Request a Review
Orlando Citizen reviews the restaurants, bars, cafés, hotels and venues this city gathers in — and while our editors choose most of what gets reviewed, the businesses themselves can ask. If you run a place in the Orlando area and you would like the Citizen to review it, this page is the way to ask. It takes two minutes, and every request is read by an editor.
How it works
Ask. Fill in the form below: the business, where it is, who to talk to, and what you think is worth reviewing — a new opening, a new menu, a renovation, a new chef.
An editor triages it. Requests are read alongside everything else competing for the newsroom’s attention. If yours is taken up, it goes to the desk that covers your kind of business — food, the rankings desk, or your area beat.
The review is a review. If we come, we judge the place on exactly the terms we judge everything else, and we publish what we find — the good and the rest.
The honest part — read this before you ask
Asking never buys a verdict. A request gets your business looked at. It does not get it praised, and it does not move a score. Our reviews are this paper’s independent judgement, and our rankings are decided by our published methodology from the review data of the whole field. No request, no advertisement and no payment changes either — that independence is the whole value of being reviewed here.
Coverage is not guaranteed. We read every request, but the newsroom can only review so many places well. Some requests will be declined, and some will wait. We cannot reply to every request, and asking more than once does not move a request up the queue.
Requested reviews are labelled. When a review that began with a request on this page is published, it carries a line saying the business asked for the review. Readers always know how a review started.
What makes a request easy to say yes to
Something specific to judge. “We opened in October, the chef came from …, and the dish to try is …” gives an editor something to weigh. “We’d like some coverage” is harder to act on.
The practical details, straight. The real address, the real opening date, a website that works. If we cannot find you, we cannot review you.
Patience. Reviews are scheduled like stories, because they are stories. If your news is dated — an opening, a seasonal menu — say the date in the form and ask early.
Questions about a request you have already sent? Write to [email protected] and mention Request a Review.