How scores work
How krogat scores a restaurant
Every krogat score is a weighted average of 1–10 ratings. What makes it different is the weight: it depends on who rated the place, relative to you.
The short version
- Members rate restaurants from 1 to 10, in half points.
- Each rating is weighted by three things: your relationship to the rater, the rater's credibility, and how recent the visit was.
- The weighted average is pulled gently toward a neutral 6.8 until enough people have rated, so one enthusiastic 10 can't make a 10.
- Friends count 1.0, people you follow 0.6, friends of friends 0.35, strangers 0.1.
- Google, Tripadvisor and restaurant guides are shown next to the score as context. They are never mixed into it.
Four scores, one formula
- For you
- The headline number when you are signed in. Everyone who rated the place, weighted by the full relationship table below. It is the number on your map and in your ranked lists.
- Friends
- Only mutual follows, people you follow and friends of friends. Left blank, not zero, when too little of your circle has been.
- Tastemakers
- Only a small set of hand-picked local food people, weighted a little higher if you follow them.
- Everyone
- All members, each weighted only by credibility and recency. It is the same for every visitor, which is why it is the score you see when signed out and the one search engines see.
Who counts how much
The relationship weight is the heart of it. A rating from a friend moves your score ten times more than a rating from a stranger.
| Rater, relative to you | Weight |
|---|---|
| Friend (you follow each other) | 1.0 |
| Tastemaker you follow | 0.8 |
| Someone you follow | 0.6 |
| Tastemaker you don't follow | 0.5 |
| Followed by people you follow | 0.35 |
| Follows you, one way | 0.2 |
| Everyone else | 0.1 |
Your own rating is never part of your score. It is shown separately, as "You: 8".
Credibility
A rater's credibility grows with how much they have rated: (ratings + 2) ÷ 12, capped at 1. Someone with 10 or more ratings counts in full; someone with 1 counts a quarter.
Brand-new accounts (under a week old, fewer than 3 ratings) count 0.2, whatever they rate.
Credibility is reduced for raters whose scores are systematically extreme, for example mostly 10s and 1s.
Tastemakers are verified by hand and always count as fully credible.
Recency
Restaurants change, so ratings fade. A rating's weight halves every 18 months.
It never drops below a quarter: a great dinner from three years ago still counts, just less than last month's.
Few ratings, careful score
krogat adds two imaginary ratings at a neutral value before averaging. For the Everyone score that value is the city mean, 6.8. For your personal scores it is the restaurant's Everyone score once 5 or more people have rated it, otherwise 6.8.
So a single 10 from a fully credible stranger gives (10 + 2 × 6.8) ÷ 3 ≈ 7.9, not 10. Two friends at 9 give (9 + 9 + 2 × 6.8) ÷ 4 = 7.9. Three friends at 9 give 8.1. The more people you trust agree, the closer the score gets to what they said.
Harsh and generous raters
Some people never give above 8; some give everything a 9. Once a rater has 15 or more ratings, krogat maps their scores onto the city's scale: a harsh rater's 8 counts as roughly a 9.
The adjustment is capped at 2 points per rating, and raters whose scores barely vary are left as they are. Their profile says so openly ("rates 0.7 lower than average").
A worked example
Martin looks up a restaurant. Twelve members have rated it; their Everyone score is 7.4. Two of Martin's friends are among them.
- Sara, friend, 40 ratings, went 4 months agoWeight 1.0 × 1.0 × 0.86 = 0.869
- Erik, friend, 3 ratings, went last weekWeight 1.0 × 0.42 × 1.0 = 0.427
- Two imaginary ratings at the Everyone scoreWeight 27.4
Friends score = (0.86 × 9 + 0.42 × 7 + 2 × 7.4) ÷ (0.86 + 0.42 + 2) = 25.5 ÷ 3.28 ≈ 7.8
Martin sees 7.8 where the crowd sees 7.4. Sara's 9 visibly moved it, Erik's 7 held it back a little because he has barely rated anything yet, and neither could drag it far on their own. Tap the score in the app and you see exactly this: "Sara 9 · Erik 7".
Context, not score
Next to the scores each restaurant page shows signals: how much members agree, what the photos and notes suggest, what critics wrote, Google's and Foursquare's ratings placed on a 1–10 scale relative to other restaurants in the same city, Tripadvisor exactly as Tripadvisor shows it, and Michelin or White Guide distinctions.
Signals are there to help you read the score. None of them is ever blended into For you, Friends, Tastemakers or Everyone.
External data comes from official APIs and hand-curated guide lists only. Nothing is scraped.
Hard to game, impossible to buy
- Money never buys score. There is no paid placement and no way for a restaurant to pay for a better number.
- Tastemaker status is granted by hand, and the boost is deliberately modest (0.5–0.8, below a friend) so it isn't worth buying either.
- New, near-empty accounts count 0.2. Nobody can rate more than 5 restaurants in a day.
- Only raw ratings are stored. Your score is calculated fresh every time you look, from ratings as they are right now.
Questions about the score
How is the krogat score calculated?
A krogat score is a weighted average of members' 1–10 ratings plus two neutral pseudo-ratings. Each rating's weight is your relationship to the rater (friend 1.0, following 0.6, friend of friend 0.35, stranger 0.1) × the rater's credibility × recency (halving every 18 months). The pseudo-ratings pull the score toward 6.8 until enough people have rated.
Why is my score for a restaurant different from my friend's?
Because scores are personalised. Your For you score is built mostly from the people you follow, and your friend follows different people. Both numbers use the same formula and the same ratings, weighted from a different point of view.
What is a good score on krogat?
krogat uses a 1–10 scale where 6.8 is the neutral city average. 6 is good, 7 is really good, 8 is great, 9 is exceptional and 9.5 or above is one of the best in the city.
Does krogat use Google ratings?
Not in the score. Google, Foursquare and Tripadvisor ratings and guide distinctions are shown on restaurant pages as context, next to the krogat scores, but are never blended into them.
What is the Everyone score?
The Everyone score is the viewer-independent krogat score: all members' ratings weighted by credibility and recency, pulled toward the city mean of 6.8 with two pseudo-ratings. It is what signed-out visitors and search engines see.
Can a restaurant pay for a better score on krogat?
No. Nothing bought or generated can move a krogat score. There is no paid placement, tastemaker boosts are kept modest, and brand-new accounts carry almost no weight.
How many ratings does a restaurant need?
One rating gives a score, but a careful one: two pseudo-ratings at 6.8 keep a single enthusiast from making a 10. The Friends score stays blank until enough of your circle has been.