named two head critics and stopped hiding their faces - because restaurants were spotting them anyway

Nancy - Food Critic: And then, so who are we trusting or who are you trusting?

I go for crowdsourcing myself except I do admit the crowd has let me down a time or two

Nancy - Food Critic: Now give me an example of that one

Well, there was this wonderful seafood Chinese restaurant, and it received a 4.0 on Yelp

Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, I wanna hear that story, 'cause I've got a

Chinese restaurant of my own but we'll tell you more right after the break.

Stay tuned

As a single diner, I was stuck in the corner

under an air conditioner that was actually leaking water

Nancy - Food Critic: So you're kind of like Molly from Michigan, but how was the food?

Was it any good?

I wasn't impressed with that either, but I'm not sure

if it was the drip, drip, drip, drip that I kept hearing as I was eating

Nancy - Food Critic: You know, honestly, I would have walked out, but that's me.

But I also have a Chinese experience too.

Friends told us a place we had to go in town, and Bob and I ordered pad Thai, one of our favorites.

And you know what?

The pad Thai noodles were made with good old Ronzoni spaghetti noodles.

Spaghetti.

. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was from Walmart.

You at least thought it was the high-end stuff.

But If I remember correctly, pad Thai is supposed to have flat rice noodles

Nancy - Food Critic: That's what I thought, but another friend also told us about a different restaurant.

Oh, this case we were looking for Italian.

New to the area, they suggested Carrabba's was the best Italian food they had ever had.

Now, I have to tell you, I'm a little biased.

We are from New York and Connecticut, so I think the best Italian food is from there.

But we could barely get through that meal at Carrabba's without telling each other how sad that recommendation was,

and I know we were thinking twice about the relationship we had with that friend,

both on the Chinese and the Carrabba's.

You should have looked at the reviews first

Nancy - Food Critic: But they were good No accounting for taste here.

Sorry

Well, and you know, that's my worry with reviews too.

Plenty of them come from people who like bad food because they

just don't know any different, especially if they love Italian food

Nancy - Food Critic: You know, I'm beginning to think that we're a bit

of food snobs, but on that note, if we are, what do you check for now?

I always look for how many reviews there are.

I want at least 50.

I want them recent and not from years ago

Nancy - Food Critic: So can you give me an idea of else you look for?

Oh, I love the pictures of the food and the room

and mostly good reviews, , but a bad one or two doesn't scare me.

It means actually a real person wrote the review

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, I would think a real person would've written the review

Well, Yale actually tested that.

They showed 151 people real Yelp reviews mixed with ones written by AI

Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, that's getting sneaky.

I didn't realize that AI was actually getting involved in food reviews or restaurant reviews today

Yes, and only one in six of them got 16 out of the 20 right.

And in 2025, Yelp filtered out nearly a half a million reviews that looked like AI wrote them.

Nancy - Food Critic: You know, interestingly enough, there's a few AI podcasts written out there

too - But I understand fake reviews aren't even legal anymore

Nope, not since 2024.

The FTC banned faked reviews, including ones written by AI, and businesses that buy them can be fined

Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, do you know

That's, we'll put it in the show notes.

. Nancy - Food Critic: And Google

On Google Maps, AI will sum up a restaurant's reviews

for you, so some people never even read a real review at all

Nancy - Food Critic: Ah, , so Google Gemini, I guess, is doing that for us instead

Yes, some people like to take the easy

way out

Nancy - Food Critic: yeah, I'm not sure I would trust a, computer who'd

never even eaten anything before to do a review on a restaurant for me

You'll also see it all over the internet that people post 26,000 Yelp reviews a minute

Nancy - Food Critic: Oh my God, homeny?

Well, at that speed, Yelp would pass its whole 330 million in about nine days.

The number goes back to a data company's marketing graphic from around 2017

Nancy - Food Critic: You know, I love data, but I think that's pushing it

what I wish is every review told me where to park

Nancy - Food Critic: Okay, that I would agree with.

Downtown Tampa and even getting into Manhattan is crazy.

But we ate downtown not too long ago together before a podcast meeting,

and happily at a wonderful Japanese restaurant that I had eaten at before

- Sylvia France: And what was really great, it was around the corner, so we only had to park once

Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, but we unfortunately took the long route around to find the door.

We had on flats, so quit complaining

Nancy - Food Critic: But when I wrote a bad review myself, the

crowd came running after me with pitchforks, uh, and maybe burning forks

So wasn't that the coffee place?

Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, it was, and here's what happened.

Bob and I decided to stop into this new drive-in coffee place with the name on top

of the drive-through that said name and the word brew, right in lit up letters.

And we asked the young woman who's outside helping us with orders for a coffee, a plain hot coffee.

She looked at us for a couple of seconds, kinda bewildered, and then said, "Oh, we don't serve coffee."

At a place called Brew

Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah.

Can you get that threw me for a loop.

Both of us kinda looked at each other bewildered.

But I decided to put a little social experiment out there on Facebook - and the solution to the coffee that

we were looking for . We just drove across the street to Dunkin'.

Believe it or not, strangers went after my butt like you wouldn't believe it.

Including that I didn't know how to offer coffee, my age, my fat butt, so they thought.

They didn't even see my butt.

And that I should take my car and drive over to McDonald's and get a senior discount instead.

Wait a second.

That was just terrible, and they weren't even talking about coffee anymore

Nancy - Food Critic: No, nasty.

Totally nasty.

But here's another one that I also thought was nasty, not to me, but to somebody else, a poor waitress.

A woman who I recently met who had been a manager for 23 years at one

of those big food chains - and been moved around to different locations.

