Where do you turn for specialized restaurant reccomendations?
 

When you need a last minute restaurant recommendation, something more specific than just a generalized google search, where do you turn? Chowhound used to be my go to, but they disappeared a while ago. TripAdvisor forums never turn out to be helpful and people seem more clueless there than those asking the questions. Are there any good food forums left?

I ask the person at the front desk of where I am staying. Otherwise google maps and roll the dice.

I often look at Yelp. However, I look carefully at the reviews to see If they are legit

Eater and Michelin.

Second on Eater here in LA or if in one of their cities. Especially their essential lists or heat maps.

But a majority places will not be in their focus - so often I Google something like “best” or “unique” restaurants in “PLACE” + either “forum” or “Reddit” or “blog”. Often no matter where you are there is some local blog, or a forum discussion on some site, or even a Reddit discussion that can clue you into some great places beyond what you will find on Yelp or TripAdvisor.

or any local (likely in advance) about country/region/area specific review boards - e.g. for Japan many locals use https://tabelog.com/ instead of Yelp+friends.

I used to use TripAdviser quite a bit, but they are all but useless now.

Where was it? I thought that was where I put it.

In any case, those are good for reviews, but you can't ask specific questions. That was what I liked most about Chowhound - if you were looking for something very specific which was hard to find, you could. For instance - finding a place that makes their own pasta.If it is someplace popular, I have used City-data, even if I am not a big fan of the community over there. But that doesn't always work for every location.

I am assuming there are places to ask on Reddit, but for the life of me I can't figure that site out.

I miss Chowhound and not just for restaurant info. I loved the cooking discussions and tips.

Yelp in the US, Trip Advisor in other countries.

But you have to pay attention to the reviews. Some people will down rate a restaurant for trivial reasons, sometimes without even eating there: “Showed up with a party of 12 at prime time without reservations and we’re told we would have to wait an hour so we left - 1 star”. I also pay more attention to recent reviews than older ones.

Hungry Onion is a successor to Chowhound (and IMO a lot more pleasant place to be). I’m usually answering questions there, not asking them, though. Honestly, for restaurants in places that I am just visiting, I’m finding very good results from Google Maps (combined with their reviews). We just did a monthlong trip to Italy in which the bulk of our dining choices were sourced through Google Maps, very successfully. We are careful to look hard at the reviews and who’s writing them—all foreigners/tourists, or more locals?

OP, what do you mean by “specialized”?

Ymmv - for San Francisco I combo opentable, Yelp, and resy to see what’s available and then I’ll add Google to confirm it’s what I want. I might not use resy in places that aren’t resy-worthy.

Google is great if you are looking for, say Italian, or traditional Indian. But say I want to find a place that makes their own pasta, but isn't to dressy, and is comfortable for a single diner. Google can't really answer that.

I think that is going to be really hard to find online without spending a lot of time separating the wheat from the chaff. Too specific.