The Honest Five

Google stars and Beli ratings all seem to end up in a frustratingly small range making it super hard to figure out what places are worth your time. Here at The Honest Five all our reviews will hinge around the idea that a 5/10 should be average and price matters a lot. 2's and 8's are exceptional, 1's and 9's should be exceedingly rare, and 10's change lives.

What does the rating number mean?

By definition, 50% of places are below average.

This is important to remember when looking at somewhere that we've given a below average score. You will still likely have a very adequate time at a 3 or 4.

Do we think it will blow your mind? - Probably not.

Will that place have some outstanding dishes? - Very possible!

There are going to be some expensive, fancy restaurants that get rated low, and there will be some cheap, small places that get rated quite highly. This is because, in my opinion, almost every other food review system does an extremely poor job at acknowledging that a meal is more than just the food on the plate and art on the wall. I think price can't be excluded from a rating.

Imagine going to a boujee Italian restaurant and ordering a $38 pasta. That pasta is probably pretty good, maybe even 8/10 good, but is it really that much better than a $18 6/10 pasta at another place? Its tricky, but I'm not always so sure it is. With those hypothetical extra $20 you could easily get an appetizer and a glass of wine. Doesn't that now change the value proposition?

When looking at one of our reviews, you're going to have to change your expectations of what a 4/10 means. There are two extremely useful questions that we ask ourselves when reviewing somewhere:

1. Next time I look for a restaurant in that category, would I choose to come back here or try somewhere new?

2. Was that a worthwhile exchange of that amount money for that experience?

The answer to the first question almost always informs the most important categorization: greater or less than the honest 5. To me, an above average place is one I would, statistically speaking, enjoy going back to more than I would enjoy a different random restaurant in its category.

The answer to the second question tends to only shift my rating by maybe one or two, but it can be an important difference maker. After all, eating at a restaurant is an experience and some part of your bill goes towards that experience. Thus, the second question essentially is asking whether that premium you paid on top of the ingredients used to physically make your dish was worth it. This is the point where expensive restaurants tend to lose points, and cheap restaurants tend to make them up.