How we rank
The method is deterministic and boring on purpose. Here it is, in full.
The blend
Every place within 3 km comes from more than one source (Google and Foursquare today). A place both sources rate well earns a consensus bonus. The same restaurant appearing twice gets merged, not counted twice.
Adjusted ratings
A 5.0 from three reviewers is not better than a 4.6 from four hundred. Every rating is pulled toward the neighborhood average in proportion to how few people reviewed it, so tiny sample sizes stop winning.
The tourist-trap penalty
Thousands of reviews with a mediocre average is the signature of a place that survives on foot traffic instead of food. That signature costs real ranking points.
Distance and hours
Closer beats farther, gently: a place a kilometer away needs to be meaningfully better to outrank the one across the street. Open now is on by default; places with unknown hours stay listed and just rank a touch lower.
What we refuse to do
We never pad the list. If an area only has seven places we'd stand behind, you get seven and we say so. No stars on the surface, because words are honest and stars are anxiety. And no one can pay to be on the list.