Yelp Review vs. Food Critic Taste Test

– Do food experts really know what they’re talking about? – Let’s talk about that. (bright upbeat music) Good Mythical Morning. – As a man who takes food very seriously, one of the most important decisions I can make is choosing where to go for dinner. We are living in a time with endless options. – And the internet has a lot of guidance but even that gets overwhelming. – Yeah. – I mean, you got sites that aggregate the opinions of regular people, of which I like to think I’m one. – Hold on. You consider yourself regular? Well

then what’s irregular? – Well, I’m an irregular regular person. I’m not a food critic. I would- – Ah. – What I do is closer to just leaving reviews on Yelp. – That kind of regular, got it. – In contrast, there are sites full of pro food critics of which I am not one. – Yes. – Whose reviews should technically be the most knowledgeable, like The Infatuation. How am I supposed to know who to trust? The people or the pros? – Okay, that’s a good question, which is why today we’re gonna figure it out. It’s time

for “Who Loved This Food?” (upbeat music) – All right, boys, in each round you’ll be given two similar dishes. One of those dishes will be the highest rated option on a

website that aggregates reviews from average Joes. Your Trip Advisors, your Yelps. The other dish- – Trip Advisor? – Will be determined by- – Yeah. – The best- – Trip Advisor’s great for restaurants. I discovered that recently. – I didn’t know that. – Yeah. – I just said the other dish will be determined by the best. And I didn’t mean to say that, but you were

having another conversation- – Food critic. Food critic. – So it totally worked out. Yes, the other one is the best determined by food critic experts on websites like The Infatuation, Eater, Time Out, et cetera. You’ll taste both and you’ll decide your favorite. And by the end of this whole thing, we’re gonna see which side can really be trusted, starting with pizza. – And these are pretty similar. We’ve got some basil and some sundried tomatoes. – That’s, that is some dark basil. Is that because it’s fire roasted? – I mean, it was put on the pizza

and then cooked, which I assume changes the color of basil. So we’re expected to think that both of these are good in some way, right? – Sure. – I mean, yeah, because this is good. – It is good. Now is this a, that’s a, this is like a sundried tomato, which I’ll accept. – Good. Now that we’re on the same page. You’ve accepted the tomato. – Now over here. – This is a little bit more, I mean, Margherita. – I’m gonna pull this apart so we can get it. We can get it, we can get

it. – The little cheese clumps. It’s a little thinner crust. – I feel fancy, no matter what. – Oh, getting this pizza is kind of fancy, you know what I’m sayin’? – Mm-hm. – When you don’t just put a lot of meat on it, like what I usually do- – When the cheese- – You’re already a little fancy. – Doesn’t cover the entire top of a pizza, you know you’re in fancy territory, which is strange to me. This one’s got cheese in more places. – Okay, I know which one I like more and I actually

think I like it quite a bit more. – Okay. Three, two, one. – Wham, wham, wham. Got it. – This is a regular guy. He just a regular guy. – Yeah, this right here is, it’s got more cheese, which is basically my deciding factor. – I thought it went beyond- – It’s not horrible over here. – I thought it went beyond just the cheese and I thought that the level of flavor was, like, 2X on this one versus this one. – Yeah, ’cause the cheese is 2X, too. – Okay, well let’s start on Link’s side.

This is the Margherita pizza from Pizzeria Bianco for $24. It was the best pizza in LA according to the experts with the highest rating on The Infatuation’s best pizza places in LA. The website said, “Pizzeria Bianco is able to make the thinnest crust imaginable without compromising any of that great, bready chew we crave.” – It is very, very thin. – And on Rhett’s side was the Margherita pizza from The Luggage Room for $17 with 4.5 stars. This is the top result when searching for the best pizza in Los Angeles On Trip Advisor. – That’s in

