Can You Really Trust All Those Glowing Google Maps Restaurant Reviews?

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TheGrest@reddit

I’m asking this honestly, I’m a fan of op’s work.

Does D Mag advertising sales team ever contact restaurants or businesses currently on or nominated for one of their ‘lists’, or maybe one that could expect to be reviewed or nominated?

Is it typical for a restaurant that gets lots of coverage in D to not purchase that advertising and to remain in high coverage?

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

Happy to go through it, I know we have a "reputation."

For the annual big Best Of list, we editors get in a room and argue about what should win the best, divvy up the categories, and start choosing our winners. I'll usually go spend a couple hundred bucks brushing up on something where I haven't eaten around as much lately. (This year probably Chinese - lot of new places.) Then we finish writing and submitting our winners several months before the issue comes out (December this year).

The next step is a little trickier. They give the list of winners to sales, and sales calls up each winner to ask if they (a) want to advertise that they won, (b) want to serve food at the Best Of party we throw. If they say no, they still win. We also mail out packets with congrats letters, certificates, and the little stickers that people put in their windows. Our decision is final, they can tell us to get F'd and they still win.

For my everyday articles - reviews, online lists, etc. etc. - that's 95% me driven and 5% an editor telling me "it's time for you to do BBQ/brunch/whatever." Sales MIGHT be telling people that they could get their name in front of me, but I don't have contact with them, don't have meetings with them, all I know is there's a gal in sales who makes great snickerdoodles. I also recently heard that our office manager will score free lunch for the office on the promise of social posts, ad placement, and "being in front of our dining critic," but (whispers) I usually go out on the free lunch days.

P.S. The most I ever got in trouble for a review was at the Dallas Observer - I said something mean about Bud Light and they changed it to Miller Lite because Bud was sponsoring an Observer concert.

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fiscalpolicy@reddit

Very interesting, thanks for sharing all of this! I've always been intrigued by how some of that stuff works

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StrangeLingonberry28@reddit

I don’t trust reviews, I’ve been jaded many times trying new places. Either people like bad food or it’s fake, when it’s really bad I feel obligated to leave an honest review hoping it saves others from wasting time and money

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

It’s me, the town food critic, back with some weird news: The top-rated Tex-Mex restaurant in Dallas is Rj Mexican Cuisine. It has 11,252 Google Maps reviews, more than Mia’s, Mariano’s, E Bar, and Las Palmas combined. Its 4.8 star average is higher than any of them.

But I had never heard of it and I bet you haven’t either. As one former customer told me, the manager offered a 10% discount for a Google review, then stood over him and made him change his review to 5 stars. I found 22 more reviews where the writers say they were offered free dessert or even free tequila shots for 5 star reviews. Plus a 5 star review that says Rj can resurrect dead dogs.

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joewHEElAr@reddit

Glad to see you’re still doing good!

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fallenKlNG@reddit

I’d probably do it then just change it later after I leave

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Red_RingRico@reddit

At least Google reviews seem to be real. Sure, in this instance there’s some coercion going on, but it’s an outlier. Yelp makes business owners pay in order for them to post good reviews, and they can pay to scrub bad reviews.

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WestHistorians@reddit

Yelp makes business owners pay in order for them to post good reviews, and they can pay to scrub bad reviews.

No, they don't. There has never been any proof of that. It's mostly business owners getting bad reviews and blaming Yelp rather than themselves.

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FunctionOk7124@reddit

Bribed reviews are still better than completely fake ones from review farms. I’ve seen several restaurants around the metro suddenly get a wave of reviews from accounts with fewer than 10 total reviews, often posting about businesses all over the world in the same week. It’s even harder to judge credibility when those reviewers make their profiles private.

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TexasReallyDoesSuck@reddit

hell naw Google reviews are 100% fake too

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

Yelp is an outright scam.

I have seen some Dallas-area restaurants in past years buy fake Google reviews from spambots. You can usually tell because they don't write any notes, just 5 stars, and they're from some random country like Madagascar.

