Vienna Foodies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of it is just free advertising for restaurant owners.

I like it but personally I think some of the restaurants that get a lot of group support are bad.

I agree. Nothing wrong with that but I do keep it in mind when reading.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t call it a foodies group. It’s not about good food, as others have pointed out here. It was started to help restaurants local to Vienna survive the pandemic.

I’m a member, but I only use it to stay up on what’s going on in Vienna - there is a fair amount of interesting and helpful social-related posting there. Unfortunately we’ve been burned a couple of times by the reviews. Two very hyped restaurants did not live up to expectations based on Foodies’ feedback. I get that it’s a community-led effort to help local business, which makes folks who participate feel good about themselves. I just wish they’d be a little more honest in their reviews. My Indian DH didn’t like the gas station food - he found it underwhelming.

I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been more…pushback? from group members regarding prohibition against honest, transparent reviews. Lydia pushes certain restaurants so much that I sometimes wonder if she’s getting some kind of kickback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t call it a foodies group. It’s not about good food, as others have pointed out here. It was started to help restaurants local to Vienna survive the pandemic.

I’m a member, but I only use it to stay up on what’s going on in Vienna - there is a fair amount of interesting and helpful social-related posting there. Unfortunately we’ve been burned a couple of times by the reviews. Two very hyped restaurants did not live up to expectations based on Foodies’ feedback. I get that it’s a community-led effort to help local business, which makes folks who participate feel good about themselves. I just wish they’d be a little more honest in their reviews. My Indian DH didn’t like the gas station food - he found it underwhelming.

I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been more…pushback? from group members regarding prohibition against honest, transparent reviews. Lydia pushes certain restaurants so much that I sometimes wonder if she’s getting some kind of kickback.

She kicks people out of the group if they are negative.

[Anonymous]

I’m Indian and have a couple other Indian friends in the neighborhood.

We like the gas station food. It’s pretty much our go to for a quick Indian food fix when we don’t feel like cooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Indian and have a couple other Indian friends in the neighborhood.

We like the gas station food. It’s pretty much our go to for a quick Indian food fix when we don’t feel like cooking.

Are you the owners?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to know if the gas station Indian food is as good as they all say it is.

It really is. I was skeptical, but it was really good. I went for butter chicken but they had sold out. The sweet dad that runs it saw the devastated look on my face and got me what was left of the sauce and two pieces of chicken, in addition to the rest of the food I ordered. It is super tasty and so convenient. I find myself craving the paneer dish that I had.

[Anonymous]

The gas station food is terrible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m Indian and have a couple other Indian friends in the neighborhood.

We like the gas station food. It’s pretty much our go to for a quick Indian food fix when we don’t feel like cooking.

Are you the owners?

Nope.

My kid especially likes the samosa burrito.
I like the chaat items and pani puri. I’m vegetarian so I don’t pay attention to the meat dishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t call it a foodies group. It’s not about good food, as others have pointed out here. It was started to help restaurants local to Vienna survive the pandemic.

I’m a member, but I only use it to stay up on what’s going on in Vienna - there is a fair amount of interesting and helpful social-related posting there. Unfortunately we’ve been burned a couple of times by the reviews. Two very hyped restaurants did not live up to expectations based on Foodies’ feedback. I get that it’s a community-led effort to help local business, which makes folks who participate feel good about themselves. I just wish they’d be a little more honest in their reviews. My Indian DH didn’t like the gas station food - he found it underwhelming.

I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been more…pushback? from group members regarding prohibition against honest, transparent reviews. Lydia pushes certain restaurants so much that I sometimes wonder if she’s getting some kind of kickback.

I'm a member of the group and I'd like to hear which ones. We are in a total food/restaurant rut and I go to that group for new ideas. One thing I find irritating is people posting about restaurants in Fairfax of Fair Oaks, Arlington, etc.

I like that Fresh Market is boosted. I like it as an option and if you go often enough you can find deals and the quality is good.

[Anonymous]

Anyone still use this group for finding spots to eat? I’ve gotten mixed vibes from the group. I like the original idea of promoting local businesses and finding community info. It still has that but there seems be a little of social
pages vibe (like Real Housewives getting their pics taking at various establishments).

[Anonymous]

I think it promotes whoever Lydia wants to promote at the time. So restaurants cycle through being popular. That might depend on how active the restaurant owner is on Facebook, if they’re new, whether they’ve donated food recently, or whether Lydia got a free meal, but it’s not necessarily the best places in town. There are many Vienna restaurants that get almost zero promotion on the page.

Meanwhile, if someone asks for the best sushi or Chinese, 50 people will respond with almost 50 different answers.

[Anonymous]

Vienna resident. My husband and I love to joke about the Foodie posts. All the restaurants Lydia glows about are really mediocre at best, over-priced, and things we've tried once and agreed there's no need to go back. I really don't know how or why she got to be the spokesperson for Vienna, but she recently announced on the FB page that she's the newest cast member of RHOPotomac. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

The gas station food is really not that good. We've tried it several times. There are better nearby options for chaat like Bansari or even Amma for vegetarian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vienna resident. My husband and I love to joke about the Foodie posts. All the restaurants Lydia glows about are really mediocre at best, over-priced, and things we've tried once and agreed there's no need to go back. I really don't know how or why she got to be the spokesperson for Vienna, but she recently announced on the FB page that she's the newest cast member of RHOPotomac. We'll see.

For real? LOL. This does not surprise me at all.

[Anonymous]

Lydia was/is a real estate agent and “social media content creator”.