How Fork & Flag Scores a Food Venue

The Fork & Flag Score

Every food venue on Fork & Flag earns a Fork & Flag Score out of 100. It is built entirely from genuine community ratings — there is no editorial thumb on the scale and no venue can pay to lift its position.

What goes into the score

The score is a weighted blend of what matters most to a good meal. Each venue is rated by members on five things, weighted as follows:

• Authenticity (30%) — does it represent the cuisine truthfully?
• Food quality (30%) — how good is the food itself?
• Recommendation (20%) — how likely members are to recommend it to a friend, on a 0–10 scale.
• Vibe (10%) — the atmosphere and experience including customer service.
• Value for money (10%) — what you get for what you pay.

Adjusted for how much evidence exists

A single enthusiastic rating should not outrank a venue with a long, consistent track record. So after the blend is computed, one Bayesian confidence adjustment pulls a venue with only a handful of ratings toward the neutral midpoint of 50 — and the more members rate it, the more the score reflects that venue alone. The formula is fixed: a venue's score depends only on its own ratings, and it changes only when someone rates that venue.

Ranked by people who know — never by paid placement

Rankings come from trusted member ratings only. Suspicious or coordinated ratings may be excluded to protect ranking integrity, and sponsorship never moves a venue's position.