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Where Locals Eat - Is it different enough?
There seems to be lots of sites for selecting a place to eat, yelp, chow hound, etc. Where Locals Eat adds the new feature of combining GPS and the new iphone to literally direct people to a restaurant in real time. Do you think this app and the tons of content on their site will keep users coming back for seconds?
Comments (13)
I'm not really a big fan of the site since the restaurants they recommend aren't really where locals eat. I prefer sites like Yelp, where users contribute. Either way its best just to try everyplace yourself, since everyone has their own taste.
I checked the some of the SF spots. There are a lot of places I've either been to and enjoyed or always went to go to but haven't. I think their picks are more on the upscale end of dining where as Yelp tends to skew to the everyday. When I'm visiting a city I'd like to get a flavor for both. So I would check out both sites.
I don't get why the above posters think the restaurants listed aren't where locals eat. Granted I'm in the South Bay, but I have eaten at a lot of those places, mainly for special occasions. In fact if I had to make a list of my fave SF places I'd add quite a few of these places.
Who could dis Ella's for brunch or Citizen Cake for dessert and Greens for Vegetarian delights? I could go on.
Is the main problem here that the list is not user generated?
Or maybe they need to change the name to "Where people in the local suburbs go to Eat for Special Occasions"? But that's not quite as catchy.
There's no city to select in my state so this is pretty useless to me unless I'm traveling and what to spend the bucks for something special. Apparently the locals around here don't eat.
Sure for a place like SF where yelp, city search, etc offer many other options to find user-generated reviews, this site is less useful. However, I checked out some cities where I've traveled to in the past where I couldn't find much user-generated info (like Detroit or Salt Lake City) and found a lot of info about local restaurants. I'd definitely check it out in the future, especially when I travel.
Too upscale and pricey to be useful for everyday use. I prefer yelp.
I think the site is useful enough that it will find its niche among users. For example, if being too pricey and upscale are issues, then the site may find itself catering to a crowd with high disposable incomes - not a bad thing :)
Where the Locals Eat just came out with an iPhone application called LocalEats for .99 ~ Thanks to GPS its pretty awesome...you can just hit "find restaurants near me" and it pulls which restaurants on their list are near you at that very instant, not to mention you can get a map, call the restaurant, etc with the touch of a button...love it
Well... yelp is a big giant user generated list which does not guide and it seems these guys are a "guide". I like guides sometimes because I am so indecisive and short of time and hate when I have to ready thru so many user ratings and reviews it is nice to just be told where a good place is to eat without all the noise. I mean it's not much different from asking a friend where a good place to eat... right? Also, very similar to how newspapers have done it for years. Hmmm... although reading their "About" page it does say they do take into account user input. I think this is a viable approach... I mean Zagat has done this since like 1979 or something.
Yelp has "Best of Yelp" sections that function as list guides. The Restaurant guide lets you filter using type of cuisine, neighborhoods, distance, features and price. These are available across many cities as well.
Not knocking Where the Locals Eat - I'm happy to use both online. Just wanted to point out that for a lot of people, Yelp does guide and its the whole user generated concept that makes the guide more "real" and comprehensive for some. Instead of "experts" telling me which restaurant is the best, I can browse aggregated reviews from regular Joes like me.
Since I don't have an iPhone, the app and its price don't matter that much to me and I can see some of my foodie friends finding an app like that useful.
I don't personally find Yelp/citysearch/etc very reliable. The comments aren't always rooted in truth, and the mixed opinions normally leave me feeling uneasy about the place I've selected by the time I'm ready to go. I like how straightforward WTLE is bc I don't have to filter through to find a good restaurant, etc. I guess its just personal preference.