How it began?
Here at GOAT Grub we love food. For years, we would spend hours before vacations scouring restaurant reviews online for our favorite fare. We would arrive at establishments emboldened by our research, just knowing we were in for a treat. Unfortunately, far too often we experienced a meh meal. After years of travel, we found ourselves sharing our greatest of all times with family, friends, and co-workers. That is when we set out to create a way to increase our success rate and more easily share with others.
We realized restaurant reviews have three glaring problems:
First, they aren't about food.
Restaurant reviews are about restaurants. And while restaurants serve food as their primary function, patrons reviewing an establishment can draw from many other factors when crafting a critique. These can include parking availability, friendliness of the staff, cleanliness of the bathrooms, music selection, seating comfort, cost, and much more.
Finally, there's a lot of negativity out there.
Research has shown that when reading reviews, informed consumers place higher value on the negative reviews than they do positive ones. You might miss out on the best soft pretzel with white cheddar beer cheese appetizer you’ve ever had because someone felt an IPA on tap was too bitter. We’ll give you a hint—it’s in Jackson, Wyoming, and the IPA was great, too!
Make meh meals a thing of the past.
Here at GOAT Grub, we focus only on what restaurants do best—food. Specifically the food you want. Want the best burger in Boston regardless of price, ambiance, or the quality of the wedge salad on the menu? We can get you there. “Greatest of all time” is quite the superlative. No scale, no stars, and no splitting hairs. One person’s GOAT can still be subjective, but they only get one. This requires one to be steadfast in the recommendation.
When we began asking people to designate their GOAT pizza, we quickly realized individuals inherently ascribe great value to their answer. Our Bleat Index helps you find the establishments with the most GOATs.
By focusing on food, separating the signal from the noise, and eliminating negativity, we strive to provide the best food-finding experience!
Second, they rely on a five star paradigm.
This five star paradigm is just too subjective to be meaningful. What is the difference between a 4.5 and 4.7 star establishment? Let’s do an exercise. Do a web search for pizza restaurants in your hometown. How many establishments score over 4.5 stars? In our hometown it was 58. When you have five stars to give, they don’t hold as much value.
