The must-eat list has "tricked" me again, what's wrong with this world?

For consumers, they used to be able to buy the shops and dishes on the must-eat list without a second thought, but nowadays, it is easy to fall into traps if you are not careful. As the online reputation of the must-eat list becomes increasingly blurred, how can the value of the list be saved?

As one of the most influential local restaurant lists in China, Dianping's "Must-eat List" is a must-have reference for many consumers to check in for food. However, for modern check-in people who "carefully dig for treasures and still step on landmines", there are always a few unavoidable pitfalls behind every food list.

Perhaps attracted by the check-in posts of Internet celebrities on content communities, or moved by the good reviews on review websites, many "foodies" came with high hopes for the must-eat foods on the list, but ultimately left disappointed. After eating, they came to a conclusion: don't just look at the must-eat list or the good reviews, first look at what the bad reviews say.

The era of "choosing with your eyes closed, all restaurants are delicious" seems to be gone. But why is the probability of stepping on a bad restaurant list still so high when it is clearly based on user reviews, restaurant comprehensive scores, expert reviews and other factors? Is the value of the list declining, or are consumers' expectations too high?

As the online reputation of the must-eat list becomes increasingly blurred, there are the unspeakable regrets of foodies and the "traps" that catering businesses have to face.

1. Schrodinger’s Food

The word "must eat" is a powerful label by nature. Because it has insight into the human nature and psychology behind consumer motivations, the must-eat list has naturally become a weathervane in the food industry. Especially in the digital age, various well-received food photos and short videos of check-ins are widely circulated on social media. Restaurants or dishes on the must-eat list can easily become the center of discussion and attract more consumers to try them.

Especially under the popular trend of "grass-seeking tourism", people travel long distances to taste specific food, and even plan special food tours, and the must-eat list thus serves as a travel guide. Therefore, the slogans of "Tianshui Malatang" and "Zibo BBQ" are spreading further and further, and tasting authentic delicacies has become something that tourists care about very much. Many netizens even said: If you don't look at the must-eat list, you don't know what to eat.

However, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Faced with the must-eat list, which has become a national food list after eight years, some netizens complained on social platforms, "There are more and more 'villains' in the must-eat list. How can anything be on the list?" "Food review notes are like star-chasing posts. It's too difficult to find real bad reviews among good ones."

Xiaobai, a post-95s girl working in Shanghai, also shared her confusion with the Jingzhe Research Institute. "I saw a restaurant push notification some time ago, with a big headline saying 'Good news! ×× restaurant is on Dianping's must-eat list'. Even on Xiaohongshu, you can find a lot of check-in notes for this restaurant. But I clearly remember that when I went there to eat before, it wasn't as amazing as everyone said, and is 20 yuan for two slices of bread really reasonable?"

*Photo provided by the interviewee

Xiao Bai said that he saw this restaurant by chance downstairs of his company and decided to try this Hong Kong-style restaurant that looked like it had a good environment. "Because it was noon, the food floor of the mall was at its peak, but this restaurant was unexpectedly empty. Because I was with several colleagues that day, many restaurants had no seats, so we decided to go to this restaurant on the spur of the moment."

Xiaobai saw on the menu that the "Fried Egg Sandwich" of this restaurant was priced at 25 yuan, and the "Pork Cartilage Demae Itcho Noodles" was priced at 53 yuan, which was reasonable considering the location of the restaurant, but the taste made Xiaobai feel a little disappointed after tasting it.

"I ordered a sandwich and a fruit drink, tasted them, and they weren't anything special. My colleagues also had average reviews of this restaurant, so I found it incredible when I saw it was on the must-eat list." Xiaobai went to Meituan and Dianping to check out the reviews afterwards, only to discover that the restaurant had a high rate of positive reviews.

"If this Hong Kong-style restaurant is just expensive and not to my taste, then another restaurant on the list of good reviews I encountered really impressed me." Xiaobai told Jingzhe Research Institute about her other bad experience. "I just wanted to eat seaweed rice rolls at the time, so I saw this restaurant ranked first on Meituan's best-selling list, but I still took a cautious look at Dianping and Xiaohongshu. I thought the pictures in the comment section looked very appetizing, and I thought how bad seaweed rice rolls could be, so I quickly placed an order."

