Zahid Nihari’s inclusion in a list of one of the world’s best restaurants sparked a debate on social media. While some expressed their surprise at Zahid Nihari being ranked 89 out of 100 on the list, others questioned how it had made the list at all since they did not even consider it to be the best restaurant in the city.

The list, published by global food review publication TasteAtlas, has not just sparked this sort of debate in Pakistan but has raised questions about its methodology. And this is not the first time the questions have been raised either.

Since it is known that the website generates its rankings based on user reviews, many have questioned if the rankings can be ‘fooled’ by fake reviews.

What is TasteAtlas

The food guide website was launched in 2018 by Croatian entrepreneur Matija Babić. The website has tried to carve a niche for itself by focusing on local foods instead of high-end restaurants.

Today the website creates a number of lists that cover food from across the world including the best cheeses, the best restaurants and the best dishes.

TasteAtlas also allows you to search the name of a city or region and will then provide you with the names of the best dishes and restaurants from the area.

The methodology

The methodology of TasteAtlas has been questioned, often by countries who feel they were left out or beaten by others they compete with. In one instance, a Malaysian website asked the platform about its rankings system after a low score.

In another case, the website’s founder had to write an article on the website after a French TV channel accused TasteAtlas of rigging the rankings.

“The methodology of TasteAtlas is seemingly simple. Visitors vote, and we tally the votes and publish the rankings,” Babić wrote.

In case of restaurants, TasteAtlas claims it collected data for 23,751 places across the world. The scoares were then ranked into a final list.

In terms of dishes, the platform collected and analysed a total of 395,205 user ratings (271,819 valid) across 10,927 dishes in its catalog.

However, TasteAtlas claims that it has a special method to make sure the votes cannot be faked.

“We track the visitor’s behavior on our web, we track all his ratings, and depending on whether the system recognizes him as a real visitor or as a nationalist or a bot, his votes are recognized or ignored,” TasteAtlas’ founder said.

In another interview he added that this is done through artificial intelligence.

The mechanism also watches out if a user’s votes are leaning towards praising one country but denigrating another.

“You can’t visit TasteAtlas, slap fives and fours on Italian cheeses, ones and twos on French, and expect your votes to count,” Babić said.

So if you think another spot in Karachi has better nihari than Javed’s, and you think TasteAtlas’ rankings count, the only way to make a difference is to sign up and vote.