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10/26/2001 Archived Entry: "Yet More Links: Interactive Restaurant Sites"

Here is the next to final installment of new links, four interactive restaurant websites. That is, each one of these allows you to participate with your opinions and experiences. Note that the Zagat Survey is one of these – you can participate on line. And one of these links is from the exisiting “Links” section of The Food Maven.

EGULLET
www.egullet.com

Steven Shaw, who calls himself “the fat guy,” (see his personal site, www.fat-guy.com) is the New York moderator for this fascinating network of “foodies” who discuss topics as varied as where to get the best burger to what the scene is like at Balthazar, the stylish SoHo French brasserie. Log on and voice your opinion. Anyone can post a comment, which is of course a good thing and a bad thing. Who can you trust? That’s always a big question on these interactive sites.. New Jersey is also well represented in its own forum hosted by Rosie Saferstein, a restaurant reporter for New Jersey Monthly Magazine.


ROAD FOOD
www.roadfood.com

Michael and Jane Stern are chroniclers of popular culture and may be the funniest food writers in America. Their regular columns in Gourmet magazine are only half of it. Their books, not only on food but on subjects as diverse as Elvis Presley, Roy Rodgers, and the dog show circuit, are another piece of their personality. Their website, which proclaims that it is “exclusively devoted to finding the most memorable local eateries along the highways and back roads of America,’ is another product of their clever minds. Known for eating low on the hog, I am always interested in their food finds, even when I can’t agree with their taste. As an interactive site, Road Food, offers the opinions of many unknown eaters as well. It’s fun, it covers the whole nation, but I wouldn’t necessarily travel to North Carolina just to follow up on a correspondent’s pick for best hot dog.


ZAGAT SURVEY
www.zagat.com

If you don’t have a Zagat guide – get one! They are an invaluable source for restaurant listings, including the addresses, phone numbers, type of food, and prices at the most important restaurants of any given city. Reviews are assembled from surveys sent in by regular citizens who have eaten at the specific restaurant. I don’t find the reviews totally reliable (in New York), and it’s bothersome that the editors sometimes make qualitative remarks about restaurants not reviewed by surveyors (for instance, restaurants that have not opened by press time), and sometimes top restaurants remain on the top because they were there before, but it is still an excellent resource. In the meantime, if you need to look up a specific restaurant or would like to browse restaurants from most major U.S. cities, try the Zagat website. Everything in the books is there, too.


And don’t forget:

CHOWHOUND
www.chowhound.com

Jim Leff, author of The Eclectic Gourmet Guide to New York City: The Undiscovered World of Hyperdelicious Offbeat Eating in All Five Boroughs, is a jazz musician (trombone) whose avocation (actually more like a career at this point) is food adventure, finding out-of-the-way restaurants, food carts, diners, trailers ... food! ... in metro New York City and wherever his music and web site takes him. Meet Chowhound himself, through his eating diary, and post questions and eating notes for all the Internet to answer and respond.