Rating Restaurant Raters and Their Ratings
Who should you listen to? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have been planning food trips for a long time and wow. Things have changed.
Recently, Robert Brown wrote “Every Man His Own Michelin” talking about how travel planning is changing and I thought I would add some thoughts.
When I started many years ago - there was really only one way to plan travel: Guide books. I would first pick a country - say France and then would simply buy every guide book I could get my hands on. I would sometimes go with as many as 5-6 (superheavy guide books paked in my hand luggage (to read on the plane).
I would always start with my two favorite guide books: Fodors and Frommers and then get the latest Michelin red guide (restaurants) and a Michelin Green guide for sights and hotels. Sometimes a random local guide or even Rough Guide for cheap eats. Well most/all are no longer even published. For restaurants - I would simply cross reference various guides and pick places that made repeat appearances in 2+ guides. Worked a treat! Now those books are all gone.
While I do not miss the book’s luggage weight…I do miss thumbing through them on the plane.
So - all of us face a new internet reality which I suppose in some ways is more efficient - although I am reluctant to say better. Cross referencing prestigious guidebooks was very accurate. What do you cross reference today? Michelin and Tik Tok?
What’s a girl to do?
Food travel research today may be more comprehensive but it is more difficult, time consuming and less accurate. If Fodors gold pages, Frommers Best and Michelin coincided…you were ‘In Like Flint”. Now it is the wild, wild west. You just need to knuckle down and search for “best restaurants” in each city.
But instead of cross referencing 4 sources - maybe you now need to cross-reference 20? Michelin, Worlds 50 Best, La Liste, OAD, Yelp, Eater, Thrillist, Time Out, Conde Nast, Trip Adviser, Instagram, Tik Tok. and any number of country and city lists that are only local.
Total pain in the ass. So what follows here a rating of the rating systems at recommendation sources to help you choose where to start. 90% of the ratings are here for free. 10% of the most fanatical sources are really only for well…fanatics and they are behind the paywall. So - here we go:
Here is a rating for the various ranking standard services around the world - Ironically rated on a 1-5 basis:
Word of Mouth - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Knowing a foodie in a destination city is by far the best source possible. These are people that live in that city and eat out all the time and are even aware when once great spots decline for whatever reason.
Michelin Guide Overall - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Many food travelers wax hot and cold on the Michelin Guide - here is a positive article from the Telegraph and a more critical review from the Robb Report critical of the guide. And here are my ratings for three categories of Michelin:
Michelin Europe - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Michelin Europe is indispensable for criss-crossing the 100’s of spectacular European villages that we dream about driving through on a warm summer vacation. The guide is a unique source with 1000’s of recommendations including the fantastic Bib Gourmand celebrating local and regional cuisine at a reasonable price. Often the 1 star restaurants are quite good as well. The controversies begin with 2 and 3 star level where all kinds of anomalies exist - but For ultra fine dining there are lot’s of ways to cross reference.
Michelin Japan - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
In a competitive car market, they have done a decent job. Bad news for Michelin Japan is that one the single finest rating services in the world overshadows Michelin: Tabelog.
Michelin Everywhere Else - ⭐️
Terrible. thin, wrong, inconsistent and generally misleading. Some of the guides have been around for a long time and are terrible. Some guides are new and are terrible. Some of the 3 star restaurants outside of Japan do not deserve any stars. Michelin (and I get it) are selling their services to places like Orlando and Las Vegas that barely have any good restaurants. Stick with Europe, Japan and skip the rest - even in Japan use Tabelog.
World’s 50 Best - Either ⭐️ OR ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This list is like Megan Markle - You might love her but you probably hate her. So I need to confess - I admire this list - indeed - I went to all 156 restaurants on the list from 2005 to 2019. The list started in the UK with an unspoken mission to even the score with the French who had dominated Michelin - and fine dining lists for decades. The French had 6 restaurants on the inaugural list in 2002, peaked at 14 in 2004 (The UK had 13 with things like Nobu and Hakkasan) before slumping to 3 in 2016.The list started as crap and then got better over time. It is loved by foodies as an entertaining exercise where if you score an invitation to the awards, you meet dozens of famous chefs. It is despised by other foodies who hate the entire PR machine behind it. Personally, I think the list is full of great restaurants and should be in alphabetical order but -that would be less exciting.
It should be noted that 50B triggered the meeting of chefs worldwide who previously had never met). - triggered a 1000 four hands events and probably contributed to a homegenisation of flavors as chefs adopted “foreign flavors” that led to the “Japanification” of restaurants around the World. The low point for the French was when they nominated an Argentinian Chef from Mirazur (Monaco) as the best restaurant in the world).It is has a lovely view during the day but is not even the best restaurant in the neighborhood (Monaco).
La Liste - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The French weren’t going to take this sitting down so they invented La Liste where 6 of the top 20 fine dining restaurants are from France. It is a clever algorithm that synthesizes ratings from dozens of sources (guidebooks etc) which obviously favors countries with more international visitors and noone has more than France! Michelin was totally biased to French restaurants. That pissed off the English so they launched World’s 50 Best which which pissed off the French so the French launched La Liste who in the 20025 included a solitary UK restaurant in the top 50 (L’Enclume). Nothing wrong with La Liste list but doesn’t really add much.
