Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I've only been to the Maxwell Street Market once but I recall a sea of food vendors and I remember seeing huaraches there for the first time. I was already too stuffed to try one. Aren't there several that serve huaraches? Which one should I look for?

So, the reporter talks to two people. One is apparently gaming Yelp! with practices that are questionable at best. The other seems to be a case of sour grapes. The proprietor seemed to expect that her business account would allow her to quash any number of bad reviews. Her Yelp! page is generally positive but there are a small number of very negative ratings. This is a feature, not a bug.

Yelp!, on the other hand, is offering businesses the ability to shape their presence on the internet. I don't know exactly how their salespeople are selling the feature. They may be making misleading or unreasonable promises. However, the feature that they're selling is clearly ethical and nothing like extortion. They don't move or remove reviews, positive or negative, except where the reviews are believed to be fraudulent. I suppose it comes down to an issue of credibility. The proprietors interviewed for the article both seem sketchy and I have no reason to doubt Yelp!.

Frankly, I'm disappointed at how this is being handled by Serious Eats. Even if you give more credence to the news report than I do, you can't ignore that this is a two-sided issue. Your screaming scare-title gives a bad name to blogging.

I actually reported a fraudulent review to Yelp! once. I knew the restaurant in question well enough to be certain that the review was a lie. It was actually racist, too. I was disappointed that it took so long for Yelp! to address the issue. Months. At least. It's gone now though.

I've used Yelp! in the past because the map implementation is fantastic. It was much easier to do a broad survey of restaurants in a given area using Yelp! as compared to Google Maps.

I never participated in Tastespotting because they didn't permit links to bare photos. (The photos had to be part of a blog post.) I'm looking forward to participating here. Even though it allows me to participate, I mention it because it may have been a wise policy. You should keep an eye on flickr-centric posts and see if you consider them to be as worthy as full-fledged blog posts.

I'm curious whether the new Tastespotting still has that policy. I noticed that they're now linking directly to the source of the image from the RSS feed. I'm glad Photograzing also does that and I hope it stays that way. As I recall, the old Tastespotting and one or two of the pretenders to the tastespotting throne required you to click through their home pages to get to the original source of the image. I'd rather see ads in the rss feed than have to click twice.

mustard and swiss.

cheddar

I really think that the best steakhouse experience can be had at Porter House New York: great view, serious prime, dry-aged steak, excellent
sides, and truly wonderful desserts. And you can usually get in, something you can't do on a moment's notice at Peter Luger's, unless you go for lunch.
As far as dim sum is concerned, the last meal I had at Jin Fong was less than mediocre. Joe Ng of Chinatown Brasserie is by far the best dim sum chef in NY. @stuspivak: The fried chicken at Blue Ribbon Brasserie is what I love, and I don't even think they sell it to go. You could either get a couple of sandwiches to go from Blue Ribbon Bakery or go to an Amy's Bread for a sandwich and a cookie. Or you could get a banh mi from either Nicky's Vietnamese Sandwiches or even some Chinese spare ribs from Big Wong. You will need a wet nap or two if you get the Big Wong spareribs. They are sticky, messy, and so delicious.

Yeah, the regular bagels at Absolute are huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. But so tasty!

Under Barbecue, I agree with Ed that particular places are best for particular items. I would put RUB's burnt ends in the same category as his other "bests".

Masa is the type of place that if you can afford it you'd know about it and don't need a guide to point it out.

I'm glad Ed still stands by Totonno's. I never understand when I hear talk that they have fallen off (something I've heard at various times over the last 10-15 years). In my experience they are one of the most consistent shops that turn out top quality pizza. It is, and probably always will be, my favorite overall pizza place anywhere.