Caitlin Williamson – Special to the Southern News
Food junkies assemble!
You just conquered you’re sixth hour of studying for that anatomy midterm and realize you haven’t touched a source of food the entire evening. You quickly Google search nearby delivery restaurants blindly, without any knowledge of how those crab rangoons are going to taste. A day filled with hunger, the delivery comes 20 minutes longer than the promised 30 minute guaranteed wait, and the rangoons taste like gym socks. You finally got your dream girl to say yes to your long-awaited date, your night to prove you are the one for her. You’ve driven past this pretty cool sushi bar downtown, and immediately thought she’d love it. Nervous and shaky you pick her up, bring her to the magical first date; she gets food poisoning from the not so fresh spicy tuna roll. Luckily for these foolish examples there is an amazing invention for the restaurant conscious throughout the world; restaurant reviews.
Money is precious for any college student, so ordering out is a treat for most. What do you do when you’re craving Chinese food? Majority will Siri results and maybe add in the highest rated, maybe ask the super senior living in the dorm next to you (chances are he’ll be quite knowledgeable in that field) or Google search results with the top ten spots coming up on the first page. No one wants to hope that Thai restaurant with the creepy name and even creepier location is just a cute little miracle in a hole-in-the-wall area, you want to know.
Reviews are fantastic, there is a star rating one-five to tell you the level of taste, service, popularity, prices, even some stories of the end results of a first date at that restaurant. A favorite iPhone app of mine would have to go to Yelp, introduced to me my sophomore year by one of the biggest “foodies” I have ever met. As in, the girl would get free delivery to the front desk she worked at because of the amount of take out orders she had placed, and to this day free Insomnia cookies delivered to her at her new job! Needless to say, I fully trusted her take out food and restaurant going advice.
Yelp gives you updates if you allow notifications to come to your phone, as well as the most popular restaurants to you with a simple click of the phone. Horror and happy stories, favorite and popular dishes to swoon away your dream date to seem highly educated in the filleting of salmon. Siri holds her own as well, really giving the fastest results to your iPhone 4s and up.
As a huge food lover and fashion lover I see it this way; if I see the latest trend in a magazine, go to the store to find that exact outfit, find it and then not look at any size on the outfit or try it on, just buy it right there on the spot in hopes my 30 minute drive back to my house I will be pleased with my purchase, chances are I brought home a size way too big for me or way too small. If I randomly begin craving calzones, I’m not going to plug in pizza restaurant in my phone, call the number, just place the order with no knowledge of the credibility or taste of the food on the menu, and hope this food is going to be made for the queens and kings.
Take pride in your late night munchies, or first date impressions, or even just going to dinner with a bunch of equally hungry friends who have had equally long weeks. No one wants to be disappointed with food making and food tasting; I don’t always eat take out or go to restaurants, but when I do I go with Yelp. Stay hungry, my friends.