"When I got the takeaway and just opened it, I thought the food looked really good. But after taking one bite, I started to doubt my life. I kept confirming if it was really the taste. In the end, my stomach started to resist after I only ate two. That was one of the few bad reviews I gave. Later, the merchant discussed with me about refunding the money and deleting the bad review. In fact, you can't blame everyone for complaining about the food list. You never know if you've made a mistake before you eat it, even if it ranks at the top of the food list, so sometimes I really doubt the authenticity of the good reviews and lists." Xiaobai complained.

*Photo provided by the interviewee

2. Behind the list, there is also the helplessness of merchants

Although some users are skeptical about the authenticity of the list, the practicality of the "food guide" provides a clear guide for foodies facing many dining options, greatly reducing the difficulties faced by people with difficulty choosing and simplifying the decision-making process. Therefore, after all the twists and turns, Dianping is still on the desktop of many people's mobile phones.

On the other hand, accurate user exposure and conversion diversion also bring considerable value to merchants. If a restaurant or dish is included in the must-eat list, it is likely to quickly gain widespread positive reviews, form a word-of-mouth effect, and attract more customers. Checking in at a restaurant on the must-eat list is not only a choice for consumers, but also a popular topic on social media. The magic of traffic plus sales has become one of the reasons why catering merchants are scrambling to get on the list.

The 2024 Dianping Must-Eat List includes 2,797 restaurants in 119 cities, with the number of merchants and cities reaching a record high. Whether passively or actively, more and more merchants are being seen by consumers through the Must-Eat List.

A Yu, the person in charge of Shanghai "Ajin Dabai" restaurant, told Jingzhe Research Institute: "At present, the credibility of the must-eat list is still relatively recognized by the market. Merchants certainly hope to be selected, and it also has a great effect on attracting customers for catering merchants. Not only offline business, but also popularity. In the later expansion of the brand, the rise of the must-eat list will also be more helpful in obtaining high-quality resources, such as advantageous shopping mall store locations, rental conditions, etc."

According to the Jingzhe Research Institute, the selection process for the must-eat list is quite comprehensive, including that the review data needs to be authentic and reliable, and the star rating, taste score, and valid review data must be ranked at the top and remain stable on a monthly basis; prices must be in line with users' daily consumption levels and there must be no hype or other illegal or irregular behavior.

A Yu added: "To be included in Dianping's must-eat list, comprehensive conditions must be met. Star rating, ranking, dish ranking, popularity, proportion of non-local tourists, and traffic investment are all key selection indicators. In order to increase the exposure and recommendation rate of the platform, a marketing budget of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan must be invested every month for brand promotion. Participating in online activities can indeed bring sales conversion. Judging from the amount of group purchases, the online turnover is about 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, but part of the conversion is also achieved through offline store guidance and recommendation."

While many diners question whether the list is still as authentic and reliable as before, merchants are also troubled by the evaluation mechanism of the list.

Since the must-eat list is directly linked to the praise rate, many restaurants will also receive malicious negative reviews from their peers. In this regard, Ayu said that it is not easy for businesses to protect their rights in the face of malicious negative reviews. "After receiving malicious reviews, the only way to protect your rights is to complain to the platform. However, you need to provide substantial evidence, such as surveillance footage to prove that there is no problem with our dishes and services, or to prove that it is the other party's own fault that affected the dining experience. In addition, you need to provide the corresponding personnel information of the malicious account, etc., but these are difficult to do, and the platform will not accept the one-sided statement of the merchant, so it is generally difficult to successfully appeal."

In addition, businesses may also encounter malicious complaints from "copycat" restaurants that force them out of the must-eat list. In July this year, food lover Xiao Qi made a special trip to Xuyi to taste crayfish. When she found a restaurant with a "must-eat list" label on Dianping.com according to the recommendation of netizens, she found that the on-site environment was poor and there were not many customers.

"Later I found out it was a knockoff restaurant. Then I found the genuine crayfish restaurant again. Although the two restaurants were not far from each other, the change of restaurant delayed the off-peak dining time. During the peak dining time, I had to wait in line for more than half an hour." Xiao Qi said that he also asked the owner of the genuine restaurant about this matter. "The boss told me that this (must-eat list) was ranked by the platform based on the online data of each restaurant. They were maliciously reported some time ago. So they were removed."

