I know that when I am traveling to a new city—whether for business or for play—one of the first things I think about is, “Where am I going to dine?” Being a hardcore foodie, I always look forward to trying out new restaurants, but at the same time, I always fear disappointment! Yelp.com continues to save the day! Whenever I plan on going to a new place, I ALWAYS rely on Yelp to find somewhere to eat. Yelp has reviews that are not only fun and informal but ones that are also very honest. Yelp has real everyday people contributing to the site, and it is by far my favorite way to find restaurant reviews. Here is how:

Open up your internet browser—Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, or whichever other browser you use.

To go to the yelp homepage, type in www.yelp.com.

In the middle of the Yelp page, you will see two boxes: one that says “Search for” and one that says “Near.” In search for, you can be as generic or as specific as you would like. You can simply type in restaurant or you can type in a type of cuisine: for example, you can type in Thai Restaurant. In the “near” box, you can type in the city’s name, a specific neighborhood in the city, or even an address in the city. For example, you can type in Dupont Circle and Yelp will search for Thai restaurants in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC.

Yelp will now show you a list of Thai restaurants in Dupont Circle. As you will see on the top of the page, you can arrange this list by “Best Match, Highest Rated, or Most Reviewed.” You can also select a certain price range you are looking for and special restaurant features that you are looking for.

You can click on a restaurant listing to see all the reviews made by yelp users. Many of the reviews are extremely helpful and will even make recommendations on menu items. Some users may even include photos of menu items or the restaurant interior! The restaurant listings will also include information about the restaurant such as the address, phone number, hours of operation, price range, if they deliver, if they accept reservations, if they have accessible parking, if they take credit cards, if they serve alcohol, etc.