go onto, say Tenerife...Gran Canaria sites and they have "BARS & RESTAURANTS: Member recommendations and Q&As" SECTIONS IN THEM IF YOU LOOK UP NEAR THE TOP

Yes, but then you have to scroll through loads of posts on one thread - and quite often about loads of different towns. It would be much easier if you could just click on the name of a restaurant and see all the reviews written for that particular place.

the problem with restaurants and bars is they change owners quite frequently so reviews may not be vaid for more than one season.

I think one of the problems with having sections for individual bars or restaurants, is that holidaymakers will still post general questions asking for recommendations, without looking at multiple individual sections.

And speaking for just Costa Blanca and Tenerife, one annoying problem we encountered when we had topics for individual bars and restaurants in those forums is that they were misused by those connected with the establishments concerned. We regularly had fictitious reviews and recommendations posted from the same IP addresses in order to keep the topics active at the top of the page. That stopped when we changed the format to just one general topic, when posts then appeared to be mainly genuine questions and recommendations from real holidaymakers.

David

My understanding is that reviews for hotels cannot be posted from the resort. Could the same not apply to restaurant reviews?

Yes, but again referring to Costa Blanca and Tenerife, many of those owners had friends and family back in the UK to post the recommendations for them. One particular Tenerife bar/restaurant used to crop up every week, and it was the same UK based person using multiple identities to recommend it.

David

Ah, right. What a shame. I'll just have to use the other forum for the Turkish restuarant review then.

Just bear in mind that any other forum may be subject to the same fictitious reviews and recommendations as us, but may allow them to stand.

David

Oh yes I know - they do keep a good eye on them though and you take reviews from members with only 1 post with a pinch of salt
I have often added reviews there myself.