*Photo provided by the interviewee

Since its release, the Must-eat List has been considered an authoritative and trustworthy reference for dining consumption because it does not accept human nominations and insists on fairness and impartiality without charging any fees. However, as its user review area has gradually become the largest lawless place, the number of real reviews is shrinking, and the claim that the list itself is "fair and free" has also begun to be questioned. A Yu said: "As far as I know, there is no organization that can operate the Must-eat List." But when the Jingzhe Research Institute asked a service provider, the other party said "there is a way to operate it."

3. Well-known industry "hidden rules"

In the general environment, the must-eat list used to be considered a reliable food guide, but now the probability of making mistakes has increased, and behind this are multiple changes in the catering market and consumer behavior.

From the perspective of the catering market, with the rapid development of the catering industry, the market has become saturated, and new restaurants continue to emerge, resulting in extremely fierce competition. In order to stand out from the competition, some restaurants may resort to excessive marketing or sacrifice food quality to reduce costs.

For merchants, no price advantage means no customer flow, and they can only offer discounts from half-price coupons to free meals. There is no permanent winner in the bottom-line price war, but it leads to frequent problems of "shortage of weight" and food safety issues that are "astonishing". Many brands have been exposed for replacing the expiration date labels of raw materials, not scrapping raw materials on time, and still using food after it has spoiled. The entire industry has fallen into a vicious cycle, which naturally affects the overall dining experience of consumers.

Although the popularity of the Internet and social media has increased the transparency of information, it has also brought challenges to the authenticity of information. Why do some Internet celebrity restaurants have high ratings, but people feel "cheated" after actually consuming them? The bottom line is that some restaurants have made themselves known to more consumers through paid advertising. However, false reviews, online shopping scams, and other behaviors have become a hidden disease in the catering industry, destroying the environment of fair competition. As the most market-appealing golden signboard, the must-eat list has naturally become a target for illegal operators to make profits.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the business of fake reviews, Jingzhe Research Institute contacted a "Meituan Dianping Operation Planning" on Taobao on the pretext of "wanting to increase restaurant traffic". The other party said that it needed to send the store's location first, and would help to do a free store diagnosis and analysis, and then provide an operation plan based on the store's situation. The other party also took the initiative to say: "For restaurants, it is recommended to buy a package such as a note collection." Through the price list sent by the other party, it was found that the quotation of such an operation agency was not low, and the half-year package was as high as 7,000 yuan.

In addition to using this type of operating organization to get positive reviews, another common operating method used by businesses is "get a free drink for a positive review" activities.

As long as there are no obvious problems with the dishes themselves, many consumers are willing to give the merchants face and give a good review reluctantly. Sometimes, when customers show hesitation or embarrassment, the waiters in the store will even offer to personally control the user's mobile phone to give a good review. It is obvious that "brushing good reviews" has become an "unspoken rule" in the industry that exists clearly but cannot be spoken of.

From the perspective of user consumption behavior, with the development of the economy, consumers' consumption levels continue to increase, and their requirements for catering quality also increase accordingly. Some traditional "must-eat" restaurants may not be able to meet consumers' higher requirements for health, personal taste, customization and personalization.

Consumers are also paying more and more attention to the overall dining experience rather than simply the taste of the food. Comprehensive factors such as the restaurant's service, environment, and cost-effectiveness have become important criteria for consumers to judge whether a restaurant is good or bad. Even if it is the same restaurant, different dining times, attitudes of service staff, and environmental atmosphere may lead to completely different dining experiences twice.

In addition, photos and videos on social media are often beautified, making the food look more appetizing than it actually is. "Photo assassins" will inevitably lead to a huge gap between actual experience and expectations. In addition, when a place becomes an "Internet celebrity", many people will go there to try it out of curiosity or herd mentality, rather than necessarily based on interest in or evaluation of the food itself.

Faced with the increasing number of "mines" on the must-eat lists, the catering market must not only reflect on innovation, but also constantly adapt to market changes and enhance its own competitiveness. As for the list itself, it is also necessary to continuously improve the selection mechanism and improve the accuracy and timeliness of recommendations.

For consumers, nowadays they have no choice but to "buy into" all kinds of must-eat lists and delicious lists. Faced with this situation, in addition to cultivating a discerning eye and the ability to compare prices, they also have to pray for good luck and avoid falling into traps.

*Xiaobai, Ayu, and Xiaoqi in the article are all pseudonyms.