I’ve covered tourism and restaurants for a long time. My approach to finding new venues to explore – and in this case, new restaurants to eat – has always been simple. 

I like to ask the locals. 

It goes something like this, “Hi, I’m not from around here. Can you recommend a good place to eat?” This always has led to good fortune and great meals. 

So you would think that I would be OK with checking well-known restaurant sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon for food feedback. The truth is that I’m not great at it.

But what I found is that a great many of you are. 

A Facebook poll of my pals found that many use Yelp either “a lot” or “all the time.” Urbanspoon was lesser known (and also lesser used). Some friends even reported frequently using both sites.

Specialty websites like Yelp and Urbanspoon garners a healthy chunk of visitors – 17 percent of those looking for food options, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project. 

But beware – even those awesome sites come with snags. At least a couple people (one a restaurateur) informed me that sites like Yelp don’t always publish the best and shiniest reviews.

Continue reading this article on the Social Media Club website.