[Larrikin]

Yelp ratings are basically useless, except for egregious things like cockroaches found running around. The worst part about the site and Google is that they paginate restaurants in a local map view by rating. It would be better to see everything all at once for certain views.

But restaurants that delist themselves for whatever reason from the review sites, also delist themselves from me ever going to them.

I'm never going to choose a restaurant where I can't see pictures of the food and the menu before going ever again.

It doesn't have to be Yelp, but if I search and didn't see the restaurant, it doesn't exist and I will never go to it. If I pass by a place and it isn't brand new, yet they've scrubbed their web presence, I'm not going to go.

There's no reason to take a chance, and any place that is trying to hide from it, will just always be a place not worth bothering to find out why they are hiding.

[crngefest]

Most excellent restaurants where I live would never post pictures of their food anywhere and have no web presence at all. In many you can’t even reserve a table - you go there and eat. Those who need a lot of web presence / pictures etc are usually not great (good but not great).

If you see lots of people in a place and it’s crowded it’s probably good.

[Larrikin]

What area do you live where this is true? Michelin places may prevent customers from taking pictures, in my experience only the overrated ones do this, but they have their presence with information on the Michelin site.

In Tokyo, everywhere but the smallest stand, and often times even them, had reviews on Tabelog. In my smaller East Coast city, every restaurant I've seen within walking distance of my apartment has reviews and their menu online.

Places famous before the internet may get away with forcing their customers to pay in cash and no SEO, but places that completely delete themselves from the web are hiding something. They will also just never come up in a discussion about where to eat because they don't show up online.

[JohnFen]

> What area do you live where this is true?

I'm not who you're responding to, but this is certainly true in my part of the US.

[Arech]

> If you see lots of people in a place and it’s crowded it’s probably good.

McDonalds? it's even called a "restaurant"...

[gond]

The absence of a web presence is not a sufficient indicator that a business might hide something from you. There are multiple reasons which can lead to the decision to not participate in this playing field.

[JohnFen]

> I'm never going to choose a restaurant where I can't see pictures of the food and the menu before going ever again.

That's certainly a choice, but you're missing out on a lot by doing that.

[nynbyjx]

You seem to not like to go to better establishments. The best in my area do not advertise at all.

It's only the run of the mill restaurants which have a web presence