We may not do reviews at MenuPages, but our legions of users are all over that. Here are two of interest.
The quality of review that we get each week at MenuPages varies considerably in terms of grammatical correctness, helpfulness, relevance, length, and so forth. This is to be expected: the internet is full of many different types of people bounded only by their need to share their opinions with the world. We find it thrillingly democratic that anyone, regardless of merit, can let it be known what they think about a particular restaurant. Nevertheless, we are sometimes shocked by the amount of time and effort people put into these reviews, on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, why spend one’s time coming up with so much material that is tossed anonymously into the void of the web? On the other hand, who is so shameless as to write a review that would reward a third grader with a check minus? We found ourself pondering this mystery just this morning over two reviews that came in within six hours of each other. Observe:
Late last night, “Luis” used category headers to organize his review of Republic in order that we have a more clear understanding of his opinions:
ATTENTION TO DETAIL: Before our waitress took our order she brought us damp warm hand towels to clean our hands. She was very friendly and made great recommendations
EXCEPTIONAL FOOD PRESENTATION: I ordered fried rice and it was served inside a fresh pineapple. The rice itself had pieces of pineapple which gave it a unique freshness. My appetizer came atop a block and wrapped up in a giant leaf. The food tasted as good as it looked.
CHEAP: Republic is extremely cheap, considering the way you get treated and the food you are getting. I highly recommend it.
Wow, this is half a step from being a PowerPoint presentation. Republic’s alleged attention to detail is matched only by Luis’. The review isn’t necessarily balanced, but we certainly know what Luis thought of his meal and why.
Meanwhile, early this morning, “wade” puked out the following about Gigio’s Pizza:
i grew up eating there when i was younger it was good im 22 now and i tried alot of diffrent pizza in alot of diffrent places ans bye far is the best!!! i go 2 chicago ounce in a while and dam strait i go out of the way 2 get a pizza! even bring one back 4on the 8 hour ride in the cooler 4 the family!! :)
What’s far more interesting than wade’s point (that he likes their pizza) is the artful way in which he utterly mangles the English language in order to do so. “[D]am strait”? What of the shipping traffic! It’s amazing that, despite the variety of spelling errors, lack of sentence structure, and the use of numerals instead of words, the review is rather readable. A testament more to the resilience of the language than wade’s skills as a writer. (By the way, if you’re reading this, wade, keep on keeping it real.)
Republic [MenuPages]
Republic [Official Site]
Gigio’s Pizza [MenuPages]
