The divergence list
Live from the database. Largest gap first, one entry per name.| Place | Yelp | Δ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Tabla Express Boston Boston, MA 02134 · indian | 96 | — | 96 |
| 02 | Cento Uno Pizzeria Brooklyn, NY 11234 · pizza | 92 | — | 92 |
| 03 | Chai Samosa Grab N Go New York, NY 10036 · indian | 92 | — | 92 |
| 04 | Chipotle Mexican Grill 208 W End Ln, London NW6 1UY · mexican / catering-service | 92 | — | 92 |
| 05 | Pura Vida Miami Miami, FL 33131 · coffee-shop / brunch | 89 | — | 89 |
| 06 | Wildflower Denver, CO 80211 · fine-dining | 89 | 2 | 87 |
| 07 | P.F. Chang's To-Go - River North Chicago, IL 60654 · chinese / dim-sum | 85 | — | 85 |
| 08 | Pura Vida - Brickell Millecento Miami, FL 33130 · coffee-shop / juice-shop | 85 | — | 85 |
| 09 | Vincenzo's Ristorante Omaha, NE 68118 · wine-bar / catering-service | 81 | — | 81 |
| 10 | SUSHI STORY New Milford, NJ 07646 · sushi / japanese | 92 | 13 | 79 |
| 11 | Good Friend Chinese Restaurant 23 Winchester Rd, London E4 9LH · chinese / seafood | 77 | — | 77 |
| 12 | June Brooklyn, NY 11201 · brunch / wine-bar | 77 | — | 77 |
| 13 | Mexican Sugar Plano, TX 75024 · mexican / cocktail-bar | 81 | 4 | 77 |
| 14 | NONONO New York, NY 10016 · japanese | 77 | — | 77 |
| 15 | Another Broken Egg Cafe Austin, TX 78752 · brunch / breakfast | 96 | 22 | 74 |
| 16 | Indian Dhaba Chicago, IL 60612 · indian | 74 | — | 74 |
| 17 | Vue 180 Rooftop Bar & Lounge New York, NY 10018 · bar | 74 | — | 74 |
| 18 | J&J Pizza Sterling, VA 20164 · pizza | 89 | 16 | 73 |
| 19 | Ryo Sushi Miami, FL 33131 · Restaurant | 92 | 19 | 73 |
| 20 | Taco Taco Miami Beach, FL 33139 · mexican / taco | 89 | 16 | 73 |
Google and Yelp ratings converted to the 0–100 scale. Δ is Google minus Yelp — the higher the number, the wider the gap between public enthusiasm and local assessment. Minimum 200 Google reviews and 40 Yelp reviews required to qualify.
How to read this
What the gap is actually telling you.| Google rating | Captures first visits, tourists, and people who gave five stars because the staff was nice. Strong for finding places that are genuinely welcoming. Weak at detecting whether the food was any good the third time. |
|---|---|
| Yelp rating | Captures repeat visitors and local knowledge. Reviewers on Yelp tend to have visited more than once, to have higher expectations, and to be less charmed by novelty. Harder to game. Slower to move. |
| The gap | Large gap means the place peaked on its opening night. Tourists loved the vibe; locals have moved on. Sometimes it's unfair — a new opening hasn't earned repeat visitors yet. But a 0.6+ gap after 12 months of trading is a pattern, not an anomaly. |
| Hype Risk tag | Set by Claude's enrichment pass when review text consistently mentions 'Instagrammable', 'always queuing', 'overhyped', or 'not worth the wait'. An additional layer on top of the raw divergence figure. |
From the marginalia
Observations, filed as they occur.- High Google, low Yelp: the postcode is doing more work than the kitchen.
- A place that lives on Google Maps hearts and dies on return visits is a tourist attraction, not a restaurant.
- First-timers leave five stars. Regulars leave the truth. Count the regulars.
- Google rating: the impression on the way in. Yelp rating: the verdict on the way out.
- A 4.7 Google average with 2,000 reviews and a 3.6 Yelp average is a press release, not a restaurant.
The defence
In the spirit of fairness.A high Google rating with a lower Yelp rating is a pattern, not a verdict. Some genuinely excellent restaurants are simply new — their Yelp history is thin and the regulars haven't filed their second and third reviews yet. Some attract tourists precisely because they are good, not because they are cynically positioned. The gap is a flag worth investigating, not a sentence. Harry reserves the right to be wrong about any of them. The Tribunal is open for challenges.