I am reading “Unlikely Destinations,” the fascinating Lonely Planet story by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the British couple who founded and guide the travel juggernaut that began with a trip through Asia “on the cheap.”

The section about the logistics of researching and writing guidebooks describes the grueling work they entail and a shortcut you may or may not have factored in to your guidebook usage.  

Here’s the part about restaurants: “of course there is no way we can eat out in all the restaurants we write about. A guidebook writer, spending a day or two in each place, cannot possibly eat out in a dozen restaurants in each town. Nor do we need to. I have a simple and generally infallible restaurant test. I look in the front window, and if it’s crowded, noisy and people are smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves, then the food is good. If I look into another restaurant and it’s almost empty, and at the few occupied there’s not a smile to be seen, well, what do you think the food is like?”

This disclosure does not lead me to discount Lonely Planet content, which I have found to be savvy. It is a reminder that all reviews, whether from a published source or users of Trip Advisor, are best taken with a grain of salt.