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CrimsonSirenX@reddit

Yo you should go check out Jack Ruby's basically next door to RJ's! I work down in that area and had never even heard of it until I saw a video from D Magazine a few weeks ago. That place is an absolute GEM. The food is great, and even if it wasn't I'd probably still go there just because the staff is so awesome. The manager is probably the nicest guy I've ever met. The Thai place right there is great too!

Glad you're shining light on this. My boss drags us to RJ's a few times a month and we all hate it, but it's a quick walk from the office and I guess he's a sucker for overpriced bland Mexican food.

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

The manager of Jack Ruby's actually sent me an email of thanks this afternoon. He does seem really nice! I'm proud of our city that we have a Jack Ruby's and a Lee Harvey's.

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Jay_LV@reddit

I went to a sushi restaurant the other day, it shall go unnamed. It was NOT good. They had tons of 5 star reviews. At the end of the meal, the owner, who was very sweet (but pushy) offered us free dessert in exchange for a 5 star review. I politely declined, she gave us the free dessert anyways.

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Delicious_Hand527@reddit

I went to Fogo De Chao the other day, and they offered free desert for a 5 star review. Seems common now.

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

hah - I'd love to write the next article about them!

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NoImTheOneWhoKnocks@reddit

Why keep it unnamed though? It just perpetuates the false image the restaurant is cultivating online, one which already fooled you.

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BusterSmash@reddit

RJ’s is literally Nextdoor to where I work. There are far better Mexican spots than RJ’s.

Also, eat at Jack Ruby’s in west end

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SuretyBringsRuin@reddit

RJ, because of the location in West End and space, gets a ton of business/convention traffic and they are average at best (from a local perspective). So, I assume they are leveraging that traffic for reviews.

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1uno124@reddit

It's a waste of time generally; trying to figure out whether or not a review is real & unpaid isn't worth it.. nevermind the fact that you're taking an opinion from someone with no idea of whether or not the taste buds of the opinion match up with yours

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SubstantialPoet8468@reddit

Cant trust the Oak’d BBQ on 5500 Greenville. That place SUCKS

Slow service, cold food, ass-tier quesadillas/brisket/mac/etc.

Place has 4.4 rating with over 2,000 reviews. How? They bribe you with dessert if you leave a rating. Fuckem.

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cam1911@reddit

I think I’ve been there 3 times and each time BBQ was dry.

Had the brisket twice, a rib which was good but expensive, and a brisket sandwich that I had to smother in BBQ sauce due to dryness.

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is_the_grass_greener@reddit

I wanted to try this and your comment has deterred me. It is pretty expensive too

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Fatun3rd@reddit

It was good, but there's plenty of better BBQ places across DFW.

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SubstantialPoet8468@reddit

Good. Go literally anywhere else lol.

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Dalamonee@reddit

I ordered Oak’d BBQ on uber eats and it was terrible!! I cant believe that place is still open

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SubstantialPoet8468@reddit

It was terrible in the restaurant, cant imagine uber eats was any better

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Apprehensive-Taco406@reddit

Oak'd BBQ is really horrible! Totally agree. I have been there a couple times and the food really sucked. I am so glad someone else thinks this way.

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SubstantialPoet8468@reddit

FYI: People have said the other oakd location is better

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Jay_LV@reddit

I've eaten at the one on Belt Line a couple times. The food is OK, the restaurant itself is fantastic, like it's the kinda place you'd want to go hang out on a Saturday and watch games and have some beers along with your BBQ..

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kchessh@reddit

Agreed. Only meat I really liked was the brisket, which was pretty good. Whenever people mention going there I just go along with it, but I wouldn’t go on my own accord

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quikmantx@reddit

Honestly, no.

I stopped using Google Maps reviews ages ago. Too many fake reviews mixed with real reviews.

Plus most of the time a restaurant tries to push for customer reviews in exchange for a free dessert, drink or whatever, they are pushing you to Google over Yelp, TripAdvisor or any of the others. It's heavily implied they want a 5 star review for the incentive, and I'm guessing most people don't care enough about the obvious gamification to alter the reviews/ratings later.

