Cheeky, opinionated, and totally independent from the places we review, Fearless Critic is a new kind of restaurant guide.

Fearless Critic’s brutally honest, entertaining reviews are curated from the most recent experiences of undercover local food critics and professional chefs who don’t identify themselves and don’t accept free meals. Fearless Critic is completely independent, and doesn’t accept any form of advertising from restaurants. Instead of being ad-supported, Fearless Critic is reader-supported. We offer our guides for sale at reasonable prices in print (at local and online bookstores), in online format (for a reasonable monthly or annual subscription fee), and through our newly released iPhone app. We hope that people who love food and wine will find our project worth supporting.

With ad-supported and user-generated restaurant guides, you never know who’s reviewing the restaurants—or who’s paying for a good review. Ad-supported guides generally won’t publish negative reviews, so they fail to warn you away from overpriced, overrated restaurants—which should be one of the food critic’s central functions. We believe that it’s impossible for a publication to be unbiased when it’s accepting payments from the establishments being evaluated. Meanwhile, with user-generated guides, you don't know if the critic is a restaurant owner, the owner of a competing restaurant, or some guy who only eats boneless, skinless chicken breast. We believe that it’s impossible for a publication to be rigorous and consistent when its editors don't know who their critics are.

There’s no substitute for real, unbiased, expert judgment. There’s no substitute for the Fearless Critic. By spending a few dollars for a Fearless Critic book, online subscription, or iPhone app, you’ll not only get the city’s best restaurant guide—you’ll also be supporting the hard work of local gastro-geeks, the dying art of good writing, and a small business that’s devoted to food criticism free from bias. Join us, tell your friends, and help spread the word that in the age of the advertorial review, investigative food journalism is something worth fighting for.

Want more of a taste of the Fearless Critic? Take a look at a random sample review and an example of the advanced search features that subscribers get.