On a recent episode of ABC,s "The Chew", Co-Hosts Mario Batali, and Guest Chief Josh Capon discussed Restaurant secrets. http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/episodes/March-19-2013

Part of this discussion centered on online restaurant reviews. It was apparent that Mario and Josh were not fans of online review sites, even mocking some of their negative reviews, reading them to music.

So, do they have a point? Should we ignore online restaurant reviews? Granted there are trolls out there who love to criticize just to criticize. But I'm thinking they do have a place. There have always Restaurant critics, but in today's world we all can be food critics (myself included).

Whenever we go to a new city or location, we scout out common sites such as Urban Spoon urbanspoon.com tripadvisor.com, among others. If your checking a place out, try to read as may different reviews on and many different sites as possible. Everyplace will have a negative review, but as you go through them, you may be able to see common threads, such as service, wait times, and food quality. If the reviews are consistently bad, then it's time to move on to another restaurant.

We're hoping to leave on a little early spring break, going to Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, and not doubt, we are going to try, what we think, and going to be some great places to eat. And yes, We _will_ be reviewing them online for your reading pleasure.

Sorry Mario!