Your comment defeats itself. "is the only effective way of assessing a restaurant you’ve never been to personally" That's why they use it, not because it 'has

Your comment defeats itself. "is the only effective way of assessing a restaurant you’ve never been to personally" That's why they use it, not because it 'has reviews', but because it's a comprehensive directory, it has the address, phone number, photos, and the 'reviews' give a rought idea of what's up. If the reviews were replaced with a simple star rating, then people wouldn't care. There is also Google Search, which shows images, price. I haven't used Yelp in a few years, it's simply unecessary.