Hello!
I have noticed that the ‘google score’ (on google maps) for the restaurants, shops, markets, etc. are fairly low, comparing to other countries.
Usually, restaurants under a “4” are considered not that good, and when traveling I usually use the map to get restaurants ideas when I don’t have anything planned.
But I noticed that a lot of restaurants in Japan are rated like a 3.6-3.8, even restaurants that I have gotten personal recommendations for.
Is that a normality in Japan ? Or are those restaurants really not that great ?
Because for example, in South America, Uber ratings rarely go below 4. If you get a car with a rating on the low 4s or below 4, thats very bad.
But in the US (at least the last time I was there), there are plenty of cars with ratings 3.5-3.7. But thats ‘normal’.
24 comments
In Japan 3 is basically 5 stars.
This applies to all review services in Japan. Rarely do people leave 5 star reviews. Don’t know why. There’s also a push that expensive restaurant automatically = higher reviews even if they’re not great. But if you at least see 3 then you’re good. If you see 1 then you might want to read or translate the reviews though a lot of “bad” reviews I find tend to be petty or unrelated to the business I.e. someone outside the restaurant looked at them funny and now that’s the restaurants fault! 1 star.
When I went to japan, i didnt have a bad meal, even on random restaurants I picked, i also just used google maps and checked if theres anything interesting around me
Edit: Some things i noticed in restaurants i enjoyed the most
– Lines outside
– The cooks are grandmas
The more popular review site in Japan is Tabelog. Perhaps check on that once a restaurant piques your interest.
Japanese just have a different standard. 5 stars is for something truly special, but tends to be very expensive too. (Because you don’t want to feel like you’ve wasted your money for a mere 3 stars…)
If you read some Japanese reviews, it’ll be 3 stars (or even 1), but the comment reads “Delicious food, great service, would love to come back”.
On Tabelog, someone told me 3.2 and above is typically good enough especially for casual places. For Google Maps, it’s more a mixed bag depending how many English vs Japanese reviewers there are for a particular place.
Yeah, people don’t often give 5 star reviews in Japan for whatever reason. My general rule for google reviews in Japan is that if a restaurant is rated above 4, it’s probably really good, and if it’s above a 3.5 it’s still gonna be good too.
Never had a bad meal at a Japanese restaurant, even the ones we randomly picked.
Google 4.0 is already a good score here. If you are using reading Tabelog (basically Japanese’s Yelp), 3.5 there is already very good.
Basically, in Japan, rating of 3 mean standard good experience.
My Japanese friends recommended tabelog to me. The default rating is 3 star and anything more than a 3.5 will almost guarantee queues or reservations necessary. I use tabelog mostly for the pictures.
I generally just ignored the ratings altogether, I mostly just used Google to gauge the food type/menu, lines, and how easy/difficult a time other foreigners had ordering food.
I also just wandered into whatever was nearby and smelled good more often than I looked at reviews on Google. If I was looking for a specific type of restaurant in mind, I had better luck reaching out on the JapanTravel LINE chat (is this still a thing? I hope it is) or the reddit.
Reading the other comments, I would tend to confirm what people say.
I’ve checked a French restaurant I know in Tokyo and they have 4.6 on Google, 4.8 on Facebook and 3.74 on Tabelog.
Of course, there is much more review by non-Japanese people in Google and Facebook, so this might confirm that Japanese tend to give lower review.
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I personally do not pay too much attention to how restaurant are rated.
Most of the time, I will just randomly select a place based on where I am and what they serve. It can be just from walking in the street, by looking at printed map/guide or taking recommendation from people at the hostel or even tourist information.
I might use Google maps if I do not see much restaurant where I am or if I am looking for a restaurant that serve a specific dish (especially when traveling in different area that have local dish). If anything, I’ll just select the one with the best rating among the option shown (but might also just pick the closest).
If I look at the rating on Google if most rating are 4 or 5, for me it is ok. I might decide not to go if most people give 1 or 2.
3.5 or 3.7 ratings are normal in US? We would never ride those drivers with that ratings
Definitely use Tabelog. Anything over 3.5 is extremely good. For perpsective, the single highest restaurant in Japan only has a 4.8.
hilarious thing is I went to a shitty sushi place in shinjuku that had good tabelog reviews. It was the worst sushi i’ve had in Japan and wasn’t cheap.
Tabelog is generally good but really failed me that 1 time
>Uber ratings rarely go below 4. If you get a car with a rating on the low 4s or below 4, thats very bad.
Uber ratings are completely different that any other rating. In the US Uber ratings are always very high and the drivers ask riders to rate them high unless there was a problem – because it affects their job so much.
Don’t expect restaurant reviews anywhere to be like Uber ratings.
I don’t know about Japan, but in the US it’s common for decent restaurants to be below 4 stars. 3+ stars can still be good.
Most, me included, goes with honest ratings.
1= bad. had a bad experience, or food is bad
2= below average. Not terrible, but did not meet my expectations regarding food, or service or value
3= good, met my expectations. I’d come back.
4= great! Exceeds my expectations. I’ll definitely want to come back
5= perfection.
Usually 5 is for more luxurious places, but can also be for some local place with exceptional value and staff treatment. But my local area has many reviews from tourists, so some scores can be inflated.
My view of American reviews are that it’s very black and white. Either 1 star or 5 stars. Noting in between. Even a 4 is bad, which s crazy.. everything in America is just inflated.
I was at a restaurant in the US, having over 4 stars. I expected great food, service and value. But it was pretty average. I’d put it at a 3, meaning Is expect that service an food for the price.
Perhaps American consumers have lower expectations when they eat out. With all due respect, American food is not noted for its quality.
That would be a good thing IMHO, just adjust your rubric.
That said, I find the the Google reviews here much more trustworthy than the other large review sites like gurunavi and the other one I can’t remember. Reading the comments (preferably in the original Japanese) really helps sort out some sour apple reviews. I also ingore any reviews posted by tourists and actively avoid restaurants that have a large number of reviews written in a language other than Japanese.
Read the reviews sometimes people give bad numbers to language barriers or refusal to service non japanese speaking customers. You really need to dig into the reviews or just use tablelog and suffer through the translations. Honestly I’ve never had a terrible/bad meal in Japan and that includes the 7-11
You just have lower standards wherever you’re coming from. On a 5 scale 3.6 is a good grade
Maybe they are more like me:
5 is for the best of the best, or best price/perf. 4 is amazing. 3 is good. 2 is edible. 1 is don’t go here ever.
While the rest of the world is like my wife, 5 is “there were no hairs in my food” and up, 4 is “if there is nothing else around i guess it’s ok”. 3 and less don’t exist.
I have a restaurant in my hometown where service is abysmal, they regularly don’t have 80% of items on the menu, steak is NEVER done the way you order, you wait long.. 4.7 in 1000+reviews.
Japanese tend to be tough graders. A high tabelog score means Michelen * quality.
Odd timing – do you watch Trash Taste podcast? This was literally just discussed on the video posted almost right before you made this post.
Odd timing – do you watch Trash Taste podcast? This was literally just discussed on the video posted almost right before you made this post.
No, all these restaurants are great! The reason why the scores are so low is because the Japanese are so strict on rating. The quality of these same restaurants would be 4+ in western countries.
Where an “Average” score in North America would be a 7-8, here in Japan it’d be considered a 6-7. On a 5-point scale, the average in N.A. would be 4, and in Japan it would be a 3.