Beli App: Restaurant List Keeping

Author and Photographer: Emily Li

Do you like food? Do you like trying new restaurants and bars? Do you like seeing where other people dine? 

During the beginning of Autumn Quarter, I became friends with a fellow foodie that sat next to me in SOSC. Although the conversations of Marx and Freud are long forgotten, one thing remained between the two of us: Beli. When she asked if I was a foodie, and I, of course, most enthusiastically nodded my head, she introduced me to the app Beli.

Don't worry if you do not know what that is, I was just as confused as you. But now, after a quarter of using Beli, I would like to say that I am a well-seasoned professional, so allow me to be your introduction to the app.

Cacio e Pepe, Fulton Market Kitchen

Charred Grilled Spanish Octopus, Fulton Market Kitchen

What is Beli?

Beli is a food rating app started by two food-loving people, Judy Thelen and Eliot Frost. After moving to New York City, they had trouble finding restaurants, as reviews and recommendations were mostly unreliable. They wanted to solve the problem by developing an app that only allowed those with access to the app to write and post reviews on the restaurant. By doing so, not only would users have extremely reliable reviews, but they would also be able to find friends with the same flavor profile and visit the restaurants that are high on their ranking list. 

When you enter the app, you are met with the home screen, where you will be able to see past restaurants that your friends have gone to and the score that they gave the restaurant. The home screen also has restaurant recommendations from the app that have been curated based on user data from your local area. My current recommendations on the home screen are the Top 10 restaurants in Chicago, the Top 10 Italian places in Chicago, as well as Top 10 most bookmarked in Chicago. These recommendations are also catered towards your preferences and will give you restaurants that the app believes you will like. There is also a “reservation claiming” function that allows you to claim hard-to-get reservations. 

Penne Bolognese, Fulton Market Kitchen

Restaurant Curation

Next in the app is your own curated list. This list shows all of the restaurants that you have eaten at and the score you have given them. The ranking function on Beli is the most important thing you need to know. After going to a restaurant, you begin the ranking process. There are three ways that you can rank the restaurant: "I liked it!," "It was fine," and "I didn't like it." Then there are options to add labels, tag friends, add notes, add favorite dishes, and add photos. The labels are good for determining the ambience of the restaurant: is it a date night? casual business dinner? or just friends catching up? By using these labels, it is easier for your followers to determine whether or not to dine at this restaurant. The photo section allows you to upload photos of your meal with a caption describing what the dish is. It is made for the convenience of your followers, so that they know what to order and what to look out for the next time they go to the restaurant. Once you are done with your description and photos, Beli makes you rank the restaurant in comparison with past restaurants you've been to. This then creates your personalized score, which runs from a scale of 0 to 10, for the restaurant. There is also a bookmark function to bookmark future restaurants that you want to try. Your Beli ranking will be higher with the more restaurants and bars that you rank and bookmark.. Although there is no official competition for rankings on Beli, I have often found that my friends love to compare their Beli rankings with each other. A high Beli ranking also reflects a high accomplishment factor within oneself.

Truffle Fries, Marchesa

Why Beli?

My sister is one of the biggest Beli users, and when I asked her why she loved using Beli, she told me that it was because Beli provided her with a platform and network. She said that she uses Beli mostly to find new restaurants to try. Because all of her friends were on Beli and had similar taste profiles to hers, their recommendations and highly rated restaurants were all options. 

So, if you want to start ranking restaurants and getting reliable recommendations, start looking for Beli users to get your invitation!