Neither Jessie or I had been to Boston before, so we were having a hell of a time trying to find good places to eat. You can look in Fodors or any other travel book, but you’re likely to find only restaurant descriptions with no rating. I did a lot of background work to find some great places to eat in Boston, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite resources.

1. Food Blogs: Food blogs give you the first hand opinion of someone who is passionate about food in the city you are visiting. What else could you ask for when trying to find a great place to eat? Not only can you browse food blogs to find reviews of restaurants, but make sure to utilize the blogger themselves. Before we went to Boston I emailed 6 different Boston food bloggers asking for their picks based on our taste. Let me just say this, food bloggers love writing about food! Most of the responses I received were multiple pages, recommending dozens of restaurants across the city. I printed the responses out at and added them to our travel pack, when it was time to eat, out came those papers.

2. Chowhound: Not everyone passionate about food had the resources or time to start their own food blog, those people usually hang out on Chowhound. Start with some simple searches based on where you are visiting or just browse the message boards for that region of the country. You’ll find a wealth of information about everything from the best French restaurant to who makes the best pizza. If you can’t find what you are looking for, just ask. The members of Chowhound are always willing to provide answers.

3. Network: Your friends, family and co-workers can be great resources for the best places to eat when you travel. Plus, its coming from someone you trust. Well, maybe. Just two examples from our trip to Boston. I was at a friend’s house for a party a month or two prior to going, she mentioned to her friend that I would be getting married in October. That question quickly lead to the, “where are you going on your honeymoon?” I said Boston and her friend was the first person that didn’t give me a weird look. Oddly enough, she did her undergrad at Boston University and she lived there for 6 years afterward. Her recommendations were some of the best that we received, especially where not to go. Also too, my friend Zak is a chef down in Charleston. We told him we were going to Boston and guess what? His friend from culinary school now works in Boston! Again, just another great resource we would have never found without talking to people.

4. Citysearch: While a lot of the reviews on Citysearch can be touch and go, the lists of restaurant rankings is usually very good. Take a look at the ranking for Cleveland. While you may not agree with everything, they certainly offer a great deal of information that someone traveling here would love to have.

5. Menupages: I do not know what we would have done without Menupages. At this point in time they only have listings for a handful of major metropolitan areas, but they cetainly helped us in Boston. Menupages is perfect if you have a picky eater or if you’re on a budget. The site offers your basic restaurant reviews, but what it has that most other sites don’t is the ability to see the restaurants menu. For those on a budget, most of the menus show prices. Where this comes in handy is when you know the name of a restaurant, but you want to see what they have to offer before you get a reservation.

Wherever you travel an areas best Restaurants can be found in an Online Phone Book. If you leave Cleveland but and are looking for the best in Minneapolis Restaurants or anywhere else in the country Dining Guides on the internet can point you in the right direction.

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