Andrew Zimmern Finds Yelp ‘Useless’

Andrew Zimmern, a man who spends much of his life traveling the world in search of delicious things to eat, has absolutely no use for Yelp. In the past, the Bizarre Foods host has advocated for using social media and local publications to find restaurant tips, and now, in a new video from Business Insider, he further outlines why the crowd-sourced review site is not a helpful resource for people like him:

I think Yelp is neither good nor bad for the food industry. I find it useless. If you're aggregating a lack of expertise, then when I plug in “best sushi bar in Los Angeles,” Yelp doesn't help me at all. So, if you are a huge food geek like me that really believes in quality — not expensive food, just quality. Above all other things — quality. If you're into quality, Yelp is not for you.

Zimmern says that when he’s looking for something good to eat in a city he’s visiting, he checks out the Twitter and Instagram feeds of local food writers and chefs to find out the places and dishes that they’re obsessing over, and he builds his list from there. The author/TV host also remarks: “Yelp’s not even good for looking up the restaurant’s phone number because you know on the site, they just want you to read their reviews and look at their ads.“

• ‘Yelp drives me crazy’ — Andrew Zimmern goes on an epic rant against the restaurant review site [Business Insider]
• Andrew Zimmern on the Power and Problems of Yelp [E]