Dishtip: aggregating restaurant reviews down to the entree level

May 7, 2011 8:47 AM

Dishtip is a service that combs through restaurant reviews on other sites and attempts to figure out the best dishes of a particular type in a city of your choice (e.g. waffles in New York or tacos in San Francisco) or a particular restaurant's best dishes (say at Alinea).
posted by shivohum (20 comments total)

I searched for "pizza" near "Milwaukee" and none of the results were in Milwaukee. OK, fine, we're not known for pizza. So I searched for "beer." And "bratwurst" Again, none of the results were anywhere near me. The top result for bratwurst was in New Jersey. Something's off with their algorithm.
posted by desjardins at 8:57 AM on May 7, 2011

Huh -- that's strange. When I typed in pizza and milwaukee, WI I got this page, and the results do seem to be in Milwaukee...
posted by shivohum at 9:01 AM on May 7, 2011

'Dishtip' is an anagram of 'dipshit.'
posted by box at 9:03 AM on May 7, 2011 [8 favorites]

I'm using Chrome, maybe that's it? I'm stumped - when I click on your link, it's fine, but the page I was at has the exact same URL as your link, but totally different results.
posted by desjardins at 9:06 AM on May 7, 2011

In some cases, there’s no good data available to be mined. For instance, San Franciscans don’t seem to know much about Spanish cuisine (which is hardly related to Latin American cuisine), so their reviews of Spanish restaurants have been of no help to me.
posted by davel at 9:10 AM on May 7, 2011

box: "'Dishtip' is an anagram of 'dipshit.'"

I was disappointed when I saw this mefiblue tweet that said "Dishtip is a service that combs through restaurant reviews on other sites and attempts to figure out the b..." and it wasn't actually about a service that combs through restaurant reviews to figure out who are the dipshits that ruin them.
posted by Memo at 9:13 AM on May 7, 2011

mmmmmmyeah...this is an example of what you call Groupfail.
chicken and waffles IS NOT a New York dish.
the waffle sundae (full belgian waffle, 4+ scoops of ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, walnuts, cherry, ~8000+ calories) IS. look on any diner menu in manhattan.
algorithms and opinion (and food) do not mix.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:32 AM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

desjardins - Did you type Milwaukee with a lowercase M? After looking at shivohum's working page, it looks like the site doesn't understand "milwaukee, wi".
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:23 AM on May 7, 2011

My city is not only not available, but Yelp is so much better at what this is trying to be.
posted by Malice at 12:44 PM on May 7, 2011

Going to be interesting to try this out a bit and see if it broadens my horizons in Austin-related cuisine. A lot of the results on the front page are obvious (best fried avocado tacos at Torchys? I'd never have guessed) but there were a couple of places I didn't know about either.
posted by immlass at 12:48 PM on May 7, 2011

Goat cheese tortelloni with dried orange, as yummy as it sounds, is not pizza. Fail.
posted by Splunge at 12:58 PM on May 7, 2011

desjardins - Did you type Milwaukee with a lowercase M?

ah, this is the problem. this site hates e.e. cummings.
posted by desjardins at 1:32 PM on May 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

chicken and waffles IS NOT a New York dish.

Have you ever actually been to Amy Ruth's?
posted by neroli at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2011

The best "Shake shack burgers" in NYC are "@ Shake Shack"? Gee, thanks.
posted by nicwolff at 5:32 PM on May 7, 2011

Amy Ruth's (from their website:) EST. 1998
oh yes, quite the New York tradition...
posted by sexyrobot at 7:54 PM on May 7, 2011

I put in United States all foods. The all-time #3 result was Bakesale Betty's buttermilk fried chicken sandwich (with spicy jalapeno cole slaw). I find this to be totally believable, as the line around the block attests.

When I put in Pizza, and United States, it comes back with #1 "A Slice of New York" in San Jose. I'm pretty sure that's like the 1000th best pizza in the US at best. Although I'm intrigued by this pizza which is apparently quite popular despite the unconventional topping depicted.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:15 PM on May 7, 2011

@BrotherCaine, that's quite a pizza. :)

Searching for pizza in Chicago returns a pretty reasonable list, but includes a listing of Lou Malnati's as "New York Style," with a photo of deep dish. Way to offend *both* sides of that argument.
posted by me3dia at 9:56 AM on May 8, 2011

Woot! Another geotagged site that doesn't support my city, despite the fact I have found online reviews of places in town.
posted by Samizdata at 9:52 PM on May 8, 2011

chicken and waffles IS NOT a New York dish.

I'm guessing your implication is that it's an LA dish, but...

A restaurant named the Wells Supper Club in Harlem (1938–1999) used the slogan "Wells: Home of Chicken and Waffles, Since 1938".

A commonly quoted story is that the Wells Supper Club started selling the chicken and waffles dish to late-night patrons of their club in 1938 "as it was too late for dinner, and too early for breakfast"; so Wells Supper Club served both dishes on the one plate.

Roscoe's: 1975.
posted by ego at 10:42 AM on May 11, 2011

I'm guessing your implication is that it's an LA dish, but...
then you'd be putting words in my mouth... no, I'd assume it's from the south, perhaps, as the three paragraphs immediately above your carefully selected quote, as well as the location of the majority of the restaraunts listed afterward, suggest. ~^
posted by sexyrobot at 10:10 AM on May 12, 2011