I find chow.com to be the best way to discover specific new restaurants. I use Yelp to find menus and hours, and to locate the names of a bunch of suitable e.g. watch repair shops in the area, but gave up on their ratings and reviews a few years ago (approximately the time they hired a bunch of salespeople and started extorting businesses...)
A Facebook review site where I got reviews just from my friends (or domain experts, ideally also selected by my friends). Right now, Quora and Foursquare seem to be the way to use "friend networks" to find stuff, and then domain-specific sites like chow (for foodies), wis (for watches), etc. too.
I second chow.com, though I end up looking on Urbanspoon if I just happen to be out and about. I'm a bit surprised that it hasn't been mentioned much here.
A Facebook review site where I got reviews just from my friends (or domain experts, ideally also selected by my friends). Right now, Quora and Foursquare seem to be the way to use "friend networks" to find stuff, and then domain-specific sites like chow (for foodies), wis (for watches), etc. too.