Choosing which Carlow restaurants to dine in can be difficult for a traveler unfamiliar to the area. How do you choose a restaurant when traveling?
When traveling almost everyone wants to enjoy a good local meal. It’s part of the traveling experience.
However, by diving in without much fore-thought or research, you could end up footing the bill for a below satisfactory meal. Or equally as disappointing, you might opt for a generic fast-food joint; missing out on the unique and wide array of choices available in the area. There are a number of simple tricks to help you along the way.
Here is some advice on how to the perfect Carlow restaurants for you,
- Prepare: Use websites such as Tripadvisor or Yelp before you go there to pick out restaurants that you would like to visit. You can use these websites to see star-ratings and read reviews from previous customers to figure out if it is a good quality restaurant with good service. Using websites such as Justeat.ie can allow you to review the menu in many restaurants. However these websites promote restaurants that offer a take-away service, missing many excellent sit-down restaurants that do not, in the area.
- When walking, wander off the main street/ shopping areas into surrounding streets. Sometimes, a gem of a restaurant could be slightly off the beaten track. While you are guaranteed to find fast-food outlets on the main street. You can achieve a more authentic experience from walking around the town to find some excellent local restaurants.
- Ask the locals: Check out where the locals go to eat. Be sure to ask your hotel reception or guest-house keeper what suggestions they might have for you. Their local knowledge and experience will help you choose which restaurants to decide upon. Be sure to ask people you meet at the local farmers market, if you visit it.
- Use the internet: Try to find local blogs which provide food reviews. You can also find individual restaurant websites to view their menus and image galleries. This allows you make a better informed decision on whether or not you would like to eat there.
- Be spontaneous: Tripadvisor and other websites have apps for smartphones that allow you to check the restaurants in the surroundings of your current location.
- Ask your friends: Before making the trip, ask anyone you know who has stayed there before for any suggestions. Their advice can make the decision very simple if you decide to do the same. It can help you avoid a place where they had a bad experience also.
It is important to be cautious when reviewing ‘top’ results only on some review sites. Some experience a phenomenon of ‘positive spiralling‘. This is where a business gains attention for some reason, which will attract more visitors. These visitors will increase reviews of the business, in turn attracting even more visitors and may artificially inflate its ranking.
When visiting Carlow, it is important to be pro-active prepared in choosing which restaurants you wish to dine in. Using the steps mentioned above should help you along your way.