If a place has 700 reviews and a 4.5 star rating that's good signal that it's good, regardless of how many words are put into the 3 reviews you see on the front page.
If a place has 5 reviews and a 3 star rating that doesn't mean anything to me. Maybe it's great maybe it sucks, but I'm not turned off by it. It's just basic stats. If you're trusting one good 500-word yelp-elite review on a listing with 2000 2-star reviews, frankly you're doing it wrong.
Sometimes long reviews offer good things to search for -- for example someone might talk about a patio or happy hour that isn't identified on the site or yelp listing. I've used them for that purpose a few times.
Exactly. I'm under no illusion that Yelp is a particularly useful filter to pick out the ultimate dining experience. But I travel something over 100 days a year. If for at least some of those days when I'm in unfamiliar locations, Yelp can--with a little bit of skeptical evaluation on my part--help me pick restaurants that are mostly to my tastes and on the better side of average, it's done its job. I am somewhat critical/fussy about restaurants in general so I don't mind spending a few minutes to do some research.
Same. Few things irk me more than spending money on mediocre food, especially as I've gotten better at cooking. I may not eat at the best/hottest/hippest joint in town when I'm in a new place looking things up on yelp, but I can pretty consistently eat someplace that I'm happy with.
If a place has 5 reviews and a 3 star rating that doesn't mean anything to me. Maybe it's great maybe it sucks, but I'm not turned off by it. It's just basic stats. If you're trusting one good 500-word yelp-elite review on a listing with 2000 2-star reviews, frankly you're doing it wrong.
Sometimes long reviews offer good things to search for -- for example someone might talk about a patio or happy hour that isn't identified on the site or yelp listing. I've used them for that purpose a few times.