But once you've chosen a promising candidate, you can often find a professionally written review. According to Jim Riesenbach, Digital City's general manager, those reviews come courtesy of the Gayot restaurant guides, which cover about 17,000 establishments on the site. At no charge, the system checks for available tables at the restaurants and automatically secures a spot for you if available. CitySearch, unlike Digital City, offers more than 10,000 reviews written by its own staff, which is overseen by Bryan Miller, vice president for restaurant content and a former food and restaurant critic for The New York Times. Miller said that because the reviews didn't originate from books, which can take many months to produce, the information was current.
Web site is a worthwhile pick.
Stern said he often used the Web to check up on places he and his wife were considering for review. Stern said he searches for reviews that reflect his own tastes. N.Y. According to Jim Gurfein, the company's chief executive, RestaurantRow lists about 160,000 places to eat, mostly independent restaurants. In the coming months, he said, the site will allow users to choose restaurants by price. RestaurantRow uses only reviews written by users.