Well, according to a recent study carried out by food studies scholar, Sara Kay, many Yelp reviews are reinforcing harmful ethnic stereotypes.    Kay examined 20,000 Yelp restaurant reviews and found that 7% of them made reference to authenticity in some way.

In her study, summarized here, Kay explains how reviewers’ discussions of “authenticity” vary according to what type of restaurant they are describing.  For instance, the décor of one Korean restaurant deemed “authentic” was described as a “kitschy hut”; whereas that of one “authentically” French restaurant was most often described as “elegant.” In other words, comments about authenticity on Yelp tend to associate European-cuisine-serving restaurants with positive attributes.  In contrast, where Chinese or Mexican restaurants are concerned, the typical Yelp reviewer associates authenticity with negative attributes, such as dirt floors or plastic stools.

Kay’s study found that these harmful stereotypes can also extend to describing interactions with service staff at these restaurants.  My research collaborator, Alice Chik, and I discovered similar kinds of comments in our dataset of Yelp reviews of Michelin-starred Chinese, Japanese and Korean restaurants in New York.  For instance, in a review of one of our Chinese restaurants, the following comment appeared.  (Check out the explicit bias and stereotyping in the part I’ve underlined!)

The person at the front desk is pretty rude. I mean, there is a level of rudeness you’d expect from a chinese restaurant, but that woman was just down right rude.

As Kay explains: “Not only do Yelp reviewers talk about non-Western workers differently, but the difference is racist, rude, and frightfully mimicking of other supremacist trends on the internet and in American life.” 

This is a valuable study, and one that contributes to our understanding of online review language.