Pasadena, right? – Yeah. – I think it’s in Pasadena. I’ve been there. It’s good. – I left one juicy tidbit for this moment exactly because you both chose the people’s dish in this round. You get to celebrate with a man of the pizza, pizza ma- (Stevie laughs) – Yeah, yeah, we get it. Yeah, man of the pizza. – Man of the pizza, all right. – Man of the people. – Oh. – Our old timey chimney sweep. Come on out. (upbeat music) (Matt laughing) – Hello. – We’re supposed to dance with this guy? – You can

dance, too, please. I don’t wanna be alone. Well, had the song ended. – Yeah, yeah, well maybe next time. – All right, well next time, yeah. – You look great, Chase. – Yeah. – Thank you. (people laughing) – Wow. Okay. – We’re men of the people. – Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just, we thought it was a show. Dinner and a show. Sorry. (upbeat music) – Burgers. Yes. – Man, well, that one’s very big and very lettuce-y. Let’s start here with something more manageable. – Mm-hm, you know what burger reminds me of? – Oh, don’t say-

– The death of Moochelle. – Oh, don’t say… (people laughing) – Yeah. – I’m gonna have trouble with this. – Not that the dance reminded me too, but… – I’m gonna have trouble eating this now, but you know what? We are on the case. We are turning over every stone to try to bring justice, to serve justice to whoever took out Moochelle. – Turns out some of those stones are cow pies and we didn’t know that. – Yeah, right. – Now this looks a lot better than this. – Got a potato bun. – Oh, yeah.

– Got a relatively thin patty and a lot of sauce. – Just a, it’s a, it appears to be, is it a smash burger? Good gosh, is that just mayonnaise? Let’s give it a shot. – It’s not a smash burger, but it’s closer to one. – Hm. – It’s good. It’s actually, it’s actually getting better the more I taste it. Now this one… – They haven’t thrown too much at that. This seems like the type of thing that a critic would, I don’t know, would they make fun of it or would they love the fact

that there’s a huge piece of lettuce that- – Well, here’s the thing- – That serves as your hors d’oeuvre? – In LA, the sites that we’re talking about are not like frou-frou food critic sites. They’re like, you know what I’m sayin’? – That’s a good point. – It’s not like it’s more elevated, I guess, than like a normy opinion, but it’s still- – Have your lettuce and eat your burger, too. I just don’t know about this lettuce on the bottom. And where’s the cheese, homes? This is a, this is a cheese-less burger, isn’t it? –

I’m really thinking about Moochelle now. Look at that. (people laughing) I gotta come back to this one. – This is good. I like the, even the grilled mushrooms. The lettuce is just over the top and I mean, who wants exploding lettuce? Hmm. – They’re both pretty good burgers. I think I like one a little bit more. – I’ve eaten some really good burgers in this town and neither one of ’em are here right now. – Yeah, I 100% agree with that. – Three, two, one. – But I gotta go with this one. – I think

this one’s actually a little bit better. – Oh, split-sies. Okay, we’ll start with Rhett’s side. This is the single burger from Everson Royce Bar for $11. It was the best burger in LA according to the experts. It’s featured on countless best of burger burgers in LA lists, including Food Network, whose critics called it, “Classically appealing.” And then on Link’s side is The One Burger from the Morrison for $25, the best burger in LA according to the people. The Morrison has 4.5 stars and over 6,000 reviews on Yelp with one reviewer claiming it was, “By far

the best burger” they’ve ever had. – I wouldn’t say that, ’cause I like this one more. – Well, you’re, so you- – But not a whole lot more. I mean, it wasn’t like, oh man, it’s so much better than what you would get at… I mean, you didn’t hear it from me, but I’d take Shake Shack over both of these any day. – Yeah, for real. – Well you get to dance with a chimney sweep. – Do I? It’s me, it’s me. – Now you dance with me. (laughs) (upbeat music) All right. – How did

