How Do You Find Restaurants in New Cities?
 

There are obvious strategies - Chowhound, Zagat, Trip Advisor, various guidebooks (Fodor, Frommer, etc). I'm wondering what other people do and what you find most reliable.

Here's one thing that has worked for me. Once I do find a restaurant I like, I ask the waiter and/or maitre d' whether they would go if they weren't eating in their own restaurant. It has worked very well.

I use all of your examples, and merge what I learn to narrow it down. In addtion, I speak to people that I come in contact with during my travels in that city and ask what they think. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. But to me, it's always an interesting experience that I always look forward to.

Zagat would only be useful if it were printed of 2-ply toilet paper.

Obviously, if a Michelin guide exists for that city, then one should start there.

But for everyday chow, I check OpenTable and iDine to see what will earn me points. OpenTable usually has higher-end restaurants, while iDine covers more geographical area.

As a wino, I check reviews from wine-oriented magazines/sites such as Wine Spectator and Wine & Food.

I do the guidebook thing, like the OP mentioned, but I also ask my hotel's concierge. If I have time on my own, I usually just kind of wander around and see what makes me hungry and go for that. Usually try to avoid touristy places. Often I'll even stop locals and ask for suggestions.

The OPs second tip sounds like a great one and its something I should use.

michelin and zagat have very similar ratings for same restaurants in their paris guides.

zagat reviewers are not paid

open table and iDine charge significient fees for diners.

i use Zagat, the local newspaper if it has an organized review section, and the CITY magazine.(Dallas, washingtionan, NY, LALA)

Google Maps
 

Centre on where I'm staying and then type in the cuisine type I'm interested in. The restaurants come with links to reviews by individuals and commercial services.

Huh? :confused:

I send a PM to Sweet Willie. :D

I've come across some nice finds using Flickr. I usually just search on the location that I'm visiting and I'll often come across the photostream of some verbose photographer who's visited and dined wherever I'm headed.

If I have the time, I'll check out the reviews in the local newspapers too. They are usually fairly objective and instead of just a few lines can be a half page or more, with way more detailed information.

I generally trust Chowhound more these days than Zagat/Michelin and some of the other popular websites. Opentable is a good resource to gauge availability of seats and a quick general info about the restaurant.

I use a great website called Flyertalk;):cool:

I use yelp.com

iDine advances money to the restaurant. the card charge passes through idine. the restauant gets a 50% credit against the draw. somebody sued for usery and lost.

restaurant pays for each open table res. i do not know how much. certainly at least double the reward to the customer for using ot. a lot of people using ot do not put their high demand times into ot. in the dc area, 630-700 are a tough date, even a few weeks out. the popular restaurants(not good, but popular) do not use open table around here.

fine dining - research

places frequented by locals - if i dont know someone who is/was a local, i just try places