Do Boston restaurant reviewers go outside of Boston to eat?

Do Boston restaurant reviewers go outside of Boston to eat?

Why is the two Boston newspapers—the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe—don’t seem to think that people outside of Boston go out to restaurants?

Every week—actually several times a week in different sections—I look for reviews of restaurants north of Boston. When we got out, we try to stay within a several town area of Salem, but there are never reviews of restaurants here. Let’s note that there are nice restaurants opening up in this area all the time, and by area I mean Salem, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, and Swampscott.

But to read the newspapers, people only go out to dinner in Boston or one of the immediately adjoining tony towns like Cambridge, Newton, and Wellesley. Occasionally, they’ll venture out of their comfort zone up Route 9 to Natick, but they never seem to cross the Tobin Bridge (or take the Ted Williams Tunnel! It’s fast and easy to get from both Morrissey Boulevard and Herald Square) to the North Shore.

I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if someone else was doing reviews, but the Salem News doesn’t have a restaurant critic. Yes, yes, there are a lot of Internet sites devoted to diner reviews, but frankly they’re hit or miss. A professional reviewer knows how to evaluate a restaurant and its food. It’s a lot more complicated than say, movie reviews. You have to check the food, of course, but you have to try more than one appetizer and one entree. You need a large sample of the menu. You need to try the wine list, if they have one. How’s the atmosphere, the parking, the wait staff?

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