If you found the NCAA March Madness tournament as frustrating as I did, then join me here for some comfort food as we analyze the results from our next round of competition in Review Wars – Restaurants 2016.
If you aren’t up to date, see weeks one and two. Last time, we learned which restaurant is the best in each of eight different cities across America. This week, we see how they did facing another city’s champion in a regional contest.
Week 2 Results
Game 1 – Goodwood Barbecue VS Orenchi Ramen
SCORECARD
Goodwood Barbecue (Boise) – 1 review, 5 star average
Orenchi Ramen (Santa Clara) – 16 reviews, 4.1 star average
Some matchups just aren’t even, and this one went the same way as Kansas vs Austin Peay on day one of March Madness – it was a total rout. The restaurant representing my Boise home team got crushed. Though Goodwood did manage to snag a single 5 star review, Orenchi Ramen picked up sixteen, completely running up the score.
The Santa Clara restaurant is clearly delicious, though apparently it can be hard to get a table.
WINNER – Orenchi Ramen
Game 2 – Frank’s Diner VS Shuga’s
SCORECARD
Frank’s Diner (Spokane) – 3 reviews, 4.6 star average
Shuga’s (Colorado Springs) – 2 reviews, 5 star average
Game 2 gives us the closest match-up of this week. Both restaurants picked up a few reviews, and they were all positive, so both businesses did pretty well. While a tight race, a closer look reveals the winner. Both restaurants received two 5-star reviews, but Frank’s also had a 4-star review on top of that.
WINNER – Frank’s Diner
Game 3 – Northstar Cafe VS Alto Cinco
SCORECARD
Northstar Cafe (Columbus) – 3 reviews, 5 star average
Alto Cinco (Syracuse) – 1 review, 3 star average
Alto Cinco reviews reveal that the food is generally regarded as great, and one of the things someone must try when visiting Syracuse. They seem to be going through some growing pains at the moment, struggling to keep waiting and serving times down to reasonable. In the last week, they didn’t bring enough beef to this fight; in fact, all they brought to the table was a mediocre whiskey sour.
Northstar Cafe, on the other hand, has customers who can’t stop raving about their burgers, burritos, and bowls. This week they picked up three reviews, all of them nothing but net.
WINNER – Northstar Cafe
Game 4 – Saw’s Soul Kitchen VS The Terminal Brew House
SCORECARD
Saw’s Soul Kitchen (Birmingham) – 2 reviews, 5 star average
The Terminal Brew House (Chattanooga) – 3 reviews, 4 star average
On the surface, this matchup looks a lot like Game 2. In this case, the disparity is greater than the .4 star difference we saw in the earlier game, and that makes all the difference. Saw’s has seen a better overall rating for the last month, and they have seven 5-star reviews in a row (that passed Yelp’s filter).
WINNER – Saw’s Soul Kitchen
ROUND 3 MATCHUPS – SEMI-FINALS
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About Matthew Biss