Perry Street Fans and their Salty Ways

A recent comment to my old Perry Street review left me writing a too-long response in the comments section. I think it deserves a wider airing here.

Stevie Vong points out that he had recently eaten at Perry Street and

The food was delicious. Does the author has no taste? Or was so drunk, couldn’t taste the food?

The rabbit especially- very tasty. That new avocado, mushroom with jalapeno appetizer is to die for.

You want taste…go to Spice Market…if you don’t taste the food- it’s you!

I responded with an indictment of the Citysearch comments section. It’s not their fault, actually. It’s just hard to know if overly positive comments are spam or if these people can’t stop taking happy pills.

My reply, and Andy Rooney, after this jump:

Mr. Vong:
Hey, it’s possible they’ve cleaned up their act since I was last there, but I doubt it. Check out the last few reviews on Citysearch.

I ignore the first two reviews, of course, as one author appears to only leave positive reviews (suspicious) and the other author only has one review under her belt (doubly suspicious when the review is as fawning as hers is). And both reviews appear on the same day! Previous reviews are spaced out over several days or weeks. I’ve long suspected that friends of Perry Street spam the reviews. Citysearch user “mobetta123″ who so valiantly defended Perry Street following my initial review had never posted a single review until that point and has not posted one since.

As a rule, I seek out negative reviews first, because the positive praise they give is usually on the spot. I’d rather hear something good about you from your enemy or something bad about you from your friends. These assessments ring true.

Some headlines of negative Perry Street reviews at Citysearch:

• Horrible food and service + Great atmosphere = Don’t waste your money
• Arrived at restaurant to find our reservation cancelled, even after I confirmed.
• Top notch meal, a bit salty
• Waited over 45 minutes from our reservation time-Crowd is Euro trash
• Treated like garbage!

Now, of course, there are lots of positive reviews, too. Like I said, I go to the negative first. I also consider the reference point of the reviewer. When it comes to reviews about bad service, I am usually a little skeptical. It’s easy for some people to feel offended by their server. Some people are just really high strung. So I tend to give the restaurant some leeway on those reviews. If someone isn’t seated on time, maybe they approach the rest of the meal with a more critical eye.

However, my review of Perry Street concerned the food. I thought the service was perfect. No one at the restaurant offended me and I have no axe to grind. If recent reviews (the last two, from the same day) are on the money then perhaps the food has gone up a notch. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been back. Fool me once…