Well, at this one steak restaurant, apparently a 16-year-old was out with her mother, and the 16-year-old pitched, I'll

be polite, a fit, a hissy fit because her mother's steak was not cooked properly

that sounds, like, overboard since all she really had to do was to send it back

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, a 16-year-old obviously doesn't understand that.

But the waitress was young and new on the job and apparently went back to the kitchen just in tears because

the daughter tore into her like, I guess this was life-threatening

Over a steak

Nancy - Food Critic: Yeah, . So the manager came out, after cooling her own jets,

And explained to the 16-year-old How she could send the plate back , and ask for it to be done politely.

Then the 16-year-old lit into the manager and said she was gonna drive the company out of business.

Now, this is a national chain.

One 16-year-old, one hissy fit.

Really?

But the manager finally said, " Listen, darling.

This is only over steak and potatoes.

It is not life-threatening

If my 16-year-old would have done that, I would have had their butts

Nancy - Food Critic: I would've done the same.

And if it had been me at 16, we'd never been allowed back at a restaurant again

But I did hear how Bebe was not a good hostess, so same kind of thing

Nancy - Food Critic: No, she was bad.

But another issue for me is the room matters, the environment.

.. There was a fancy place near us that we went to for an anniversary

dinner, and the food was excellent, but we had another issue

What was wrong with it?

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, we had a delicious meal, but

unfortunately the place was kind of like our grandmother's parlor.

Uh, and my grandmother's been long gone, so you can imagine what that was like.

- But it felt like there was an inch of dust on the drapes.

I don't think that was really true, but it just had a little dirty, kind of feel about it.

And all the customers came in in T-shirts and jeans.

All right, they were clean.

But maybe I'm a snob.

If you're going out to a nice, fairly expensive meal, I think you should dress at least better than jeans and sneakers

Well, I'll vouch for you.

You're not a snob.

But I do think dress code matters, except on the beach

Nancy - Food Critic: I agree, although maybe a pedicure helps.

Well, there's nothing better than eating your dinner, watching the sunset with sand in between my toes.

The bar food even tastes great, but maybe it's because I've had a glass of wine or two as well

Nancy - Food Critic: I know.

As long as there's a glass in my hand, I'm good.

.. But I usually like the environment as long as the food is good

And in Rome, I understand you had both

Nancy - Food Critic: We did.

Oh my God.

I was with my mom on a girls trip, and we were having our last meal in

Rome at the top of a little boutique hotel overlooking the Colosseum.

It was absolutely magical

So what did you have?

Please do tell

Nancy - Food Critic: it was a very simple meal, but it was so interesting and delicious.

It was a pasta dish, fresh pasta, with tuna and a lavender sauce.

And the wine, spectacular.

The chef came out under my request, I had to ask, and gave me the recipe, which I have not been able to recreate.

I did try.

And also gave us the name of the wine, which Bob and I have bought back here as well

It sounds like the perfect ending for such a special vacation

Nancy - Food Critic: It was.

And I have to say, the wine doesn't taste quite as good back in the States as it did there

That's not surprising.

So who wins?

Your guide or my daily Yelp?

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, for a big fancy dinner, I'm still opening Michelin or Four Doors

. Sylvia France: And I'm still checking before I go anywhere

Nancy - Food Critic: No, I'm not gonna check the dive, so we're fine.

But then let's settle it.

, Next time we're downtown for another meeting, you pick the place your way, and I'll pick another one the next time my way

and we'll report back, and we'll let you know where we ended up going

.. Nancy - Food Critic: Yes, we'll let you know in our Facebook group.

- So five things to take with you before we go.

One, look for more than 50 reviews if you want to be like Sylvia, and make sure that they're recent

Everybody wants to be like Sylvia.

two, check the photos and the health score.

Yelp shows the score for a lot of places

Nancy - Food Critic: Three, a bad review or two is just fine, but remember, AI can write one now

too, and most people can't tell the difference between human and non-human

Four, a guide only covers the places it was brought to.

No stars doesn't mean the food is not good

Nancy - Food Critic: Five, if the view made the meal special, say so in your review

Okay, it's time for another toast.

To tomato juice again

Nancy - Food Critic: And I'm getting the vodka.

, To the meals where the place and the people did half the cooking or made them just a little bit more tasty

Santé to health

Nancy - Food Critic: Cheers.

So do us all a favor and everybody else who's listening, and tell us the worst restaurant recommendation you've ever got.

You can find us on Facebook at Family Tree Food Stories or let us know on our podcast page, Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com

And if you liked this one, of course, leave us a review

Nancy - Food Critic: Yes.

Not an AI one, please.

And next time on our food fights…

we're gonna be having a food fight about retro foods

Nancy - Food Critic: Ooh, I can't wait for that one.

I've got my list starting already

you already told me that your fondue forks were out

so be kind to your waiter, happy cooking, and happy experimenting

Nancy - Food Critic: Like, give me an extra shot of vodka.

You need a piece of bacon in it or celery

Nancy - Food Critic: Celery yes,, yes.

Bacon, no.

That's a Southern thing.

. Nancy - Food Critic: I've never heard of bacon

Oh, they have it all the time.

There's a beach bar here that for $5 you get a glass and you can make your own bloody Mary, . you know, they give

you, like, a shot of vodka, and you, can put celery, you can put bacon, you can put all kinds of schmutz in your Mary

Nancy - Food Critic: I've never heard of bacon and Bloody Mary, but

It's a Southern thing.

They're not gonna do that in hoity-toity New York

Nancy - Food Critic: Well, they do some other strange things in New York, but they'll probably put caviar on top.

A little extra dash of salt.