Most Accurate Restaurant Rating (Google Maps or Yelp)?

For restaurants? Yelp.

For any other business or industry? Google

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Disagree, yelp is full of complainers, reviews are skewed

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So, if that's the case a restaurant with a good Yelp score must be really really good then

All review sites have people who are "complainers". I typically read reviews, and look for bad reviews to see if I deem their complaints as valid.

Open Table

My go to for restaurants

I loved using urbanspoon back in the day but Zomato bought them. Not sure how good it is now but I switched over to opentable to get the $$$

I use trip advisor. It can occasionally be hit or miss, but generally I've found a lot of good restaurants from there

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a theory that if you have a positive experience at a certain type of business (retail store, cleaners, gym, etc), it goes largely unnoticed, and one is not likely to leave a positive review.

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I agree with this theory but it is really because it is more fashionable and cool to show off your experience of a great restaurant. It isn't generally sexy to share your bad arse laundry spot. I think there are just some people who log into yelp right away. It's a good website to get a good idea of a place but not the total picture. I generally like pulling up Yelp to see how ridiculous the complaints are after I eat something amazing at a restaurant.

Example of a Yelp review "The food was 5/5 but I am giving this place a 2 because my boyfriend kept looking at the waitress who was clearly hitting on him. Great place to eat but not a great place to eat if you have self esteem issues."

I like the "tips" section of yelp. They will usually throw out some menu rec's. but I generally just use google maps reviews because convenience

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I agree with this theory but it is really because it is more fashionable and cool to show off your experience of a great restaurant. It isn't generally sexy to share your bad arse laundry spot.

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this is true, but that speaks to my point, as it has to do with the difference between the eating/dining experience and using a service such as a dry cleaner.

Using a dry cleaner for example, all dry cleaners function pretty much the same, the cost is relatively the same, and the time it takes for your dry cleaning to be complete is about the same (only variance between on-site cleaners). In regards to dry cleaning, your clothes are either cleaned, which is the expectation, or they aren't. When you leave the dry cleaners, you simply continue to go about your day, unless there was a bad experience.

On the other hand, eating/dining is one of the cornerstones of our society and existence. There is great variance between restaurants; type of food, quality of food, quality of service, cost, etc. Everyone has had great meals, where as soon as you bite into something you absolutely love it. Whether you relay this experience to friends or Yelpers, its an experience you want to share with others.

A similar experience doesn't occur when using an every day service like a dry cleaner, gym, etc.

edit- it should go without saying, the total amount of yelp reviews is just as important as the rating itself. I'd rather try a 3.5 star restaurant with 1000 reviews than a 4.5 star restaurant with 7 reviews.

I find Tripadvisor reviews to be a little more "mature" if that is the right word. They don't usually attract as many entries, but those who use it seem to be more serious.

I use Yelp too, but so many of its reviews look like someone just dashed off an "It sucks" or "Best sushi in town!" on their phone.