[arkades]

I don’t know if this is applicable to a restaurant review guide, but:

I find The Wirecutter / Sweethome to be really great for consumer reviews. Specifically, because they’re transparent about the qualifications of the reviewer, and transparent about the criteria on which their subjects will be evaluated, including “we interviewed X, Y, Z and they identified a, b, c as the most important metrics because of R.” So I know why I should trust the author, their metric choices, and the results - which makes it easy for me to decide whether their judgment reflects my own priorities.

That seems like a lot more effort, in a distinct vein, than the usual restaurant review. Food is, of course, more subjective but the usual review seems like a highly evolved version of “I liked this.” I don’t care if a reviewer “likes this,” I want to know if they liked it —and- an indicator of how or why to generalize those results to my own tastes.

[ghaff]

Wirecutter is excellent although, as you suggest, a restaurant is more subjective, has more dishes, has more variance in both the meals and service, etc. The Wirecutter is also pretty focused on identifying one item (with a couple alternatives) as the best choice. What I actually find they're the best for is when I just want to pick something and don't want to immerse myself in research. I find you won't go far wrong.

That said, better restaurant reviewers do try to explain what they liked or didn't like about a dish. But most people are not better restaurant reviewers, are often basing their opinion on just one visit, and are often writing short reviews that are in a different category from a New York Times reviewer writing an in-depth review after going to the restaurant three times.

[buckhx]

We love The Wirecutter and is something we look to a lot from The Infatuation. Their content is fairly "evergreen" and useful. They cover utility aspects great, but generally feel like they don't take design/taste/style into account. That might be that subjective vs. objective nature of reviews that you're alluding to and why their reviews are so effective b/c they take a very objective approach.