you get so tall, Chase? – It’s… I’m Matt Lieb. I’ve been here for years. – Oh. (people laughing) – Matt Lieb. (Link laughs) – Yeah, yeah. – I made him, I made him break character, but not really. – Yeah, yeah. (upbeat music) You know, ironically, we have our own food critics here in-house at Mythical on Team Sporked, and I think that they’ve got some opinions of the people, you know? – Yeah, yeah. – They’re qualified, but they’re also relatable, so you could check out the new rankings on Sporked like vegan tuna, Trader Joe’s salad kits,

frozen veggie pizza and more. Lots of updated rankings because they’re constantly getting new stuff in, like the new frozen meatballs, new frozen chicken pie pie. We gotta update ’em so you get the best of rest. – If you wanna buy it, go to Sporked first. Search it up. Donuts. – Say we start with a regular. – Yeah, this is a good test. – Regular glazed, plain glazed. – I mean, I will say that all of these look- – Pretty similar. You wouldn’t know- – Similar. – Anything just based on… Again, it’s not a fancy donut.

It’s a donut that fancy people like. – So we’re gonna go over here. There you go. That’s a decent plain. Ooh, this one’s better. – No, hey. Keep it inside, don’t influence me. But that one’s better. (people laughing) – And then for the- – It’s softer. – Break those in halft. Halft. – So we got a cakey donut. – Cakey sprinkle. – Sprinkles on the inside. – Oh, wow. That’s a, that’s something that someone would like to write about an article. – Hm. These are lighter. Like literally they weigh less. – Clear winner there. Not

gonna say which one. – Yeah, I agree, but things got complicated for me. – Now we’re just going with the classic chocolate over the top-let. You gonna eat a donut? When is the best time to eat a donut? There’s a clear preference in my mind here. – Late at night. – Late at night when you’re out? – Yeah, yeah. I got like a midnight donut in downtown LA recently- – So many donut shops in LA. It’s crazy. – Three, two, one. – So much better. Softer- – I like the- – More flavorful. – I like

the sprinkles on this a little bit more. – Yeah. – But the other two were better. – Agreed. – Okay, we’ll start on Rhett’s side. It’s a sampling of donuts from Sidecar Donut. The vanilla bean lazed, the choc-a-lot and the celebration cake donuts. Each cost between $4 and $5. Sidecar had the best donuts in LA according to the experts. Critics at Thrillist said Sidecar’s Donuts, “Boast a perfect crustiness that hides an exceptionally moist interior.” And then on Link’s side was a sampling of donuts from Primo’s Donuts. The original glaze, the chocolate raised- – Primo. –

And the sprinkles donuts. Each cost about $3. It has 4.5 stars on Yelp, making it the people’s choice. One reviewer called them, “Crispy on the outside, soft inside and just the right amount of texture and fluffiness.” – They’re light and fluffy. – Primo’s. We gots to go. – Chimney sweep, please. (Matt laughing) – You know, I just wanna thank you for all the work that you’ve been doing to our chimneys and- – Yeah. – Have you worked on the dryer vents here? – Oh no, but I was gonna get to it after me dancin’, yeah.

– Okay, good. (people laughing) – David Beckham, fish and chips. – Clean out your dryer vents and the lint tubes. Could be a fire hazard. – That’s right. (upbeat music) Ramen. – We come running for the ramen. – This one’s a little prettier, but I mean- – You want me to, you want me to give a nice little push and stir? ‘Cause I never had any of this until… I’ll do a little pushing stir over here. We can double up on the push and stir. (people laughing) You’re not pushing or stirring enough. And I’m gonna

take a little bit of this. I’m just gonna go with broth first. – Yeah, me too. – Woo! Woo, that’s good. Now this one looks different. – Again, this is- – This one’s thinner. – It’s gonna be tough because they’re both well loved. It’s not like one of ’em is from the frozen section, you know what I mean? – Okay, so just in terms of, and look at that hunk of pork, y’all. – They’re both incredibly flavorful in different ways. – Oop, sorry, sorry. – I’m just gonna, I’m gonna kind of just eat each individual

