Reviews...Reviews...Reviews...

I really do not check reviews for much of anything concerning Disney. I really do not check many reviews period other than an occasional big purchase and even then I do not put much stock in them. I do believe most people are far more likely to take the time for a review when they are unhappy about something than when they are happy with it. Also, everyones tastes are different. We see that even here on this site. If something really interests me I want to experience it for myself. And truthfully, in all of our trips we have had very few bad experiences.

If I'm bored I sometimes go on trip advisor. Reviews don't really matter to me though. If I really want to try a place I'm going no matter what the reviews say. I'm the type that needs to see for myself.
I do stalk the menus on all ears though to decide where to eat at Disney.

I don't take too much stock into reviews. I'm like Scrappy I'll read them but I want to experience it myself. A lot of times the complaints if you ask me are a little ticky tacky.

I look at the reviews for a good laugh. Most of them so ridiculous. Like "We didn't get a free upgrade on our honeymoon". I want to write back "if you wanted an upgraded room then you should have paid for it".

I look at the quantity instead of quality of reviews for most products I want to buy or places I want to go. Meaning, if I want a new vaccum cleaner, I will pick the one I want and see the rating number(i.e., 1000 people reviewed it and 959 gave it a 4 out of 5 star rating.) I don't read the comments because they are completely subjective.

I do a lot of posts (pics and reviews) on Urbanspoon and they have quite a few of the Disney restaurants, but I don't take them all with a grain of salt. There have been some places with horrible reviews the we go back to time and time again. So many people have such various tastes that it's really hard to review restaurants. We went to an AUTHENTIC Naples pizza place here in town that just opened up. Basic sauce (and when I say basic I mean tomatoes and that's about it), buffala mozzarella and basil. BEST pizza and just like in Italy but everyone in our group complained. I wanted to knock them in the head.

My theory is try it once, if you don't like it, lesson learned. I love the experience and excitement of a new place!

I'm JMed on Urbanspoon too if anyone wants to follow. It's my favorite foodie go to site. New one is Eater Charleston (they have different cities too)

I also don't worry much about reviews. I expect a WDW restaurant to be decent, at the very least - every now and then I read a horror story about an entree arriving ice cold, an inattentive or even rude server, etc., but I've spent enough time at WDW to know those incidents are the exception and not the rule. Beyond that, most complaints I've read about Disney restaurants involve the food's not being to the reviewer's liking. For example, I like Restaurant Marrakesh, but I've read reviews by people who complained the food wasn't authentic enough and others by people who complained it's too exotic. As another example, I've read great praise of Les chefs de France, but I thought the food was just average and not really worth a return trip. So mostly I check the menus. If the food sounds good, I'll probably like the restaurant.

I think the worst place to read reviews is TripAdvisor. I've read some reviews of people that were in the same place at the same time as us. They give a 1 out of 5 rating and I know it's just BS because we had a GREAT time. It makes me wonder if they truly were on the same vacation. It just doesn't make sense.

Generally speaking, for regular restaurants, I use Yelp, Google and sometimes, Urbanspoon. Along with those, I use AllEars.net. They actually have a rate and review section on their site for everything. (Restaurants, resorts, etc.) Like I said before, I look for trends and a consistently high rating in terms of deciding where to eat.

That's why I only go on there when I'm bored. I get a good laugh out of some of the reviews

exactly!

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/diningmain.cfm

They have a lot of reviews and yes, I look at them. The rational is the same as gymnastics or figure skating: throw out the top and the bottom and go from there. Of course people who HATED IT will find a place to tell about it, the same with WE LOVE IT!

But I look for the middle views and the menus to really see what it there. If the bad reviews seem to be consistently in a say, three month period, might be an iffy choice. Of course if we have been there, unless something drastically happened, no we trust our own likes and dislikes over others. I read one (not this site or the above mentioned) where the reviewer really complained about all the waitstaff being gloomy and not very fast during their dining experience, of course one of their fellow waitstaff had suffered a fatal accident the previous day, but .....I just couldn't help chuckling, not over the death but over the callous way they looked at the staff.

I have gone to many sites you mentioned above and frankly I use the menu provided more than anything else to make ADR decisions so we know what we are going for and balance the ethnic foods (ie Yak and Yet, Boma, and Jiko in 6 days, not when we can try more variety).

I am a Tripadvisor nut! I look at the positive to negative ratio, but read the negative ones a lot to see whether they're a valid complaint or not. If there's a frequent repeating theme I tend to listen more.

I am less interested in review sites but I do pay attention to the trip reports on this site. If I tend to have similar views on shared experiences odds are the next experience might be shared as well. But everyone has a good day and a bad day and as a fan of experiencing something new I'll do something more out of my interest than a review.

I just read a review of BOG last night on the Disney food blog, but that is probably the first time ever

I don't usually read the reviews but on thing I do like about tripadvisor is they have pictures that people have uploaded and that is more than enough for me, if it looks like a good portion of food, nice quality of food, to be honest that's the only thing I like, don't read the reviews I like to decide for myself!

Mr hub, I worked in a cafe near London and everyday a miserable woman came in ordered a latte drank half and sent it back, I would clear her table and she would say "the coffee here is horrible" it took ever ounce of strength I had to not shout "why do you come here everyday then!" At her

I hear ya Phil, I hear ya.

What a terrible thing to call Mrs Thatcher...LOL...

So true, which is why you can really only take it with a grain of salt. I'm also a big believer in trying it out for yourself at least once. I usually really value the reviews on DFB, but AJ herself wrote a poor review of 1900 Park Fare breakfast and I still made a ressie to try it out this trip.

For me, I've found that TripAdvisor works well. But you have to do some work: look at the quantity of reviews, throw out the best and worst reviews, then look for trends. Reading 1 or 2 reviews doesn't cut it. If a place has 500 reviews and and still has an excellent rating, then odds are good that I'll like it. If it has 5 reviews with an excellent rating, then I know it's still a toss up. I tend to shy away from anything that has a mediocre rating.

And you are all right: reading these reviews can be absolutely hilarious. Always a wonderful waste of time.

I do read some of the reviews on all ears and the food blog but as someone who works in a restaurant I can tell you people can be very nit picky when it comes to eating out. I find asking here on the forum to be much more helpful. People on here give there view on the food and service and they seem to be pretty spot on. If it is a place I really want to try than I just go for it. If it is a restaurant I am kind of wishy washy on than I usually ask the forum and see if the good out weighs the bad.

Exactly what I do as well. Our honeymoon resort in Maui was a great example of why to read the negative reviews. It had an overall excellent rating, and the negative reviews complained about things that don't matter to me. Our resort was AMAZING and we couldn't find a thing to complain about. I'm glad we weren't scared away by the negative reviews.
Then again, I tend to look at the mediocre ones very carefully and more times than not shy away. Some people will always find something to complain about but not all complaints are unjustified.