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Find a Great Meal Online: 5 Restaurant Review Sites (Part I)

21.05.12

To select a special restaurant for a birthday or business function, or to satisfy a craving for a certain cuisine, many people used to let their fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or local newspapers. But with a diminishing number of phone directories, shrinking print advertisements, and the rapid turnover in restaurants in a challenging economy, the web has taken over as an easier and far more efficient way to find a great meal at a restaurant or to corroborate word-of-mouth recommendations from friends.

Here are some of my favorite web sites when I'm looking for a great meal, whether at home or abroad:

Open Table

OpenTable is an online reservation system that has been matching diners with seats at restaurant tables across the United States (as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom) since 1998. More than 20,000 restaurants participate in the system, which is free for diners. Because restaurateurs pay a fee for the service, the database tends towards upscale eateries rather than undiscovered hole-in-the-walls. Either online or using a mobile app, users start their search by entering the city where they want to dine and then are able to refine the search by area, price range, and type of cuisine. The service enables users to browse through restaurant profiles and reader reviews for each of the listings. As an added bonus, diners are able to collect points redeemable for future dining vouchers.

Source: LifeGoesStrong