
Yelp claims Chicago area's best restaurant is 40 miles away in Waukegan - wglb
https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct-food-yelp-top-100-restaurants-chicago-20190108-story.html
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jelling
Lthforum.com's great neighborhood restaurant guide is probably the best food
guide for Chicago: [http://www.lthforum.com/chicago-restaurant-
guide/](http://www.lthforum.com/chicago-restaurant-guide/)

Yelp used to be (and likely still is) filled with people giving 5 stars to bad
Mexican restaurants because they like the drinks and Thai places that drown
everything in sugar. The GNR guide will lead you to wonderful, authentic, and
affordable restaurants and will likely widen most people's perspective on the
city as it will take you into all of the neighborhoods.

~~~
elhudy
The list seems to intentionally avoid well-known delicious, popular spots (the
aviary, au cheval, pequods, minghin, serai) in favor of hole-in-the-wall
places which might not be as good but have edgy, hidden, or traditional vibes
to them (violet hour, Marie's, Nicky's hot dogs). I do like some of the picks
(Birrieria Reyes de Ocotlán is amazing) but there's a lot to be desired. Only
one restaurant from Pilsen? And Al's beef... really?

Then again, it would be damn tough to conglomerate a restaurant list for the
city of Chicago that pleases everyone. Thanks for sharing, it was fun reading
through these nostalgically.

~~~
Fins
Violet Hour is a hole-in-the-wall to the point of being almost impossible to
find, but isn't it rated as one of the best bars in the country pretty
consistently?

But really, does anyone still take anything from Yelp as anything other than a
joke?

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elhudy
I was referring to the Lthforum list, not the yelp one. Apologies if that was
unclear. Violet Hour is great! I was just using it as an example as one of
many proclaimed "hole-in-the-wall" or "hidden gem" examples. It's really not
all that hard to find considering people line up consistently down the block.

~~~
Fins
Oh, right. Yes, LthForum, Eater etc. are actually quite useful. Yelp, not so
much.

Interestingly, first time I tried to find Violet Hour, maybe it was a slow
night, but I just couldn't. With no line of people trying to get in it was
nigh impossible. Aviary at least has a sign, not that it were easy to get in
on a whim. Worth it, though.

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bittermang
Sometimes it is.

Listen. I'm from the Midwest, so for all you #WestCoast refugees seeking
asylum here. Sometimes you gotta drive a half an hour, and you'll find a
really shiny gem sleeping just outside your 'burb.

All I ask is that you please don't ruin this land for the rest of us. We've
enjoyed our lives here quite well, while you mock us for being "fly over
country".

~~~
LeftTurnSignal
shhhh

I mean there's nothing but gross trees, ugly bluffs, and big dumb cows here.

/nothing to see here. move along people

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rdiddly
Welp, sounds like Yelp's algorithm for this is sort of wacky. Ratings
supported by fewer data points (which I would call _less reliable_ for that
reason) are over-represented.

~~~
kylnew
Seriously. I worked in research for a while and we would weight data to fit
demographics but there were limits to how much weighting you could apply
before the data sample was considered insufficient. I really wonder how much
this algorithm is ignoring general sampling rules like ‘n > 30’ to crank out
this list.

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warriormonk5
Serious question. I thought Yelp was basically dead? I essentially only use
Google reviews.

~~~
gumby
There must be some weird Yelp-fu to which I am not privy.

I have never found Yelp to be useful in the slightest. Yet my gf is able to
look in Yelp and find great places to eat or find something we need. I
honestly haven't the faintest idea how she acquired this superpower.

~~~
slow_donkey
I don't pick the first place I see off Yelp, it's more of a filter for bad
restaurants and then check remaining menus. I've found the actual written
reviews to not be very useful unless I'm looking for authenticity (Chinese vs
American Chinese)

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incazteca
No joke though. If you are in the Portage Park area in Chicago Bistro 6050 is
great. I usually get the empanadas there and they never disappoint.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Any nights quieter than others to try it?

~~~
incazteca
I think any night is usually a good night, they don't really ever fill up.
Sometimes if there's an early show at the patio some of the crowd might stop
by there but I don't think I've ever had to wait for a seat. The ice cream is
good as well.

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dannykwells
Yeah, they also claim that the "best" restaurant in America is "Bangers and
Brews" in Bend, OR.

Maybe the list should be "Restaurants which most successfully appeal to the
lowest common local denominator" \- then things start to make sense.

