To pick a place to eat, look at the guests. If it's a bit run-down outside, but has tonnes of repeat customers, it's probably good.
You can spot a place with a local cliental by the way they interact. If all the tables look like circled wagons fending off marauders, they are tourists. If everyone is well dressed, it's a trendy place with good marketing - people go their once to impress their friends, but don't come back. Expect pretentious overpriced food, if that's what you are looking for.
If everyone is casually dressed, and seems familiar with the place, it gets repeat business. While you can't guarantee you'll like it, some people do.
> If it's a bit run-down outside, but has tonnes of repeat customers, it's probably good.
If you're visiting a new place (presumably the typical use case for Yelp), how can you possibly look inside a restaurant and know if the people inside are repeat customers?
>If everyone is casually dressed, and seems familiar with the place, it gets repeat business
Oh. So when travelling, you recommend selecting restaurants by looking inside each establishment and inspecting the clothing of the customers? By that argument, how could any restaurant beat (eg) McDonald's, with its casually-dressed, repeat customers?
All I can say is many people love McDonald. I mean, that place wouldn't have succeeded and sold billions of burgers if it was at least partially satisfying it's customers. Sure the food might be horrible for you but I can't say I hate the taste of a BigMac.
You can tell by the look of the place that it's not a high end restaurant or a locally run restaurant. That should let you set your expectation for the place.
You can spot a place with a local cliental by the way they interact. If all the tables look like circled wagons fending off marauders, they are tourists. If everyone is well dressed, it's a trendy place with good marketing - people go their once to impress their friends, but don't come back. Expect pretentious overpriced food, if that's what you are looking for.
If everyone is casually dressed, and seems familiar with the place, it gets repeat business. While you can't guarantee you'll like it, some people do.