What Should I Order?
Michelin sends inspectors. We send a phone call.
Independent restaurants answer. Famous ones don't.
85% of big-name restaurants hit IVR or voicemail. The indie spots pick up. The places you actually want to hear from are the ones that answer.
The dish name is the review
No stars. No paragraphs. The conviction in someone's voice when they name their best dish tells you everything. Every guide tells you where to eat. None tell you what to order.
"I would recommend the adana. Definitely the adana."
Mangal 1, Dalston
One question gets better answers than two
v1 asked for 2-3 dishes with follow-ups. Low completion rate. v2: one question, one dish, 30 seconds. The constraint is the design decision.
Twenty pounds bought 60 restaurant recommendations
The entire dataset cost less than a meal at most restaurants in it. No journalists, no PR agencies, no forms. Just API calls.
OpenStreetMap is the best free restaurant database nobody uses
One Overpass API query returned 2,993 London restaurants with phone numbers in 30 seconds. Every directory scraping approach was blocked. The open data was free and better.
"The cornbread. That is like a signature starter."
Caravan Exmouth Market
The agent needs a cover story
Without context, people think it's a scam. 'I'm putting together a free food guide' reduced hangups immediately. Cafe Cecilia's staff initially thought it was a scam but answered anyway.
3pm is when restaurants actually talk to you
Between lunch and dinner service, someone is near the phone with nothing urgent. Timing matters more than the script.
Audio of the call is more compelling than any written review
Hearing a Turkish grill owner say 'Definitely the adana' with genuine pride hits differently than reading it. The actual recordings are on the site. The medium is the message.
The venues you've never heard of give the best answers
Sun Kitchen in Hackney: 'If you like charcoal, you can order lamb ribs. Definitely the lamb ribs.' No algorithm surfaces this. The person who answered is the source.
The IVR is the review
Hawksmoor's 60-second runaround through hold music tells you how they treat spontaneous callers. A restaurant that picks up in 3 seconds and says 'yeah, the adana' tells you something too.
"If you like charcoal, you can order lamb ribs. Definitely the lamb ribs."
Sun Kitchen, Hackney
Every guide sends a critic. We called the chef.
