We Want Media

I waste way too much time on MenuPages. I blame this on my mother, who can spend hours looking over menus from restaurants. Apparently, I've turned out the same way. I read Eater on a daily basis and peruse through sites like The Girl Who Ate Everything and Twenty Bucks a Day.

And I'm not alone. With blogging, everyone's a restaurant critic these days, and customers are paying attention to blogger opinions.

But restaurant owners are complaining that bloggers are too mean, too critical and too uneducated on the way to "be" a critic. Most bloggers post their reviews the day restaurants open, while typical critics wait 30 days. Still, owners are actually listening to the bloggers and making changes based on comments.

Sure, the original posts may be bad for business and cause people like me, who base their initial opinion on restaurants on the media (both traditional and not), to frequent a different location. But in the end if you're making your restaurant better, isn't everyone winning? I know I'll go later on if the reviews have shown improvement.

I'd say bloggers are doing a service for restaurant owners. They are the first critics and their opinions go up immediately, so it gives the owner time to make changes before the end of the 30 day grace period when the "real" critics come.