Whether you travel for work or fun, to seek adventure or to get away from your troubles, some things are always necessary: You need a place to lay your head and you need food in your belly. There are hundreds of articles on finding good lodging, as well as dozens of websites dedicated to helping you find the best deals on a hotel. Finding good restaurants isn’t quite as easy. But then again, it’s really not that tough….
Yelp– This is my first stop when looking for restaurants in a new city. While the site has been plagued with stories about “review fixing” and some venues get bad reviews posted unfairly, I think those cases are few and far between. Pick the city you’re going to, sort the results by highest rated, and adjust the map to the region where you’re going to be. If your trip is going to be focused on one part of town, there’s no sense in having search results across the entire city. But check the entire city’s results anyway, so you know what the best restaurants are; there might be one that’s worth going out of your way for. You can also filter based on price range, so you know what you’re getting.
The Michelin Guide– Despite the fact that this is probably one of the worst designed sites I’ve seen since GeoCities in the 90’s, this is your default stop for all of the Michelin starred restaurants in your city. Some Yelp reviews will mention that a restaurant is starred, but you won’t find it on the Michelin site. I’m not sure why that is. Either they lost a star, the reviewer was optimistic about the food, or the Michelin site is outdated. Anything’s possible, but I figure that if it’s on the Michelin site, it must be legit.
TripAdvisor– TripAdvisor is a good way to see restaurant rankings, although these appear to be based on the reviews on TripAdvisor, which could be slanted. Regardless, there’s usually some good information here and it’ll add to your list of places to check out.
A couple of other tips:
– When you’re looking at review sites, sort by the most recent. A restaurant with 4/5 stars might have seen a recent turnover in management or ownership that has completely changed the quality of the food.
– Talk to the hotel staff. Ask them where they like to eat. They’ll be more likely to tell you about the hole in the wall that’s just like momma’s cooking rather than the fancy place with the great sunset view. Not that the latter won’t be good, but it may not be as authentic as you could get.
– Get away from the beaten path. One of the best meals I had in Cozumel was found by getting out of the tourist areas and walking around. I speak enough Spanish that I can get away with it, but the food was exponentially better than Señor Frogs. Never mind the fact that I got Montezuma’s Revenge because I had a soda with ice made from local water. The food was still worth it. Also, leaving the main drag can save you some money.
– During your planning stages, pick a few restaurants that you definitely want to hit and make reservations there. But also, pick several restaurants, diners, and coffee shops in the areas you’re going to be hanging out. Plot them all on a map and save it to your smartphone or print it out. That way, when you’re out and about and you’re feeling peckish, you can easily see what you were interested in that’s local. It’ll let you try some good meals without over-committing to making reservations at every restaurant.
Whether you drop $500 on a fancy meal at a 3-star restaurant or you spend $3 on a local sandwich at a corner deli, that’s entirely up to you. But wherever you are, you want to get the best deal for your money and the best food you can. Life’s too short to eat bad food. With a little planning, you won’t have to.
