Why Urbanspoon?

I've referred a number of times, in this blog, to a web site called Urbanspoon. Recently this blog took over the number-one spot on their "blog leader board," and  it occurs to me that some people might think there is some tit-for-tat or quid-pro-quo going on here. There isn't.

I've tried half a dozen ways of finding and sorting through all the restaurant options in San Antonio, including locally-owned web sites, but about a year ago I settled on Urbanspoon as the best. (I say I settled: I've actually tried a couple of others since then, but remain convinced that Urbanspoon is the best.)

First of all, places are easy to find on that site, whether by name, by price range, by neighbourhood, or by cuisine. The information is updated regularly, and kept timely by, I assume, an army of people like me who jump on the "feedback" button every time something turns out to be inaccurate. Other web sites will list places that have been gone for months.

Secondly, the listings appear to be comprehensive. I've found perhaps four or five places, all relatively new, that weren't listed on Urbanspoon, and they were up on the listings within a couple of days of my feedback.

Thirdly, the ratings (the percentage of people who "liked" the restaurant) is right up there, front and center on each restaurant's page. Yes, people are often of the ovine sort, easily persuaded that restaurant quality is directly related to its advertising budget; lots of people like Olive Garden and Jim's, and I even maintain a genuine friendship with one person whose favourite place is ... nnggaaghmmf ... Saltgrass. But even allowing for the undiscerning and careless preferences of the great mass of people, such ratings are probably the best way available for determining whether a place will appeal to you, short of actually trying it.

The rankings, on the other hand — those lists on the left-hand side of the Urbanspoon home page offering quick links to the "best fine dining," the "best casual dining," and so on — are less reliable. This is partly because they don't seem to be based on the votes each place has gotten. It seems to be the result of some algorithm taking in both the favourable votes and the total number of votes. I've noticed that the more votes a place gets, positive or negative, the better it does in those rankings. Thus, Chris Madrid's, with 1437 votes, does better in the rankings than Big Easy Cafe, with 323 votes, even though 90% liked Big Easy, while only 86% like Chris Madrid's. But then, Chama Gaúcha, the absurdly expensive Brazilian steak place, has fewer votes than Chris Madrid's, and a lower rating than Big Easy, but finishes first in the rankings.

(You might think that this sort of calculation would give an edge to national chain restaurants, that suck people in with all those expensive prime-time television ads, but it doesn't seem to. I can't tell if Chama Gaúcha is a big chain — their web site freezes up on me, so all I know is there's one in Downer's Grove, Illinois — but I know they do a lot of local advertising on TV. But for all the advertising that Landry's various formula restaurants and Olive Garden do, they don't crack the list.)

Lastly, Urbanspoon is a site that allows me to find restaurants easily in just about any city in the country, including small towns. (Try looking up Fredericksburg or Dime Box on those other sites.) I've used Urbanspoon in places from Washington State to Washington DC, and found it in every case to be reliable, thorough, and easy to use. If I seem to be favouring that site over others of a similar nature, that's why: I think it's the best there is.