Where do you turn for advice on eating out?

• Flickr: Andrew Lowry
• The person behind the counter still matters more than the guy at the keyboard.

No decision is ever made in a vacuum. It’s simply too dark and dusty in there. But seriously, folks, eaters have never had more tools at their disposal when considering where to eat. The challenge these days is to try to process and filter through all of that information.

Reuters recently wrote about what brings diners to restaurants based on a marketing study by the NPD Group. It turns out that social-media reviews are still well behind the two oldest marketing efforts: telling people about what’s on the menu and offering specials on those items. When it comes time to decide where you’re eating for the night, how do you make that decision? (And, no, we’re not fishing for compliments.)