Where to eat tonight? It’s the age-old question when traveling. Is this restaurant actually good, or is it just filled with tourists? As a frequently unprepared traveler, I never remember to find a place to eat until I am hungry. Yet, I always have delicious meals. Here is the hack I found to ensure excellent food every time while using Google Maps.

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The Secret of Where to Eat

The secret to hacking Google Maps to find a good restaurant is actually quite simple. When looking on Google Maps make sure the number of reviews is between 200-800. Those are the magic numbers I have found where the reviews won’t be driven up by family, or bogged down by tourists.

If you want the step-by-step instructions to find a delicious restaurant, keep reading.

How to Find Where to Eat

Say you are in Spain and want the best Tapas. You might be tempted to just hit “Restaurants” and hope there are Tapas Bars, but don’t. Using the search bar at the top, type in the cuisine you are looking for and hit search.

Next, make sure you have the correct search settings turned on. Scroll along the top bar, where it says “Open now” and “Cuisine”, until you see “More Filters”. I like to only view restaurants with a 4+ rating. I also make sure to click on “Open now” or the custom button if I am not hungry at that very moment. 

Now you search. In my opinion, the best restaurants have between 200 to 800 reviews in total. Under 200 reviews and that 4-star rating can be propped up by family and friends. Over 800 and the ratings start to become less meaningful. As you cross the 1,000 review threshold you also tend to see the tourist traps popping in. I call it “Vacation Syndrome”, everything is perfect, and every meal is 5 stars. Don’t trust tourists. If you weren’t personally recommended the restaurant, be hesitant with anything with over 800 reviews (and avoid anything with over 1,000).

At this point, I would either select “View list” if I want to see all options, or just scroll around the map if I want to stay near my location. On the list view, Lola’s Bar stands out with 396 reviews and 4.4 stars. But I’m aiming for at least 4.5 stars, so let’s keep searching.

When scrolling around the area, there are a few that look promising, but when I click on them I see over 1,000 reviews. After a bit, Sorbito Divino came up with 4.5 stars and 469 reviews. Before I settle on this one though I head to all reviews, the newest first, and make sure there isn’t a recent string of bad reviews. There aren’t.

While I have never eaten here, and I haven’t been to Valencia, I would happily go to Sorbito Divinos based on this method. This is also how I found all of my favorite restaurants in Málaga.

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Exceptions

Like any rule, there are exceptions. Here are a few cases when I would throw this whole method out the window.

• How small is the city you are in? If you are visiting somewhere off the beaten path, you probably won’t deal with restaurant reviews being overcrowded by touristic optimism. You may not even find places with at least 200 reviews. 
• Some restaurants are good with over 1,000 reviews. And if someone you know and trust recommends it, ignore this whole thing. These rules are for when you have no idea where to start your restaurant search. 
• You’re like, really, really hungry. I’ve been there. And when that happens I will risk whatever the closest restaurant is, even if it has 2,000 reviews.

I’ve been using these rules for several years now, and they have never let me down. I hope they help you find where to eat, no matter what city you are in.