I am in the process of building a local restaurant review site. My area has very few and wanted some input.
The main page will be mostly a blog detailing food releated events in the area as well as links to the latest few reviews with an archive of all past reviews easily available. Each review will be on a standardized page including pictures of the establishment and sample menus as well as details of the reviewers experiences.
What are some examples of details that you have found lacking when you went looking for restaurant suggestions on the internet in your area?
I like it when the reviewer indicates state of the bathrooms. Yes, it’s not the reason to pick a restaurant. But I’m going to go there at least once during my visit; a dirty, tiny bathroom will make me wonder what state the kitchen is in.
Something that might be fun and increase readership…you could have some sort of a drawing and choose someone from your audience to be a guest reviewer with you maybe once a month. Might be fun!
Noise level is very important to some people. I know my father hates restaurants that have blaring music and too much hustle and bustle. If you’re trying to do a romantic meal, The Cheesecake Factory would not be the place to do it.
Make sure you have forums so that readers can input their opinions of local dining establishments. A site I frequent is atlantacuisine.com which combines reviews with menu listings with forums since it is impossible for one person to keep current on EVERY resto in the area.
I’d like to see hours posted. So many times, I don’t know when a restaurant opens for dinner. I can’t call them to find out, because they don’t answer their phone except when someone’s there. By the time someone’s there, it’s too late to make plans for dinner that night.
And, if they’re open for lunch on a weekend, state if the meal is truly a lunch or just that godawful excuse to get rid of leftovers, “brunch”.
Price ranges for appetizers, entrees and desserts.
Whether or not smoking is allowed, and if so, if there’s adequate separation between sections.
No alcohol, beer & wine only, or full bar.
Whether or not they have vegetarian and/or vegan options, and if so, how robust are the choices.
Piggybacking on Noone Special: depending on location, whether or not they validate parking.
Ownership status: independently owned; part of a local or regional chain; part of a national chain; franchise; unique but owned by a hospitality giant, etc.
Wow lots of great responses, already had most of them covered.
Handicapped access is one I had not thought of.
Vegan options (adding to list now)
I like the guest reviewer idea, sounds kinda fun. Since I am planning on this being a pseudo secret shopper type of thing I’m not sure how well that might go over.
I could always ask for donations of a gift certificate as prizes for readers.
Ownership is a great idea especially for those who like to support local business.
I second the message board part. Or maybe have a special blog type section for locals to do their own reviews, in a section that clearly indicates that they aren’t affiliated with the site.
And be sure that you have a comments system in place for all reviews. This is actually a really good idea, I wonder if my newspaper would like to do something similar…Or maybe I’d do it on my own. I mean, I love eatin’.
Honestly it sounds like fun part time work, mainly in the form of scoring a few free dinners for me and Mrs Drach.
The only compensation I am asking for from the restaraunts desiring a review on the site is a cover letter or gift certificate for a comped meal, which we will come in and redeem at an undisclosed time to perform the review. We will be doing reviews of other places but at the same time, it will be far more cost effective to review the places where we have been “invited”. Eventually I figure affilliate ads and such will be the primary revenues, web costs are buried in my primary business hosting account so the page itself will cost only a $15-20/month to operate including a business licence and fict business name. Shouldn’t be too hard to get some decent traffic going within a year or so.
Once we have revealed ourseves we will snap a few pix of the place, collect up any other information relevant info then go post our review. Figure if I can do a couple a week I can save thousands a year in groceries :D.
Using the blogger tools through godaddy.com you can easily have something up and running in a weekend. Legal/city paperwork in a few weeks. Maybe I need to come up with a cool base name and we can start franchising :D.
You could also probably justify deducting some mighty fine dinners from your taxable income.
Next of course will be the cruise line review site
