Yelp?

Northampton is a go-to place for restaurant tour.
When I am in the mood for dining out, I always go to yelp.com and search for restaurants in town. I always get surprised by the number of restaurants that I have never seen or heard before that are on the yelp list.
Once I narrow down to  2-3 candidates, I read restaurant reviews for the final decision. And once again,I get surprised as I read through completely contradicting reviews.

Tonight, my best friend and I went to Mulino's for our be-lated Valentines' celebration. It received 3 1/2 stars on the yelp's overall reviews which is not bad but promising either.   We still decided to try Mulino's because there are some restaurants in town that received 4 on their reviews, yet we did not have a pleasant experience whereas we had great time at some restaurants with 3 1/2 stars. We decided to give out our own reviews after the visit.

Service was good. Our waiter occasionally came to pour water and ask questions, but not too often to interrupt our conversations. Bread before our main dish was warm, soft, and just simply good. I ordered Fra Diavolo for my entree. Menu described it as, "Scallops, mussels, shrimp, garlic, onion and dried chilies sautéed in a tomato, basil-oregano sauce. Served on a  bed of linguine". Seafood and tomato sauce were fresh with hints of garlic and olive oil taste. Though I at first thought the dish was pricey, I changed my mind after seeing huge serving size and trying it out. I managed to finish the entire dish and left Mulino's with overflowing, yet happy, stomach.

Though yelp can be a good source to get different opinions on restaurants, one can never have a true opinion unless she tries their dishes.