Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (1bbqboy)

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:38:41 GMT

I think that's a pretty fair estimation of a place.
My mother always loved coffee after the meal, and
there were lots of lukewarm cups of mud that dampened
the enjoyability of the meal.
Some places always have fresh coffee no matter how close to closing, others
don't think it is worth the effort.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (Cosmos)

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:34:56 GMT

sonjaab

Our local "food critic" for the Syracuse NY Herald-Journal news
named Yolanda Wright (spl) has just retired after many years of harpooning many good resturants over picky things and her continental tastes for obscure food and her love of slurping down bottles of wine on the newspapers tab.
Several resturant associations and owners have offered a reward for her picture but none has ever surfaced..........

I always found Yolanda's reviews fair, she knew her stuff. I didn't always agree with her, but she was fair. She did have a thing for fresh hot coffee at the end of the meal. My former boss knew who she was and alerted a restaurant owner. Her table was mostly through with their meal, but he warned the guy to make sure the coffee was fresh and piping hot..

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (wanderingjew)

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 10:28:21 GMT

stricken_detective

It's also very obvious when he uses the same username at every review website.

Yes, that's a "slam dunk"

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (stricken_detective)

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:51:17 GMT

wanderingjew

stricken_detective

The other thing about Yelp is you don't know who is posting on there. If you Google a certain restaurant's reviews, there should be a few different sites that have them & a few different people reviewing. It doesn't help when you figure out one poster who never has anything negative to say is the owner's brother. That is when I stopped reading Yelp reviews.

True, however the same thing holds true for Roadfood too. As I previously indicated there are select few Roadfood members whose advise I will take in a heartbeat, however a random poster (and I don't mean a fly by night poster, I'm referring to regular posters)will either tout a restaurant or two on the forum or even do a restaurant review and after visiting the experience is either ordinary or unfortunately downright disappointing.

With yelp, reviews in numbers are much more accurate. It's clearly obvious that an owner's brother is favorably reviewing a restaurant when his review is surrounded by a sea of bad or mediocre reviews and when the owner's brother ironically had just joined yelp to post one review- and then drops off the face of the earth.

It's also very obvious when he uses the same username at every review website.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (wanderingjew)

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 13:51:43 GMT

stricken_detective

The other thing about Yelp is you don't know who is posting on there. If you Google a certain restaurant's reviews, there should be a few different sites that have them & a few different people reviewing. It doesn't help when you figure out one poster who never has anything negative to say is the owner's brother. That is when I stopped reading Yelp reviews.

True, however the same thing holds true for Roadfood too. As I previously indicated there are select few Roadfood members whose advise I will take in a heartbeat, however a random poster (and I don't mean a fly by night poster, I'm referring to regular posters)will either tout a restaurant or two on the forum or even do a restaurant review and after visiting the experience is either ordinary or unfortunately downright disappointing.

With yelp, reviews in numbers are much more accurate. It's clearly obvious that an owner's brother is favorably reviewing a restaurant when his review is surrounded by a sea of bad or mediocre reviews and when the owner's brother ironically had just joined yelp to post one review- and then drops off the face of the earth.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (Twinwillow)

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:58:22 GMT

Leslie Brenner, the former food critic of the Los Angeles Times and now, the food critic for the Dallas Morning News has certainly made her share of enemies in Dallas since she started her job here a while back.
However, she was easy to "unmask" because her face picture was easily seen on the back flap of some of her books selling on Amazon.com. All one had to do was go to Amazon and look up her books and then, look at the "back flap" of a title.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (stricken_detective)

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 16:07:18 GMT

JRPfeff

Multiple choice, whose opinion do you most trust:
a) 400 BillyB's on Yelp
b) One buffetbuster
An easy choice for me.
Dennis Getto was the authority on Milwaukee dining. He earned it and was extremely fair to the restaurants he reviewed. I eagerly awaited his reviews each Friday and his yearly Top 30. I have absolutely no interest in what the woman who replaced him has to say.

Agreed, 100%.

The other thing about Yelp is you don't know who is posting on there. If you Google a certain restaurant's reviews, there should be a few different sites that have them & a few different people reviewing. It doesn't help when you figure out one poster who never has anything negative to say is the owner's brother. That is when I stopped reading Yelp reviews.

As for the LA Times critic, can she sue for the restaurant owner interfering with her income? I think he deserves a visit or ten from the Dirty Dining crew.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (wanderingjew)

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:40:23 GMT

I take Yelp for what its worth. It's certainly authentic and legitimate, I know a few Yelpers and they're certainly REAL PEOPLE and they are not paid by the website and their reviews are published whether they're positive or negative.