OAD (Opinionated About Dining) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
From the highly opinionated owner - Steve Plotnicki - comes this exceptional set of top 100 lists. They are the result of the most traveled, Suuperfoodies in the world voting on the restaurants they visit that can be as much as 1-200 visits around the world per year. The lists are straight forward with Fine Dining, Casual and Cheap Eats with a controversial wrinkle where Fine Dining is split between Modern and Classical, Significant debate ensues about where to draw the line for restaurants that straddle both. Either way great lists broken down by continent.
Tabelog Japan - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Leave it to the Japanese to create the world’s most compelling rating system. By region, by category, consumer driven and with elegant categories of Gold, Silver and bronze. On a scale of 1-5 - this spectacular site is a 6. The best in the world.
Google - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The absolute gold standard for basic information like opening and closing hours and directions. Over time, the 5 star rating system has gotten better due to strength in numbers. The photos are very useful as well. The most essential of all planning resources especially when consider how vital the maps are.
YouTube - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The gold standard in restaurant videos with detailed descriptions, valuable insights and clear conclusions. These long form videos (20 Minutes) from Fine Diners like Alexander the Guest and Cheap Eats Jedi Master Mark Wiens leave Tik Tok and Instagram in the dust.
Eater - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This site is my kind of site because it is written by locals for locals and often has an essential list of 38 restaurants that range from Street Food to fine dining. I alsoadmire their commitment to regional cuisine. They are not everywhere but where they are they often suggest very interesting spots not listed elsewhere.
Gambero Rosso ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am not an expert on this guide but they are serious about what they do and are highly regarded and they specialise in Italy I will ask around and may review this score.
Best Chef Awards - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I read the Best Chef awards and follow the Chefs up and down the lists with moderate interest. The list has all the usual suspects in a different order. If the other lists did not exist - this would be essential - but - the others do exist.
Gault Millau Guide - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
At a point in time they supplanted Michelin as the best fine dining guide In France. Everyone involved are still dedicated to transparency and quality descriptions but..the glory days are behind them. A shout out to Sophie Gayot who is a beacon of light with Gayot.com in Los Angeles (She is my friend) so ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 😎
They used to be much better and while I think their editorial staff has been gutted - somehow their (old) restaurant reviews are still pretty good - they use locals and while in decline…still worth a look.
Time Out ⭐️⭐️
They ruled their cities with the print copies but now they are a shadow of their former selves with online only. Still pretty good lists if a bit dusty.
World’s Best Pizza and World’s 101 Best Steakhouses ⭐️ ⭐️
So - worlds best pizza and worlds best steaks are a bit like W50Best 15 years ago. Grert idea with no good system for rating the candidates. Comparing pizzas in Japan to pizzas in Naples or New York is impossible because none of the judges has eaten around the world (except me 😎). As a result there are mutiple examples of a list from 2021 where so and so pops up as #1 and then the following year is #49 and then in 2024 disappears off the list. A bit like W50Best - these lists are getting better but they have long way to go.
Trip Advisor - ⭐️
Possibly the worst restaurant rating site in the world - totally and completely random. For a good laugh - check out their top 10 list for Copenhagen for example - It even features an Indian pizza place!
Yelp - ⭐️
EXTREMELY influential if you run a restaurant in the USA. 4.5/5 stars will drive significant business but on the flip side if your rating slides you could lose 20% of your revenue for each 1/2 star lost especially in the California heartland. They have Elite raters - and if you please them your sales go up - if you offend them? Adios. Kind of the poor man’s Eater. And it is broken. Anything expensive gets hammered. so ignore Yelp for fine dining. Useful for cheap eats in the USA - useless internationally. Fine dining restaurant owners despise the power of Yelpers. I have restaurants in California so…!@#$%^&*() Yelp.
Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok - ⭐️
By far the most entertaining source of Information. But often it is someone parachuting into a location and bigging up the three places they had time to go to. Uninformative but fun. Obviously better for Cheap Eats - useless for Fine Dining
Fallen Angels ⭐️
There are all kinds of sites that never really caught on or that rose, got sold and are barely breathing or dead: Zagat’s, Infatuation, Thrillist, 10 Best and more. They had their moments but those moments are gone.
Substack - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Well- here we are - In the best Social Media platform in the world. It is Instagram for writers. In a world of 60 second Tik Toks - here you need to hike up your pants and go all in for a 3 minute read 😱 I have over 100,000 followers on Instagram even though I suck at making videos. I love writing and I love Substack. The problem for foodies is that the restaurant recommendation writers are not so many and some hide their city lists behind paywalls.I expect Substack will continue to improve in the coming year. Some of my favorite Substackers are:
and my sometimes partnerFor fanatics: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Behind this paywall are ratings only for fanatics. If you are an amateur traveler - do not pay the $5 / month just for these recommendations - everything you need is above. But if you are obsessive about ratings and rankings and would like to read about super obsessive OCD hard core reviewers like Andy Hayler, Aiste’s Eatinerary, Dudi Califa’s Hungry Tourist, Gerhard Huber’s FoodlePro, Jeffrey’s XtremeFoodies Josh Josephson Facebook, and Mark Wien’s Migrationology then OK - Cough it up 🤣
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