Travel magazines are inherently biased because they write what they are paid to write and they don't generally possess journalistic ethics. However individual opinions do matter, even if they come from people who aren't in the restaurant industry. The opinions of the experts only matter to other experts. The opinions of a colleague or a neighbor that I trust matter a great deal more. And the opinions of random unknown travelers can sometimes give us a clue about a place. If you read between the lines well.