How Do You Find The Best Restaurants Using The Internet?
First, we have to define what we mean by “best.” If that equates to the quality of food, can a food critic do that for you? Don’t we each have different likes and dislikes? Therefore, that would be problematic to seek out a website that just rates our food. Sure, it’s nice to have someone give us an opinion, but can we base our whole decision on one or two restaurant reviews? I think not.
Okay, let’s think of another “best.” Is it one that charges the most or the least? If it’s too cheap, will the food be lousy or cut-rate? If it’s too expensive, will it be over-priced or a place for the beautiful people to convene? Is price always a reasonable way of looking at the quality of the food or service anyway?
Fine, let’s move on. Could the best restaurant be the one that’s closest to us, at the moment? That’s a more intriguing thought. Suppose you are vacationing in Seattle during a typical heavy downpour. The hotel’s only restaurant is closed for renovations. So you spot a small café across the street, only a few hundred yards away. You grab your umbrella and make a dash for it, barely missing a gigantic puddle-filled pothole along the way. This is now the best restaurant for you, or is it? As you brush some excess rain from your hair, you see that the Friendly Café is a Thai-Vietnamese Buffet, take-out only. Yuck, you think to yourself; not what you wanted at all. Now you’ve wasted a trip across the street and have to start your dining search anew as the downpour continues.
What lesson have we learned so far? That “best” can mean many things at various times. But, what if you had seen the Friendly Café’s menu before the trek in the torrent? Then, perhaps you would have avoided this “best” restaurant and found another with a better cuisine. The only real way to know what the eating establishment has to offer is by seeing the menu. Yes, the menu will tell you many things.
It indicates the variety and type of food and often with pictures. It explains how many choices there are. It usually has prices and will tell it has take-out or delivery available. It may also discuss discounts for certain groups, like seniors, payment types accepted, and daily specials. If you had known that there was a terrific Italian restaurant a few blocks away that delivered, would that have been the “best” restaurant for you, at that moment? Do you see my point?
If you had Internet access on your phone or hotel room, which is quite common nowadays, you could have surfed the net for sites that offered menus, along with other content. The ones with reviews may be somewhat intriguing, but ultimately not that useful. The best are the ones that have searchable content, maps, and menus. I’m writing this article as a frequent diner and world traveler that has often required a good list of restaurants. My top choice has over one million restaurants, bars, coffee-shops, and diners listed. It’s also the one with the name you’ll never forget: menuelephant.com and therefore, the ‘”best” of the pack. Don’t leave home without it.
Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years.
He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master’s Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. He authored a book about his directory years, “Inside the Yellow Pages” which can be seen at his website, http://www.poweradbook.com and he is currently the Marketing Director for http://www.thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information site and http://www.menuelephant.com which posts restaurant menus on the “site you’ll never forget.”
Tags: advertising, best, elephant, Find, free, marketing, menu, promotion, Recipe, Restaurant, success
