I am regularly asked for recommendations by people who want to eat out, and the only answer I can give is based on my last few experiences of any particular location. However if you can tap into lots of people’s thoughts about recommended eating spots, then you increase your chances of a good night out.
How often have you been recommended to go to a restaurant that was claimed by a friend to be fantastic and you were disappointed? One person’s food to die for is another person’s pretty average or awful. So what is the answer to this dilemma?
Many years ago the Michelin Guide was introduced throughout Europe and still is the ultimate guide; impartial, trained, expert reviewers, no advertising that might influence favourable comments, total secrecy in everything they do. It can, and regularly does, make or break restaurants. Unfortunately its star system is only for the very best places, of which we have only a handful in Ireland. If you ever do have the chance to visit one you are in for a treat, and right now is probably the first time in 10 years that some are offering special priced meals.
However, back to where most of us can afford to eat, where do we go for advice?
There are a lot of sites on the web — menupages.ie, eatingoutIreland.com, foodandwine.net, findarestaurant.ie, and galway.net You can also look at the archive issues of Bia Devil in the Galway Advertiser. What prompted me to write this article was that I heard about a Tuam based company, Western Webs, that has launched a site with a great domain name, www.restaurants.ie Its aim is to make it the number one restaurant site in Ireland and it is one of the most downloaded apps on iPhones already. It is free to the user and free to the restaurant owner, and the objective is to have every eating establishment in the country on it. One think I like about it is that the public are allowed to have their say about their experience in any particular restaurant by writing in their comments.
My favourite review site is Tripadvisor.com, it is a worldwide site and I have used it with great success in many countries. It has the advantage of lots and lots of users; therefore you can get a broad spectrum of comments to read. I also use it for hotel recommendations and it is seldom wrong.
Currently the three top restaurants in Galway according to Tripadvisor are:
1. Abalone restaurant, 53 Lower Dominick Street (telephone 091 534 895 ).
2. Cava restaurant, 51 Lower Dominick Street (telephone 091 539 884 ).
3. Oscar’s restaurant, Lower Dominic Street (telephone 091 582180 ).
There must be something in the air in this part of town as they are all only a stone’s throw from each other.
Most hotel marketing people look at the latest comments on Tripadvisor about their own hotel every day of the week, and I would advise any restaurant owner to do likewise. It is without a doubt the most used site by visitors to our shores, and if there are negative comments on the site about your business you need to know that. If you are travelling to London, there is a great site called www.London-eating.co.uk and you will get fantastic deals on it. I have availed of deals such as 50 per cent off the bill in some of London’s top eateries.
In the final analysis it is up to you to decide where to go and your experience will depend on so many factors, your own mood and that of your companion, whether you get a nice table, the service, the food, the ambience, etc. When you do have a great experience I urge you to write about it on the web, it is fun to do and it will help the restaurant immensely.