piece here. – I know. I got some of your hair. Sorry. – Can you be a little less aggressive? – Yeah, man. – Just a little less aggressive. – Anything for you. – Small pieces of pork over here. – This is definitely fancier. – And they both have a very strong flavor but that one has like an unexpected flavor. – When you go back to North Carolina, do a lot of people eat the ramen there now? Because when we were there, we weren’t eating the ramen. – Yeah, they got- – A decade ago, then we

left and now when we go back it’s like, oh yeah, the reasons why we left. Now maybe we should go back ’cause they got the ramen. – Well we didn’t leave Northern Carolina to get away from something, like bad food. – No, I went- – We came here to the land of opportunity. – To get the ramen. I came here only for the ramen. – Yeah, they- – I’m gonna stay over here. – They have it. Not as many options, but like you can totally get it. – This is easy for me. – Hold on

one second. – Really easy. – I don’t want to contaminate. – If it’s raining outside- – Three. – If it’s a little bit cold- – Two, one. – Get you some ramen and it better be this one. – That one has a, I don’t know, it’s a weird aftertaste. Like a sour aftertaste. The broth- – Yeah. – The broth on this one’s better, the pork’s, every single element of this one better. – Every single thing. Somebody was really wrong. – On Link’s side was the tonkatsu ramen from Tsujita for $16.50, the Best Ramen in LA,

according to the experts. Critics from multiple sources including Eater listed them on their list of the best ramen in LA saying, “Their broth and noodles are nearly perfect.” And then on Rhett’s side was old school ramen from Tatsu for $13.95, best Ramen in LA according to the people. Tatsu has 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor and reviewers called it, “The best ramen ever,” and “A ramen bowl so good, you have to come back for seconds.” – I agree. Power to the people. – Here we go again. – Yay. – Yes! (upbeat music) – We don’t need those

critics roaming here. – Yeah. – We like the people’s ramen, yeah. – Yeah. – Dance! Oh, well. – Yeah, no, I just didn’t wanna wear myself out. You know, you dropped a feather. – Oh well, can you buy me a new one, please? – Ah, I think you’re still, I think, I think you’re still good. – Oh, I’m gonna make glue and put it back together. – He’s gonna go kill a horse and make glue. – Yeah. – I think he only has one dance. (Rhett sighs) – It’s the chimney sweep dance. Okay, that’s an

odd thing that that’s so popular. – It really is strange. – It’s so specific that maybe there’s something in the ramen world that we don’t know about that, like, that sour taste is what you’re after, but this, in our minds, tastes a lot better. Which I think, I mean, three outta four times, I chose the people. Four outta four times, you chose the people. I think the message here is that our opinions can be trusted to represent the people. – In aggregate. Oh is that? Oh yeah, we can be trusted. – Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

– But the Yelp-ishness of the world can be trusted over just one person. I think you use the critic sites just to get exposed to, like, this is a new place that I haven’t been but I’m still gonna choose, if I haven’t been to a place and everybody’s talkin’, everybody likes, wants, likes, and talks about- – Wants, likes, and talks about. Yeah. – The choice is clear. – Especially when there’s a lot of rankings and lot ratings. I mean, you gotta trust the people. There you go. – Thanks for being a people and for subscribing

and clicking that bell. – You know what time it is. – Hi everyone, I’m Lossie. – And I’m Jeremy and we are in Deception Island, Antarctica- – And it’s time to see the Wheel of Mythicality. – Or are you? – Antarctica looks kind of sunny. – Deception Island? Green screen maybe? – Mm-hm. – Click the top link to watch us discover real or fake celebrity restaurants on “Good Mythical More.” – And to find out where the Wheel of Mythicality’s gonna land. Check out the new food rankings over at Sporked. They tasted and ranked the best

vegan tuna, Trader Joe’s salad kits, frozen pizza and more and they’re going back and updating rankings by tasting your suggestions, too, so be sure to comment.