I mostly use various recent pictures of the restaurant's food from their website, social media, and Yelp/Google/Bing/TripAdvisor and others as an idea of what to expect. Word of mouth from people I know and trust goes a longer way than random ratings/reviews on Google.

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

Agreed, recent photos is the one tab I use on Google Maps for restaurants.

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YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit

I always look through reviews to see what’s up. You can tell very quickly if they’re fake, coerced, etc.

This goes for apartment complexes as well! Look at how many glowing reviews are usually from people with few reviews, often just commenting on how they took a tour of the building but don’t actually live there. That and mentioning the leasing staff by name; that’s almost definitely a red flag. I’ve lived in a ton of corporate apartment buildings, I couldn’t tell you the name of any of the leasing agents and if I reviewed a building I wouldn’t mention them because who the hell cares? I’m gonna talk about responsiveness to repairs, safety, and build quality. Not how friendly someone I will hopefully only deal with twice (moving in and moving out) was.

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

I didn't realize what a red flag it is to see staff's names in reviews until now, but now I'll always be looking out for that.

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Pvt_Mozart@reddit

I've worked in restaurants my entire life. People name dropping their server in reviews is super common. I do it for every review I do, since I know it helps. I wouldn't look at that as a barometer of a genuine review at all tbh.

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mattgoldey@reddit

If I have particularly good service, I try to include the server's name in the review with the hope that their boss will see it.

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call_me_Kote@reddit

I call out staff often in my genuine google reviews, especially if service is part of the reason I am leaving that review. :(

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

Changing it to a yellow flag! It's pretty obvious if it's a few people vs. a hundred

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AlbinoAlex@reddit

That and mentioning the leasing staff by name

My shitty apartment had all these glowing reviews about the leasing agent, in reality she was an absolute cunt. Genuinely one of the rudest people I’ve ever met with an air of why are you wasting my time? anytime you’d come with anything at all.

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

I’ve had multiple bad reviews I’ve written erased from Google. So, no. I tend to give two stars instead of one, and still rip them apart in my writing. That helps sometimes.

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SuretyBringsRuin@reddit

It’s a mostly mixed bag. There are so many places these days that are getting or already are pushy about getting a good review and make offers to do so (free dessert, free app, save $, etc.).

There are clearly places where you can almost tell it’s friends/family of owners commenting too many superlatives.

We tend to look at reviews and read through recent ones to see if they seem authentic and honest. If so, then we act accordingly. If not, we exclude it unless and until we come across a good online article somewhere that’s from a more trusted source.

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quikmantx@reddit

This is why I primarily pick Yelp over Google. Noticeably less fake ratings/reviews. Yelp is a poorly managed business, but at least most of the ratings/reviews seem legit.

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CaptZ@reddit

I'm a top 10% reviewer of restaurants and other places I go to. I critique based on my opinions and they could be wrong. But I'm honest as to that specific visit. You can trust my review based on my honest opinion and the time I went.

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w6750@reddit

Brasao in Las Colinas did something similar as well

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ChefMikeDFW@reddit

Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see (IRL). Online reviews are word of mouth and can only be trusted as a possible baseline.

If you leave it there, reviews have very little value and you'll save yourself stress and disappointment.

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KTX77@reddit

I discount reviews where the person only has a couple reviews. Especially if they only have the one review I'm looking at.

Also, when you see multiple reviews around the same timeframe that commend a specific server, it's a sure sign of friends trying to help out a friend.

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medisamurai@reddit

can you really trust dmags best of dallas issues?

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

I write most of the food entries lol. I have never heard about the Denton burger thing the other person is talking about, that must have been 5+ years ago because it was before my time.

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medisamurai@reddit

it was rhetorical. we dont't

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dfwfoodcritic@reddit (OP)

well, at least you told me to my face

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somethink@reddit

Absolutely not. Barley and Board in Denton won best burger 2 yrs in a row, I wasn't that good and a direct copy of every other smash burger being sold in Dallas. The owner has boss hog money and bought the articles. I was the one that coked the burger they reviewed and later ran into the photographer and journalist at Rubber Gloves. According to them it was "pretty good" but no where in that reaction did it once come across as the best they had all year.

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