sour grapesThe best, ranked & rated.

Bayside, counted

Bayside by the numbers.

Every restaurant we track in Bayside, Queens — measured on exactly the same scale as every other street in the region, which is the only way these figures mean anything next to anybody else’s.

55
Median Sweet Scoreacross 161 scored places

The reason this site exists

Star averages can't tell anyone apart

74% of every place we track lands between 4.0 and 4.7 stars. The most common score of all is 4.4 — that badge is worn by 25 different restaurants. A number that everybody has is not information. The Sweet Score spreads the same places across 19 bands instead of one.

2.3: 13: 33.1: 23.2: 13.3: 13.5: 43.6: 43.7: 43.8: 53.9: 84: 114.1: 164.2: 184.3: 174.4: 254.5: 224.6: 124.7: 84.8: 64.9: 35: 433.544.55
Star average — one spike, no separation
5: 310: 415: 820: 625: 730: 935: 1140: 945: 550: 1655: 960: 1265: 970: 1775: 880: 985: 690: 1095: 325507595
Sweet Score — the same places, actually spread out

How the Sweet Score is built →

Where a street has a specialty

The blocks that are actually known for something

Not folklore — arithmetic. For every neighbourhood we ask what share of its restaurants belong to a category, and compare that to the same category’s share of the whole region. Bayside is 8.5× more Korean than the region average. These are the streets you go to on purpose.

  1. Bayside · Korean8.5×18 places · 10% of the block
  2. Bayside · Greek3.6×6 places · 3% of the block
  3. Bayside · Asian2×11 places · 6% of the block
  4. Bayside · Chinese1.9×24 places · 14% of the block
  5. Bayside · Halal1.8×8 places · 5% of the block

Bars are the multiple against the regional average. Every town →

What people actually order

The 16 dishes reviewers name most

Pulled from what reviewers wrote, not from menus. If a dish shows up here it’s because people kept bringing it up unprompted — which is the only kind of recommendation worth anything.

  1. Fried Rice15 places
  2. Dumplings15 places
  3. Fried Chicken14 places
  4. Latte14 places
  5. Burger13 places
  6. Kimchi12 places
  7. Calamari10 places
  8. Pancakes9 places
  9. Espresso9 places
  10. Ramen8 places
  11. Bubble Tea7 places
  12. Hero7 places
  13. Donuts7 places
  14. Matcha Latte6 places
  15. Brisket6 places
  16. Birria6 places

All the dishes →

The question everybody asks

Does spending more get you a better meal?

A little, and then it stops. The median $ place scores 54; the median $$$$ place scores 28. Four dollar signs buys you -26 points — on a scale where the gap between #1 and #50 in a single town is bigger than that.

PricePlacesMedian Sweet ScoreMedian ratings
$5954225
$$7865517
$$$354502
$$$$228613

The categories

What this region is made of

Every place belongs to every category it earned, so these add up to more than 175. The median column is the honest one — a category with a lot of places and a low median is a category where picking badly is easy.

CategoryPlacesMedian scoreRatings behind it
Coffee265110,970
Chinese24599,792
Dessert24457,160
Bakery217013,290
Korean185211,068
Deli12442,931
Asian11424,974
Pizza11486,399
Burgers9729,999
Bar & Grill9782,677
Fast Food9569,633
Italian8564,394
Halal8682,927
Japanese7543,306
Breakfast & Brunch7533,236
Mexican7672,381
American6703,826
Greek6646,345

Every ranking →

The list nobody else can build

Loved, and almost nobody knows

High Sweet Score, barely any ratings. These are the places where the people who have been are near-unanimous and the crowd hasn’t arrived. This is what a percentile can find and a star average can’t.

  1. Taco Express Mexican Grill - BaysideBayside · 70 ratings79

The other end

The most-rated restaurants in the region

Volume, not quality — though the two turn out to be less related than anyone expects. These are the places everybody has an opinion about.

  1. Martha’s Country BakeryBayside · 3,761 ratings71
  2. Outback SteakhouseBayside · 3,346 ratings55
  3. The French WorkshopBayside · 2,817 ratings80
  4. McDonald'sBayside · 2,517 ratings27
  5. Bourbon StreetBayside · 2,499 ratings51
  6. BKNY Thai RestaurantBayside · 2,322 ratings59
  7. White CastleBayside · 2,028 ratings55
  8. Burger KingBayside · 1,946 ratings56
  9. Chicken LoversBayside · 1,825 ratings80
  10. Fontana Famous Pizza & GyroBayside · 1,801 ratings51

What the board can do for you

Counted, so you can filter by it

Every one of these is a list. Outdoor seating in August, somewhere that takes a reservation, somewhere that will let the dog sit down too.

Every filter →