There are a multitude of restaurants. I am personally familiar with many of them, some with websites, others without. That's not the situation I'm writing about.

If I am considering patronizing an unfamiliar restaurant, and my only source of information about it is some untrustworthy third party platform, I'm moving on. Like I said, many restaurants exist, I'm losing nothing by going somewhere trustworthy.

And again, I cannot emphasize this enough: I do not want some third party asserting itself into my relationship with the restaurant.

With regard to restaurants, this perspective doesn’t make sense to me, primarily because reviews are found on third party services and not on the restaurant’s website. If I’m going to a new area, I rely on ratings and reviews to know if I want to try the restaurant.

Then you don't really know what has been going on with reviews. Some are legits of course. But more and more the bulk is paid humans from the other side of the world mastering their art for writing a review, with the tone of a local.

Possibly, yes. If I am unfamiliar with the restaurant, or I have a question regarding their menu or my dietary restrictions, if they do not have a website with an email address or contact form AND they do not react in reasonable time, I will not eat at that restaurant.

Without question if I can’t find a menu online I will not visit the restaurant. Doesn’t mean they need their own website though, just need to show up on some aggregator when I google food near me and peruse the results to pick something.