OVER THE MANY years I made my living as a restaurant critic, I dined out 5,123 times, not counting the office cafeteria and numerous airport eateries that I described as “fast food served slowly.” Whenever people learn about my immoderate profession, they invariably ask, “How did you choose where to go?” My strategy was quite simple, at least in the unplugged 1980s: I asked around. Then came the World Wide Web, with its breathtaking search capabilities and lightning interactivity. This spawned all sorts of restaurant voting sites, as well as a nationwide upsurge of self-anointed restaurant reviewers sounding off around the clock, issuing so many contradictory opinions that they can be more confusing than constructive.

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