What originated as a small restaurant catalog in 1994 has grown into a large online community of foodies who find and share information on restaurants throughout the world. With a database of more than 190,000 restaurants growing every day, RestaurantRow may not be the biggest restaurant reviews site on the web but it’s certainly a reliable source for comprehensive restaurant reviews.
Like many of their competitors, RestaurantRow also employs a 5-star rating system, which is accumulated based on the member reviews. While the site provides general information and stats about a restaurant, the actual reviews are written by members. A wide variety of restaurant stats are given including contact information, dress code, payment info and type of cuisine. In addition, for restaurants that allow reservations, you can make them directly on RestaurantRow (which integrates with OpenTable.com, an online reservation service).
While the site does have more than 190,000 restaurants listed, not all of them have been reviewed yet and many of the restaurants only have a handful of reviews posted. To rate and review a restaurant, you must sign up for RestaurantRow’s free membership. One thing worthy of a quick mention is the site’s international restaurant reviews. RestaurantRow is one of the few smaller review sites that boast an impressive collection of reviews of restaurants all around the globe.
From the moment you log onto the RestaurantRow homepage, searching for a new restaurant is made easy with three prominent search bars; you can search by location, cuisine and/or name. Want a more advanced search? If you navigate to the actual search page, there are four immediate ways to search: by restaurant name, city/state/country, zip code or proximity to an address (enter an address and the site lists nearby eateries). Furthermore, two static search bars (one for city or zip and one for restaurant name) are found on each page so you can conduct a quick search no matter what page of the site you are on.
The RestaurantRow website claims it helps customers to “find and share information on restaurants, not just online but on every digital device you can think of. In addition to mobile apps, RestaurantRow offers some of the best “top 10” lists of any restaurant reviews website we came across. For example, you can browse top 10 lists for myriad major cities and major metro areas across the U.S. or you can view top 10 lists by country.
Of all the sites we reviewed, RestaurantRow is the only one that offers an effective incentive for reviews: money. Users can easily earn money for every restaurant they rate and review (the site explains in detail how it works). The site also has an informative help center, links to social networking profiles and a section where you can add new restaurants to the site.
Websites don’t get much simpler or easy to use than RestaurantRow.com. The text is short and to the point (although some of it is surprisingly not grammatically correct – see the “About” page) and a pronounced top navigation bar ensures straightforward navigation.
While RestaurantRow obviously has a way to go before it becomes a leader in the industry, we still think it can be a beneficial restaurant review source. Its intuitive, simple interface makes searching far easier than many of their competitors and it’s hard to beat a site willing to fork over cash for simply writing reviews and fostering consumer goodwill.
