Problem is if it gets five star reviews then suddenly more people will go there before they have time to adapt , hence the queuing.
Could also explain the lower food quality too since they may either have overworked staff who will make more mistakes or they have had to hire new staff quickly who they did not have time to select or train properly.
Exactly. You really are better off just trying out random places until you find the good places yourself. It's a fun process, at least! Then, when you find a great place, give it a 1-star review to keep the hoards away. ;) (Just kidding, of course.)
A problem with that (a problem Yelp was meant to solve) is that I don't have the time or money to spend going place to place hoping they have good food, especially when I am visiting a town for a short period. If I'm on vacation, I likely have a set and limited food budget. Vacations are spoiled by bad restaurant experiences.
I think this is the opposite reason why there are no high-profile craft beer review sites (yes, small sites exist but they're not going public anytime soon). Beer is a luxury, and there's not much in the way of truly disappointing beer to the point where I've ruined 1/3 of my taste experience for the day by consuming it. If you're going to a brewery to try a beer and don't like it, you can get up and walk out a few bucks lighter and travel to another taphouse. You can't easily do that with a meal.
That might work for your home town, but if I'm only around for 2 days chances are I'm going to have two very disappointing meals. Also paying a lot of money for shit food is not my idea of fun, and mainly just leaves me bitter and angry at the world. Doubly so now that I have a kid and going out to eat is a twice a year occurrence (if I'm lucky).
Could also explain the lower food quality too since they may either have overworked staff who will make more mistakes or they have had to hire new staff quickly who they did not have time to select or train properly.