How do you choose a restaurant?

I’ll admit it—I’m one of those people who takes a photo of my meal to share on Instagram. This isn’t anything new for me. This is a hobby of mine that pre-dates smartphones. I can remember using my digital camera to take a photo of a nice dinner while on vacation, or some other special meal, and posting it on Facebook for my friends and family to see. (Who am I kidding… It was probably MySpace.)

This fun little hobby has evolved into a full-fledged “foodie influencer” account that I run with my best friend. (I can already feel the eyerolls from behind my computer.) Back when we started, we weren’t trying to be influencers or make a business out of it, we simply wanted to merge our love of food and the diverse restaurant scene in our area with our marketing and photography talent. That’s still how we operate today. We’ll post about a great meal we had, a new restaurant opening or new menu, and the occasional giveaway or promotion in conjunction with a restaurant or business.

That’s now how all influencers run their accounts, though.

There are some accounts that only post sponsored or promotional content, whether it be a paid sponsorship or a comped meal. That’s pretty common, especially for those who have made “influencer” their job title and running an account their source of income. What I find to be more problematic are the accounts who post items that are made specifically for Instagram. That is to say, the meal didn’t necessarily taste good… it just looked good.

This Gizmodo article from 2016 sums it up nicely. “In the age of Instagram, the way food looks is more important than how it tastes.” Unfortunately, this statement is even more true now in 2019. Now that restaurants have caught on to how important social media is to their marketing mix, many create outlandish dishes specifically to capitalize on this Insta-fame, regardless of the flavor. In turn, influencers post these dishes for their many followers to see.

Here is where the problem arises. I’m also someone who is on the other side of these influencer accounts. How do I choose a restaurant? Usually, I’ll turn directly to Instagram—especially if I’m in a new city. The beauty of Instagram is that I can search a hashtag and find an array of options near me. The downside is that these don’t come with reviews. This isn’t Yelp, where users are leaving comments on their experiences with the food, service, and more. I’m picking based on a photo alone, perhaps a description in the caption, and hoping that the account who posted truly enjoyed the dish. Obviously, that’s not always the case.

I’ve even fallen victim to it in my own city. So many food accounts that I follow had posted photos of a new bubble tea location. The photos looked amazing, with the multi-colored layers of liquid instantly catching my eye. I made a trip to the place specifically to try the drinks I saw posted, only to be sorely disappointed. The flavors were bad when combined that way. It looked amazing, but tasted terrible. The location didn’t stay open for long.

All of this to ask: How do you choose a restaurant? If you scour hashtags on Instagram and stop at the most eye-catching image (as I am prone to do), beware. That beautiful, rainbow-colored, over-the-top dish before you may not be as tasty as it looks!