How to read restaurant ratings and photos

To read a rating well, look at four things: how many people rated the place, how recently, what the photographs show and what the less glowing ratings say. A single star number hides most of that. Here is how to look past it.

Look at the count

Four ratings could be four friends. Forty is a pattern. Neither is a reason to ignore a place, but they are different kinds of evidence. A new place with few ratings is unmeasured, not bad. On Mosey, the card shows how many people rated the place, so you can see how much is behind the score.

Look at recency

A place changes. A kitchen can lose a chef, change its menu or open under new owners. Ratings from last year may not describe it now. Look at how recent the newest ratings are, and prefer places where the latest ones agree with the older ones.

Look at the photographs

Photographs show what words cannot: portion size, presentation, the room and whether the dish you want is any good there. A page of good-looking plates from separate visits is hard to fake. If every photo is the same dish, the kitchen may have one strong plate and little else.

Read the not-so-good ratings

Read at least one rating that is not glowing. Look for specifics. A rating that says the service was slow on a Saturday night is different from one that says the food made them ill. Look for patterns. One complaint is an off day. Five about the same thing are a feature.

Read the reply

A place can reply to a rating but cannot delete one. A calm, specific reply to a complaint is a good sign. A defensive one is less so.

What Gold means

Gold on Mosey marks places whose ratings have stayed consistently high. It is earned, not bought, and it is calculated from the ratings diners leave. Ratings by a venue's own team and ratings that have been removed do not count. Our guide to what Mosey Gold means explains it in full.

Rating tags

Raters add tags such as date night, brunch or great coffee. These help you find places for an occasion. Treat them as what diners said, not a promise from the kitchen.

Dish ratings

Where diners rate a specific dish, it can have its own page with photographs. That is useful if you know what you want.

Do your own rating

If you have eaten somewhere, rate it and add a photograph. A rating takes a minute and helps the next person. Be specific and fair, and say what you ordered.

A worked example

Suppose two places both show a high score. One has six ratings, all from the same month, with no photographs. The other has sixty ratings across a year, with a dozen photographs of different dishes and a couple of calm replies from the owner to complaints. The second is the better evidence, even if its score is a shade lower. A score is a summary, and a summary is only as good as what is under it.

When ratings disagree with your taste

Ratings are other people's tastes. If you dislike crowded rooms and the ratings praise a lively atmosphere, discount them. If you love spicy food and the ratings say the heat is fierce, take that as a plus. Read for the details that match what you care about, and let the rest go.

Trust your own taste

Ratings are a guide. If a place suits you, go. If it does not, say so and move on.