Trip Advisor Review

anewme

Interesting reply from the owner of Ouzo's restaurant to a scathing Trip Advisor Review.

I saw a C4 documentary last year about people who go around as self appointed food critics threatening people with bad reviews. Felt sorry for some of the people running the Restaurants I have to say.

I have eaten in Ouzo's and have always loved it.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/read-a-dublin-restaurant-owners-perfect-response-to-an-awkward-customer-284923.html

GrahamThomas

the odd useful review on that website is inevitably buried amongst shill posts or overblown rants from people with with an undeserved sense of entitlement because "I'm from Trip Advisor!"

If you have a genuine grievance with a restaurant, nothing wrong with making a complaint. A polite yet firm email to the owners would be the best way to start, IMO. Ranting from a soapbox really won't solve anything.

suicide_circus

I can just imagine the type of bint that reviewer is.

bizzyb

All tripadvisor is, is a cancer in the hospitality industry.

Tom Dunne

I have lost faith in TripAdvisor reviews.

I firmly believe they are written by people focused on price and not quality.

anewme

It's terrible though that someone can feel they are entitled to destroy someone's business that they have worked their backsides off to keep open with false and unjust reviews, if they feel they are not made a fuss of.

The C4 Documentary I watched followed trip advisor reviewers as they visited a number of different restaurants. These reviewers were horrible people and actually had the owners (a lovely couple) of one Gastropub in tears with their bullying attitude, when the restaurant bent over backwards for them. It was pure bullying and these people should not be allowed get away with it.

Good on Ouzo's for fighting back.

Faith

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I have lost faith in TripAdvisor reviews.

I firmly believe they are written by people focused on price and not quality.

When we were living in north wales, the top restaurant on trip advisor had such convincing reviews that we went to try it for lunch. It was a horrible, dingy greasy spoon caff. The service was terrible and the food was only alright. It was so disappointing that I went back on trip advisor and left a review saying 'I have no idea what all these other reviews are banging on about'. It was definitely a case of price over quality.

Krusty_Clown

The reviews for Ouzos on TripAdvisor suggest:
Excellent - 72
Very good - 39
Average - 6
Poor - 3
Terrible - 2
With a ranking of 6th/20 restaurants in Dalkey. That would suggest it's pretty highly rated on TripAdvisor.

So does the system work? I'd suggest that if you can look beyond the outliers, it's better than nothing. It's pretty easy to spot the 'staff, friends and family' reviews. If heading to a foreign city, it's better than randomly picking a place to eat from scratch. If shopping local, use more local information/sources.

Toto Wolfcastle

I'd never heard of Ouzos before I saw that response but after reading it I'd certainly consider going there. The owners seem like decent people.

I know someone who is a local expert on Tripadvisor and who goes out of their way to show people around his local area when they visit but I still don't trust it fully. There are a lot of dicks out there who like to complain about every little thing.

dudara

Any kind of website that allows public comment will suffer from this. it's not just Tripadvisor, but also Yelp, Menupages etc. In fact, I have so little faith in "crowd sourced" reviews that I will add "-tripadvisor -menupages -yelp" to any Google search that I do.

I've used Tripadvisor sparingly in the past when visiting new places. I've been so disappointed with the so-called No 1s. Tripadvisor is a system, and those venues that game the system win. Doesn't mean that they are the best restaurants, just those that play the system the best.

Blisterman

I think it can be useful. Basically, you just need to look for the balanced reviews and ignore:
1. Glowingly positive reviews where everything is listed as perfect. Often in broken english.
2. Self entitled reviews from with statements like "I have never been so badly treated in my life".

That been said, I find a much better system for finding a decent restaurant is to look for "best (style) restaurants in (city)", and looking for foodie blogs.

jam_mac_jam

I think its quite useful, if somewhere only has one or two bad reviews you would generally overlook them as there are always cranks. I generally find when away when I vist somewhere with good reviews its usually fairly good. You can tell by the reviews anyway how much of a crank they are, one star because your scampi wasn't hot enough would indicate a crank.

Better then some of the other sites where they only put up good reviews.

Mediocre or bad restaurants don't like them because they can't treat customers badly any more and get away with it. Most good restaurants and hotels TripAdvisor will bring more business then less.

Melendez

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