Unfortunately I learned by trial and error that other than a few select people here on Roadfood I believe that reviews tend to be more accurate in numbers on yelp, versus advice from a random person or two on roadfood, however on yelp, in addition to checking out the reviews, check out the reviewer too. For example if a yelper trashes a tried and true roadfood classic, check to see the other restaurants that they've reviewed if it's all jacket required high end restaurants then that speaks for itself.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (chewingthefat)

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:25:21 GMT

Yelp is a scam, if you get a good review, you get a call from them asking if you want to advertize on the site, if you don't, your good reviews disappear and magically, highly negative ones appear. It happened to me and a number of other owners I've talked with. To hell with yelp.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (David_NYC)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:31:43 GMT

The fact that the managers of Red Medicine were able to ID S. Irene Virbila indicates that astute restaurant managers already know what their local restaurant critics look like. Why they decided to publish her picture is either a payback for previous unflattering reviews of their previous gigs, or an attempt to get free publicity, like those stories about joints in New York with their $1,000 pizzas and $200 hamburgers.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (BillyB)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:13:37 GMT

bill voss

JRPfeff

Multiple choice, whose opinion do you most trust:
a) 400 BillyB's on Yelp
b) One buffetbuster
An easy choice for me.
Dennis Getto was the authority on Milwaukee dining. He earned it and was extremely fair to the restaurants he reviewed. I eagerly awaited his reviews each Friday and his yearly Top 30. I have absolutely no interest in what the woman who replaced him has to say.

aren't billyB and buffetbuster on the same side?
I don't understand your disparagement?

I think JRPfeff wants us all to come to his house for the winter, then we can all sit around and wait for the Friday review from his idol................I think that was C

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (1bbqboy)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:01:27 GMT

JRPfeff

Multiple choice, whose opinion do you most trust:
a) 400 BillyB's on Yelp
b) One buffetbuster
An easy choice for me.
Dennis Getto was the authority on Milwaukee dining. He earned it and was extremely fair to the restaurants he reviewed. I eagerly awaited his reviews each Friday and his yearly Top 30. I have absolutely no interest in what the woman who replaced him has to say.

aren't billyB and buffetbuster on the same side?
I don't understand your disparagement?

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (JRPfeff)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:51:09 GMT

Multiple choice, whose opinion do you most trust:
a) 400 BillyB's on Yelp
b) One buffetbuster
An easy choice for me.
Dennis Getto was the authority on Milwaukee dining. He earned it and was extremely fair to the restaurants he reviewed. I eagerly awaited his reviews each Friday and his yearly Top 30. I have absolutely no interest in what the woman who replaced him has to say.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (BillyB)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:54:08 GMT

I would rather take the advice of 400 yelp reviews, than the opinion of one. If your food is great the word travels fast. I have never seen a full dining room of unhappy people. There are reasons why some restaurants are packed and some are empty. People are well educated in what they like and dislike, the proof is in the pudding. If there is a line at a restaurant there is a good reason, it's no because we like standing in line, the food will be worth the wait. I enjoyed the article was great and I agree with the manager, he doesn't want to be reviewed, stay out of his restaurant...........He reserves the right to refuse service to anyone...............

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (sonjaab)

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:15:13 GMT

Our local "food critic" for the Syracuse NY Herald-Journal news
named Yolanda Wright (spl) has just retired after many years of harpooning many good resturants over picky things and her continental tastes for obscure food and her love of slurping down bottles of wine on the newspapers tab.
Several resturant associations and owners have offered a reward for her picture but none has ever surfaced..........

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (EdSails)

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:38:53 GMT

JRPfeff

I read the article and it appears that this reviewer went beyond what was necessary to be fair to restaurants by eating 3 times before publishing a review. That is what led to her exposure. A simple solution is to stop trying to appear fair, just visit once and publish the review. If it is an off night in the kitchen, tough beans. Better yet, just eat and Tweet. Put some real pressure on the restaurant.

Interesting point. There is a real tradeoff in the "try it once" vs. the "give 'em a few chances". Amazingly, she had been doing it for the times for 16 years. Amazing she was never caught before!

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (JRPfeff)

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:52:03 GMT

I read the article and it appears that this reviewer went beyond what was necessary to be fair to restaurants by eating 3 times before publishing a review. That is what led to her exposure. A simple solution is to stop trying to appear fair, just visit once and publish the review. If it is an off night in the kitchen, tough beans. Better yet, just eat and Tweet. Put some real pressure on the restaurant.

Re:Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (Foodbme)

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:33:29 GMT

Restaurant reviews are a double edged sword. They can declare life or death to a Restaurant. I've liked places that reviewers have not and not liked places that reviewers praised. They possess awesome power if not responsibly managed that can ruin peoples livelihoods. A local Restaurant owner recently committed suicide after a poor review. He had been in business a long time and had a very large local folowing. I loved his food as did many others but his business dropped off after the review and he opted to leave the planet.

Beverly Hills Restaurant Unmasks L.A. Times Restaurant Critic (EdSails)

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:07:52 GMT

A restaurant owner has taken pics and posted them of the L.A. Time's longtime restaurant critic. Many critics and media outlets pride themselves on their critics being able to enter anonymously into a restaurant so they don't get different (preferential) service and can write a relatively unbiased review. What do you think?

http://latimesblogs.latim...d-shown-the-door-.html