Yelp adds new vegetarian filter, but it’s not great »

True story: Laura started Vegansaurus when Yelp kept taking down all her reviews. Their loss, the world’s gain.

That said, Yelp’s still one of the best parts of the internet. And now it’s a little better. Kind of, maybe.

The site’s introducing a new kind of creepy-smart filter. Along with “Open now” or “Good for lunch,” you can now selected “Liked by vegetarians” as a filter option. The Yelp blog’s got the full scoop.

The idea is that this is better than just searching for “vegetarian,” because it won’t give you reviews that say stuff like “This place is the WORST for vegetarians!” I love the idea. The execution, not so awesome.

First of all, it’s not available in Denver, which is not cool. I had to use my old haunts of Berkeley and North Oakland to test it out. And I was not pleased.

Search for “dinner” in Temescal, and Cafe Colucci is only no. 5 on the list. Worse, The Brick Pig’s House is right there at no. 6, and that place has no vegan food. In downtown Berkeley, neither Green Papaya nor Saturn Cafe make the top of the results. WTF?

Perhaps this feature will help me discover veg-friendly spots I’d never thought of (Jayakarta, anyone?). Perhaps we just need to start writing better veg reviews, and the feature will improve. But for now, and until The Brick Pig’s House disappears from results, I’m not trusting it.