About

A few months ago I was traveling through Asia, trying to find good places to eat. Google, Yelp, Instagram, TikTok — didn't matter which app, every restaurant had nearly identical ratings. No way to tell what was actually worth going to.

I came back to NYC and realized the same problem exists here, just at a bigger scale. Ratings aren't wrong exactly, they're just not weighted by who's doing the rating — a local who's eaten there 20 times and a tourist who visited once shouldn't count the same. So I scraped 48,000+ NYC reviews and built Locals to fix that.

Hope you enjoy :)

- Harrison

How the score works

Here's how the ratings work, for the curious.

Most

Geographic concentration

What share of their reviews are for NYC restaurants? Someone who's reviewed 200 spots worldwide but only 1 in NYC is probably a tourist.

Some

Review stability

Have they been reviewing NYC spots consistently over time, or just in one burst during a trip?

Minor

Local Guide status

Google-verified Local Guides get a small boost.

The full ranking also weighs review text and location, and refreshes as new data comes in.

What the tags mean

Not every restaurant gets a badge on its card — only the ones that clearly earn one.

Hidden Gem

Rated exceptionally by locals — but almost nobody's discovered it yet.

Universally Loved

Rated exceptionally by locals — and everyone else already knows it too.

Local Favorite

Solidly good. Locals vouch for it.

Browse recommendations

Know a spot we're missing? Browse and tell us.