I agree also with you Kang, food bloggers have a much more restrictive budget in general; nowadays budgets are affecting everywhere.!
One important point they’re their own editors but in the other side, food critics write for magazines or similar and there’s a chief editor at charge..a different situation…The food blogger has more freedom to put what she/he wants on the writing.

Nevertheless, I see food bloggers doing review of products (not restaurants) that is pretty obvious they’re related with the producer and it’s ok, because the reader has the last word- always- to take it or not.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but isnt the whole idea of an independent foodblogger , since he/she has creative freedom, can ( and often times will ) offer a more frank review, ie, shower praise when it is due but equally condemn the food when it’s total crapola.

Also – food bloggers have a much more restrictive budget ( i know i do..) hence I would expect them to naturally pick the ones they love b4 they start picking ones which they are going to try out in the spirit of pure journalism. (ie: write about what you love, isnt that the idea of blogging?)

Hence its a marked difference between bloggers and critics in a sense that the food blogger would sometimes filter out the bad eats ( either not worth writing about or just not go or not enough money to conciously pay for the potential of bad food ) and write about what he/she thinks is awesome.

What do you think? Do you tend to choose the places which you know have good food over the ones which you know have bad ones keeping in mind the limited budget…unless u have a rather large budget to keep reviews going?

Loving Annie – yes, and that’s what I think is so good about foodbloggers : The pictures. in many respects its a more down to earth and definately more real review because you feel like you’re in the dinner too when you see every picture of what the author is talking about!

Helen – Yes. That line is important and being that bloggers are ‘independent’ , to fight to keep the independence is one of the most important aspects of blogging.

I like the point Gera makes too. I’ve always paid for my meals and the one time I was invited to a restaurant, I said no. I ended up praising the food, but was quite honest about the bathroom hygiene. I would have felt really awkward writing what I did, had it been a ‘free’ meal. I did have free drinks and extra desserts at Dal Pescatore, but that was the Santinis’ legendary hospitality and not because I was a special guest!

Look forward to reading Part Two…

Interesting standpoint…I believe it depends of the person behind the food critic. Superstars sometimes have compromises with the big restaurants that are not very clear. The same with great food bloggers …there isn’t black or white for me, there’re a lot of greys. Summing up: If you see a pinch of “business” in a critic…go away!

Gera .:. sweetsfoods