Data and accuracy

Where data comes from

Every venue record carries its source, shown on the venue page:

• Confirmed by venue — supplied or checked by a verified operator of that business. This is the highest tier and what we’re working towards for every listing.
• Partner feed — supplied through a booking or ordering platform the venue already uses.
• Public sources — compiled from a venue’s own published information, such as its website or posted menu.
• Sample listing — demonstration data, not a real business.

How reviews are read

MenuMap does not publish reviews. It counts them. Where a venue’s reviews have been read, its page states how many of them raised a particular thing — that it suits big groups, that the room is cosy, that people came for brunch — alongside the number of reviews that count was drawn from.

Three rules make that safe to publish, and each rules out something the obvious version would have done:

• The denominator is the reviews we read, not the number the venue has. Those are very different — a venue with thousands of reviews may have had a few dozen captured — and dividing by the larger figure would claim a reading that never happened.
• No sentiment is claimed. “Quiet” is why one reviewer returns and why the next one complains, and nothing in a word match tells them apart. MenuMap counts the mention and does not assert whether it was praise, which is also why these counts do not push a venue up the rankings.
• Never a quotation. No reviewer’s name, no review text, and no review structured data is published anywhere on this site. A summary MenuMap wrote is MenuMap’s sentence, and presenting it as somebody’s review would be a fabricated citation.

How freshness is handled

Every venue page shows when its information was last updated and when it was last confirmed by the venue itself. Those are different things and we show both, because “we refreshed our copy” is not the same as “the restaurant told us this is right”.

Menu prices are the fastest-moving data in this category and the hardest to keep current. MenuMap shows the price it last had on file with the date attached, rather than presenting it as today’s price. Prices are a guide for comparison, not a quote.

What we won’t do

• Invent a rating. If MenuMap has no reputation data for a venue, it shows none. It never defaults, estimates or fills the gap.
• Publish structured data we can’t stand behind. Machine-readable business information is only emitted for listings whose provenance supports it.
• Show buttons that don’t work. If a venue hasn’t supplied a booking or ordering link, that action is shown as unavailable rather than pointing somewhere unhelpful.
• Imply precision we haven’t earned. See how matching works for when a match percentage is shown and when it isn’t.

Correcting something

If you operate a venue, claiming it is the fastest route — you get direct control over your details, menu, hours and photos, and it is free.

Anyone can also report a problem from any venue page. Reports about closures, wrong opening hours and wrong prices are prioritised, because those are the errors that actually send someone to a locked door.

Removal requests

A venue operator can ask for their listing to be removed. We’ll verify the request comes from the business and action it. We’d usually rather fix what’s wrong than remove the listing, but it’s the operator’s call.