Gen Z Skips Yelp for Social Media Restaurant Reviews, Recommendations

Picture this: A Gen Z foodie in Brooklyn walks into a buzzy new pasta spot. They didn’t read about it in The New York Times or The Infatuation, nor did they discover it through a Google Maps search.

Instead, they received the recommendation the way many younger diners do: by scrolling through their Instagram feed.

For many Gen Z and millennial diners, picking a restaurant is no longer about critics’ stars or Yelp averages — it’s about what shows up in their feeds and group chat threads.

“We’ve seen in the last three to four years, the way that people are discovering restaurants and choosing restaurants is dramatically changing, and that’s largely because the way that people search is dramatically changing,” Abby Hughes, the head of growth and strategy at Belle Communication, which specializes in influencer marketing for restaurant and food brands, told Business Insider.

“They’re going to social media first before Google, and even before Yelp,” she added.

A decade ago, diners in major cities like New York leaned on Yelp and Google reviews to choose where to eat. A 2016 Harvard Business School study found that a one-star increase in the average rating on Yelp could drive between 5% and 9% more revenue for independent restaurants.

Pre-Instagram, critics backed by major media organizations also held substantial sway over which restaurants gained widespread recognition.

When Frank Bruni reviewed Momofuku Ko for The New York Times in 2008, for example, his three-star review helped propel it into a new tier of recognition. Similarly, when Pete Wells took over as the Times’ restaurant critic in 2012, his reviews were seen as capable of making or breaking dining spots.

Gen Z is going to social media first before Google, and even before Yelp.Abby Hughes

Recent data indicate that influence has shifted from the hands of a few prominent individuals to the algorithm.

According to a March survey conducted in partnership with Belle Communication and Nation’s Restaurant News, 73% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said a social media review led them to visit a restaurant in the past three months, while 43.7% said they go to social media first for restaurant recommendations. Meanwhile, 38.6% said they use social review sites like Google or Yelp.

“It comes down to where they’re spending the majority of their time, which is online,” Hughes said. “It’s on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. That’s where they go for inspiration for information across multiple facets of their life.”

Hughes said there’s a missed opportunity for restaurants that don’t place value on social media, specifically influencer marketing.

“Right now, people are being very selective with how they’re spending their money,” she said. “Consumers are dining out less, and everyone is trying to capture the attention of Gen Z.”

Elizabeth Clayton, a 26-year-old living in Brooklyn, said she regularly sends and receives restaurant reviews from Instagram or TikTok to friends and group chats.

A review from a food influencer will catch her eye if there’s something unique about the restaurant’s interior or the presentation of its food. “When it comes to short-form content, that’s what will get me to stop scrolling,” she added.

Food influencers and collectives are leveraging this power. Five years after launching their handle, Audrey Jongens and Meg Radice of The VIP List have carved out a place on social media for their unfiltered, “brutally honest” restaurant reviews of famous haunts like Rao’s, Carbone, and Red Hook Tavern in New York City.

The fast-paced reviews, created for TikTok or Instagram Reels, are made by cutting together multiple clips filmed during a meal and narrated with evocative words like “creamy” and “decadent.”

“People used to have to read a super long paragraph or essay about a restaurant to know if it was any good, and I just don’t think that anyone even has the time to do that anymore,” said Jongens, a Gen Z-Millennial cusper who also uses TikTok when searching where to eat. “Never once am I going to Yelp or Google.”

With over 140,000 followers on Instagram and 450,000 followers on TikTok, the duo is gaining traction with city diners and out-of-towners. Even though it’s trending with Gen Z, The VIP List’s following still falls short of traditional review platforms, such as The New York Times, which has a cooking account where columnists share similar short-form video reviews of restaurants to its 4.5 million Instagram followers.

The New York Times’ audience tends to skew older — according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, the average age of a New York Times reader is 43.

Hughes said follower counts aren’t always the best indicator of what will drive foot traffic to a restaurant.

“Some of the best results and the most impact when working with influencers come from those micro-creators,” she said, which she defined as creators with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.

Beyond the visual appeal of food reviews, Hughes said the “relatability” of food influencers is what attracts viewers. Some influencers are also known for sharing honest reviews, “and that honesty can create that trust,” she said. That’s true of Jongens and Radice, neither of whom has a professional culinary background — a fact they say makes them more relatable to their audience.

“Food criticism is probably one of the most pretentious industries in the world,” Radice said. “We’re talking Michelin, ‘I’m a sommelier,’ all this stuff. ‘The wine smells of sandalwood.'”

“You don’t need to know all these terms to know if the food tastes good or not.”

They also don’t hold back, Jongens said. “We come with receipts. We’re not only telling you about the food, we are showing everything. When a restaurant sucks, we can literally show why — and when a restaurant is amazing, we can also show that as well,” she said.

We come with receipts. We’re not only telling you about the food, we are showing everything.Audrey Jongens, The VIP List

Still, mistrust in influencers — who might be paid by a business or receive a free meal in exchange for posting about it — can run high. Clayton said she trusts Google and Yelp reviews because she feels that those users have less to gain from posting.

Influencers, however, have standards that they abide by to maintain their credibility.

Radice said that while she and Jongens occasionally accept complimentary meals, they never post reviews in exchange for them. At most, they might share a photo from the visit, but they won’t publicly comment on the food unless they’ve paid for it themselves.

And even when money or access changes hands, Hughes said, smaller or local creators can act as valuable extensions of a restaurant’s team who don’t have the time or resources to produce engaging social content.

It’s something Pietro Quaglia knows well. His bubble-gum pink Italian restaurant, Pietro Nolita, reaped the benefits of its Insta-fame during the 2010s.

“For years, we had a strong presence on Instagram and TikTok — even if it was sometimes for the wrong reasons,” Quaglia said over email. “We had our playful slogan, ‘Pink as F***,’ and people came in droves to post photos, but often just because it was pink and kitschy.”

He added, “Not many cared or understood about the homemade fresh pasta that took hours to prepare, or the sauces that took even longer, and all the ingredients we imported from Italy.”

The Manhattan restaurant underwent a revamp in February, swapping the pink for burgundy, focusing more on its food, and “stepping a bit away from the hyper-social-media aesthetic,” Quaglia said.

Still, he said, he believes social media is important for reaching younger audiences. And those audiences are getting broader. Sprout Social reported in February that 60% of Instagram users were under the age of 35. Yet 78% of Gen Xers have an Instagram profile, according to the agency’s 2024 report.

Jongens and Radice both said their typical audience encompasses Gen Z, but millennials are also a core part of their audience.

“Millennials are the ones who can afford the places we go to,” Radice said. “We’re posting three Michelin-star meals. In college, I couldn’t afford that.”

Whatever their age, diners are still hungry for opinions. For some, social media feeds are the new Zagat guide, and traditional print reviews are starting to taste a little stale.

Still, one doesn’t have to be swapped for the other. Hughes believes that traditional restaurant reviews and influencer content can coexist and may even better leverage restaurants for success.

“I think when combined, that’s where the greatest power lies for restaurants,” she said.