A rating on EatOutLog is about one dish, not the whole night out. Most review sites ask for a single score for the restaurant, so a long wait or a noisy room ends up counted against a kitchen that cooked well. Here you rate the plate in front of you, and the restaurant sees how each item on its menu is landing.
The scores
Taste
The main score, from half a star to five stars in half-star steps. It answers one question: how good did this taste? Taste is the number used for a dish's average, for the top dishes on a restaurant's page, and for your own stats.
Value, appearance and texture
Three optional star ratings for people who want to say more. Value asks whether the dish was worth the price. Appearance is how it looked when it arrived. Texture covers whether it was crisp, tender or soggy, the things that are separate from flavor.
Cooked correctly
A yes or no. Was the steak the temperature you asked for, was the pasta done, was the fish cooked through? A great recipe that came out wrong once is a different problem from a dish that misses every time, and this answer lets a kitchen tell the two apart.
Would reorder
A yes or no, and often the most useful answer of all. A four-star dish you would not order again tells a different story from a three-and-a-half-star dish you keep coming back for. Restaurants see the share of diners who would order each dish again.
Notes and tags
Notes are your own words about the dish, and they are public alongside your ratings. Tags describe the dish itself, such as the course, the cuisine or a dietary label, so people can search for it later.
Visit-level answers
Some questions are about the visit, not a single dish. When you log a visit you can say whether you would return to the restaurant. If you would not, you can tell the restaurant why in a private note that only its owner and managers read. That note is anonymous unless you choose to leave your contact details.
How averages are worked out
- Averages count people, not visits. A regular's ratings add up to one vote a month, so loyal customers count without any single account outweighing everyone else.
- A tasting menu counts as one meal, so a restaurant with a twelve-course menu is not rated twelve times for one dinner. You can rate up to three standout courses in full without adding extra votes.
- Restaurants see totals and averages about their own restaurant. Where a total could point to one person, such as a breakdown by occasion, small groups are hidden until there are enough answers to keep them anonymous.
Keeping ratings honest
Ratings are only useful if they come from real meals. A few rules protect that:
- Restaurants cannot edit or remove ratings, including restaurants that have claimed their page or pay for a plan. A low rating stays up as long as it is genuine.
- Paying for ratings is not allowed. Under our Restaurant Operator Terms, restaurants may not offer discounts, free items or anything else in exchange for a rating, or use extra accounts to boost their own.
- Owners and managers rating their own restaurant are flagged for our team to review.
- Travel badges need a real visit. They only count visits logged near the restaurant, so a trip cannot be logged from the couch.
- Anyone can report a dish, photo or comment. Reports go to our moderators, who can hide content that breaks the rules and restrict or ban accounts that keep doing it.
Tips for useful ratings
- Rate the dish, not the service. If the server was great or the wait was long, that belongs in a note.
- Use the whole scale. Three stars is a fine, ordinary dish. Save five for the ones you would cross town for.
- Say why. A short note such as "too salty this time" or "the sauce is the reason to come" helps the next person more than a number on its own.
- Add a photo when you can. Diners decide with their eyes first.
See How EatOutLog works for the rest of the app, or the FAQ for common questions.