Company Wants To Bring Objectivity To Chicago Restaurant Ratings

By Gwendolyn Purdom in Food on Jul 26, 2016 7:22PM

The problem with fancy restaurant rating systems like Michelin's stars or even review sites like Yelp is that pesky things like subjectivity and biases tend to get in the way. At least, those are the issues New York-based company Renzell says it aims to address as it expands its service to Chicago this week.

With a data-driven model, Renzell says it will avoid the skewing effects of one-man's-meatloaf-is-another-man's-filet or online raters with a personal vendetta as it starts rating an initial batch of 54 local restaurants including Michelin favorites like Girl & the Goat, Dusek's, Parachute and The Dawson.

In a press release distributed Tuesday, the company, which launched in New York City last fall and is also expanding to San Francisco this week, said it bases its ratings on the feedback of "hand-selected panel, a comprehensive survey, and a proprietary algorithm."

From the release:

"Renzell has assembled a membership of sophisticated diners—regular, non-industry patrons of top restaurants who are a cross-section of each city’s diners—who understand the complex components of a stellar restaurant experience. The members take a unique survey that explores the experience of dining out through eight attributes: Hospitality, Service, Value, Food, Design, Vibe, Cocktails, and Wine/Sake. The collected data, totaling hundreds of thousands of analytical data points, is weighted against user preferences to ensure the most accurate ratings and eliminate subjectivity or bias. In an effort to be transparent with the restaurants and consumers, Renzell makes its survey, methodology and data available to the restaurants it covers."

In Renzell's structure, restaurants must be open for a minimum of two years to be included and are ranked on 32 specific criteria. Members (those aforementioned "sophisticated diners"), according to the company's website, can access the corresponding app's "Concierge Services" as well as special exclusive experiences like private tastings, tours or curated plates. The first official ratings, for New York's restaurants, will come out in September.

Check out the full list of Renzell-ratable Chicago restaurant here.