Finding good food while traveling

If you travel for business, or if you travel at all, often the first problem confronting you in a new place is that of how to find something decent to eat. We have all spent uncounted hours in our hometowns experimenting with restaurants, reading reviews, chatting about food, comparing grocery stores. All of that experience is torn away from you in a new place. Yet, if done right, the food can be one of the best parts of your trip–even in places which might seem like culinary wastelands (Anchorage). And I will tell you how.

First of all, you will probably want to pick up a map of the area. If you’re serious about food, you can’t afford to stay in the area in immediate sight of your hotel. Yes, you may have to do a bit of walking. Hotel maps can be useful – but ignore the restaurant ads on them. You don’t want to subsidize those places’ advertising budgets.

Instead, you’re going to Yelp. Look for the highest-rated places within a two-mile or so radius. But be careful how you interpret those results.

1) Consider the prevailing cuisine of the region. You want a dinner that will be congruent with the rest of your experience of the location. The best sushi place in Columbus, Ohio, is not likely to give you either the Columbus experience or good sushi.

2) Consider the ancillary cuisines of the region. Is there a concentration of immigrants from a particular area? Does the area have a cultural connection with another?

For instance, when you go to Alaska, you think of fish and reindeer sausage. But consider the fact that many Alaskans vacation in Hawaii. Perhaps there might be good Polynesian food. Or maybe the Russian influence has left behind restaurants as well as Orthodox churches. It’s worth doing a bit of Wikipediaing to find out your prospects.

3) Don’t bother reading bad Yelp reviews. Bad reviews are almost never about food. Bad reviews are written by people with personal grudges – they had to wait too long, pay too much, or the staff didn’t show them sufficient deference. Bad reviews can be hilarious, but they are irrelevant to your quest for good food. Especially when written by people who didn’t get in at all.

If you want deferential service, go to the most expensive place you can afford. If you want food, the service, and hence the negative reviews, are largely beside the point. Also, if a review complains about not being given enough food, remember it was, statistically speaking, most likely written by a fat person.   

4) Do not be too intimidated by reviews claiming it is hard to get into a restaurant or bar. Many places are crowded in the first few weeks after opening, or if you show up, as so many Yelp reviewers seem to do, with five other people and no reservation on a Saturday night. This does not apply to you, the savvy business traveler. You are most likely alone or with only one other person, and you will prefer to dine early on weekday nights.

5) Read the good reviews. The sheer number of good reviews is irrelevant; what you’re really looking for are good reviews written by people who are interested in food. Which are not as common as you might think.

One Yelp review reads in full:
“The salmon soup was good. It was cold and refreshing.”

And this review is averaged in, along with all the others, to give a star rating.

So read the good reviews with discrimination. Does she love the place because it reminds her of the Cheesecake Factory back home? Does he give you details of the food, or details of the decor? Does he even bother to tell you what he ate, or is he focused on how often his water glass was refilled?
   
Once you find several good reviews by people who are like you, who will ideally give specific recommendations about what to eat and what to avoid, you’re set. If you do find a really good place, consider ordering a large dinner and eating the leftovers for lunch the next day. Otherwise, eating well during a business lunch is going to be hard, since you most likely won’t have time to research or range far afield.

If we are lucky, maybe my friend will contribute a post on how to find good food in small towns.


UPDATE:

I forgot to say that, if you are traveling with a group, avoid at all costs the restaurant your meeting planner has picked. Remember that her job is not to find great or even good food, but to find a restaurant which will be acceptable to the least common denominator, preferably within a few blocks from the hotel (because many of us are so used to driving that walking more than six blocks feels like a death march to the gulag.) Plus your meeting planner is probably a middle-aged woman with unadventurous tastes and not familiar with the area. I ignored this advice and had the only bad meal of my time in Honolulu.