[landonshoop]

I think it is a result of the five star rating system -- a vast majority of the businesses fall between a 4 and a 4.5 star rating. Perhaps a binary rating system is a better forcing mechanism to determine quality?

But since we're stuck with the five star system...here is how I leverage Yelp review data when it comes to selecting a small business to patronize:

1. Normalize for the true Yelp rating scale of 4 - 4.5 stars. Filter out anything below a 4 star rating. If a small business is unable achieve 4 stars on Yelp, then something must be really wrong.

2. Quantity of reviews is important. For starters, you need a significant sample size of review data for the star rating to be meaningful. Further on the review quantity front: massive review numbers relative to other similar businesses in that given city is a good signal of popularity (though not necessarily quality).

3. You need to supplement your Yelp findings from points 1 and 2 with other sources, ideally critical reviews (e.g. Eater, Serious Eats, Time Out, NY Times, Chicago Mag, etc).

4. The content of individual Yelp reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. Your individual priorities and tastes might be radically different so there is limited value in an individual's rating. I've come across some truly great restaurants with 1-star reviews because the reviewer tried to dine at the restaurant on a Monday...when it was closed.

[Pxtl]

This bothers the hell out of me. I reflexively rate anything on any platform 4 stars if I like it, leaving one star as "room for improvement" if I can think of any one thing I wish they'd done differently.

But the modern convention is 5 stars as "good", and getting too many 4s is a failure.

[Goronmon]

Normalize for the true Yelp rating scale of 4 - 4.5 stars. Filter out anything below a 4 star rating. If a small business is unable achieve 4 stars on Yelp, then something must be really wrong.

My experience is that higher star ratings on Yelp equate mainly to presentation over taste and that higher prices tend to mean a better rating (Out of a few average Chinese food places, the higher priced one will be rated the highest).

[ghaff]

>higher prices tend to mean a better rating

If you assume an efficient market, they presumably wouldn't be able to charge a higher price if people didn't like them better. Of course, the average rater may care more about presentation than you do. A lot of people do go to restaurants more for the "experience" than for the food.

[talmand]

I wonder if a breakdown of services would be better. One to five stars for things like price, service, choices, quality, and so on. No overall one score for the entire experience with an often useless text description of what supposedly happened.

But, I think in the long run it doesn't matter. It just seems consumer based reviews are useless overall and people should stop relying on them.