Yelp ratings are basically useless, except for egregious things like cockroaches found running around. The worst part about the site and Google is that they paginate restaurants in a local map view by rating. It would be better to see everything all at once for certain views.

But restaurants that delist themselves for whatever reason from the review sites, also delist themselves from me ever going to them.

I'm never going to choose a restaurant where I can't see pictures of the food and the menu before going ever again.

It doesn't have to be Yelp, but if I search and didn't see the restaurant, it doesn't exist and I will never go to it. If I pass by a place and it isn't brand new, yet they've scrubbed their web presence, I'm not going to go.

There's no reason to take a chance, and any place that is trying to hide from it, will just always be a place not worth bothering to find out why they are hiding.