Since we're talking about it,
my usual method for finding restaurants in new places is to ask people and then go to online discussion forums. Some cities have specific ones, like LTH Forum for Chicago.
If not, I visit more general food forums like Hungry Onion. Chowhound used to be a great resource for this, but they got bought or something and the community withered. A lot of them moved to Hungry Onion.
I also have a few bloggers I follow. Ulterior Epicure is a good name if you're interested in "high-end" food. The guy is not a "collector" like a lot of restaurant bloggers, which I like.
That combination is usually enough to get a list of interesting-looking places. Yelp tends to just not have much information in my experience.
For California, it seems like the SF Bay Area Chowhound refugees went to Hungry Onion, but the LA people went to Food Talk Central. It's pretty unfortunate, since CH really was a good resource back in the day, and now neither site seems to have critical mass.
These days (well, not the past couple months) I tend to get more recommendations from industry people. I sit at a lot of restaurant bars and a server who isn't too busy is usually happy to chat. As a bonus, I get way more than my fair share of free drinks and tastes of interesting things.
If not, I visit more general food forums like Hungry Onion. Chowhound used to be a great resource for this, but they got bought or something and the community withered. A lot of them moved to Hungry Onion.
I also have a few bloggers I follow. Ulterior Epicure is a good name if you're interested in "high-end" food. The guy is not a "collector" like a lot of restaurant bloggers, which I like.
That combination is usually enough to get a list of interesting-looking places. Yelp tends to just not have much information in my experience.