Upvote:1
When looking for restaurant suggestions and reviews, look for local resources.
Online news papers, online tourism web pages and forums; finding good reviewers and restaurant critiques can take a while because you need to know them and if you don't have experience for critique in a city, it's hard to know if they are good or bad.
When reading restaurant critiques, make certain they are not always giving out good reviews or bad reviews, they should have a balanced view.
You can also look for local reddit subreddits; there are probably subreddits for all major cities, where locals help people looking for suggestions (it's always a good idea to do your homework before asking for recommendations). It was my main reference when planning before covid.
Eater.com is also a good resource, mostly for North America, but it sometimes have international listings and recommendations.
Chowhound used to be good but I haven't been there for a while (I think it went bad when they changed (overcomplicated) the site structure.
Guide books are books and only offer a snapshot in time of restaurants in a city; they can quickly become obsolete.
And there are tons of web guides out there, use google and cross reference suggestions.
It's fun planning for restaurants while preparing a vacation; I hope to do that soon.