Time Out Chicago releases their April Fools edition, giving Sixteen restaurant a whopping 11 stars!

The rest of the review is a thinly veiled critical satire about how a lot of local food publications/websites rely on press websites and materials to write their reviews or previews of new restaurants. It would be funny, if it weren’t so true. These days, many publications have revoked budgets for dining, and send their “critics” to media previews and take food on the restaurant’s dime. Sometimes writers for these websites live in other states while they write about Chicago (of course geography doesn’t always matter, as one of Chicago’s best food blogs, Menupages, is written by a former U Chicago student living in New York, Adam Peltz -it works because Adam actually calls people and follows stories beyond press materials).

For many sites though, it’s a sad state of affairs. The odd thing is that, what is seemingly a house of cards, ends up generating tons of hits and thus ad revenue for these sites. Time Out it should be noted is not throwing stones in glass houses as they are dilligent about paying for their reviews (disclosure: I know because I freelance for them). Hopefully other pubs will take notice and pursue a more ethical policy as their advertising revenues grow.