Top 3 Places to Eat: How to Name Yours on Mosey

Your top 3 places to eat are three places you name and rank for one kind of food, first to third. Mosey asks about the town you are in, such as coffee, brunch or pizza, one question per visit, and keeps your answers in a private list you can change whenever you like.

How do your top 3 places to eat work?

Top 3 is a short question with a short answer. The app asks which place you would send a friend to for something specific, and you name up to three, with number 1 as your favorite. That is all. There is no essay and no star score to agonize over.

The point is to make a favorite visible. Top 3 gives the list in your head a home, and it gives your friends something easier to act on than a vague "you should try it."

How do you rank your favorite places?

Open a question from the Top 3 card on Home. The screen says "Pick up to three places. Number 1 is your favorite." Search for a place by name and tap to add it. To change the order, use the move up and move down controls beside each pick. To swap one out, remove it and add another. Tap Save my top 3 when you are happy.

You can come back and change any answer later, and the app says so on the card: "Change an answer any time." A ranking is never locked in, so a place that slips down your list after a disappointing visit can move without any fuss.

A few rules keep the answers honest. You need to be signed in, you cannot rank a place you run, and the app only offers places in your town that fit the question. If a place you have in mind does not show up, it may not carry the tags that question looks for, or it may not be listed yet, and rating it in the app is how it gets added.

Why is there one question per visit?

Top 3 asks one question at a time, and a new one waits for you on your next visit. The app says: "Questions open one visit at a time. Answer this visit's and the next will be waiting next time." A new visit begins when you open the app after about four hours away.

The pace is deliberate. One question takes less than a minute and still adds something real, and a question you skip stays available. The skip button reads "Skip this question," and the app reassures you that you can answer it any time.

What kinds of questions does Top 3 ask?

The questions are about where you are, which means the town your phone is in, so a visit somewhere new gets that place's questions. The first three are coffee, a restaurant and brunch. After that come pizza, burgers, your favorite meal, breakfast, pastries, a date night, Italian, Chinese and Mexican food, Indian food, barbecue, bagels, sushi, good value and Spanish food.

There are also questions built around an occasion, such as a birthday meal, a family dinner, eating outside or a hidden gem, each matched to the tags diners use on places.

When you travel, the questions can include a different kind of question. After every couple of Top 3 questions, the app may ask how good a place you visited away from home was for food. It asks about places you have been, and it never recommends anywhere.

What happens when a place closes or you change your mind?

The ranking looks after itself. If a place you picked closes or is no longer listed, it drops off and the ones below it move up. The app tells you: "A place you picked has closed or is no longer listed, so the ones below it have moved up." Your second choice becomes your first without you lifting a finger.

Where does your top 3 list go?

Every answer you save is also kept in a private list called "My top 3s" for your town, with one section for each question. You can open it, share it, rename it or make it public like any other list in Mosey, and a place you add to it by hand is never removed by Top 3. The card on Home says: "Your answers are also kept in a private list. You can share it from there."

Picks from different people can also add up as points, 3 for a first choice, 2 for a second and 1 for a third, and nobody is named beside a place.

What does Top 3 do for the places themselves?

Naming a favorite costs you nothing and means something to the place you name. Mosey is free for a place to list, has no hidden fees and keeps its tools affordable, so the attention goes to the neighborhood spot instead of a middleman. It is a small act of supporting local, done in under a minute.

How does Top 3 fit with ratings and lists?

Ratings tell the next person what a visit was like, lists keep places you want to remember and Top 3 sits between the two as your short list of favorites. The Top 3 feature page covers the screens, and the guide to keeping track of every place you have eaten shows how a Top Rated list builds from what you rate. If you want to turn a handful of picks into something to share, start a food list for your state and put your favorites at the top.

Answering Top 3 questions is also the middle step of how to become a local champion, but the answers are yours first and nothing about a ranking is judged. Share a Top 3 as a picture when you want friends to know yours. The card carries a prompt to make your own, so it works as an invitation to answer too.

More ideas live in the US food guides. Get the Mosey app, answer the first Top 3 question and name the place you would send a friend to today.