Skip to content

ranking methodology

How does this list get its order?

Every Spinach list is computed by a formula, not picked by hand. Here's what gets measured and how the order falls out.

What kinds of lists you'll see

The 15 Essential

A city's flagship list. The places you should know about before you book a flight.

Signature dishes

What this city does better than other cities. Top three dishes per hub, picked by relative strength across the network of 158 cities.

14 themed categories

Hidden Gems, Coffee Masters, Worth the Occasion, and more. Each list has its own filter and weighting; click "How we rank" on any list page for the per-category breakdown.

Best-of-dish lists

For each dish — pizza, ramen, pierogi, francesinha — the places in a city ranked by how good reviewers say the vegan version of that dish tastes. The rest of the menu doesn't count, so a place with few other vegan options can still rank; there, ask for the vegan version when you order.

What signals go into the rank

Each list combines these in different proportions — the 15 Essential leans on overall rating, signature dishes lean on dish quality, Hidden Gems penalise high review volume on purpose. Best-of-dish lists use one input only: signature dish strength. The list-level weighting is on each list page.

Spinach rating

Wilson-confidence-bounded average of food-quality reviews. Penalises low-volume venues so a single 5-star rating doesn't outrank a 4.6 with 200 reviews.

Signature dish strength

Per-venue, per-dish quality derived from review language. Lets a place with a mediocre menu but incredible vegan ramen rank where it should.

Vegan Friendliness

A → E grade computed from menu labelling, vegan options, staff knowledge, and warnings. Used as a friction signal, not a quality signal. Shown on every best-of-dish card, but it doesn't change that list's order.

Review depth

Recency and volume. A venue rated three years ago doesn't carry the same weight as one rated last week.

Three things we don't do

No paid placement

Ranks are not for sale. No promoted slot, no "featured" toggle, no quiet boost for partners. If a venue is on a list, it earned the spot.

No favourites

We don't pin a place to the top because we like it, and we don't bury one we don't. The formula sets the order.

No copied reviews

We never republish anyone's review. Our scores, tips and descriptions are our own, worked out from what reviewers say.

Where the data comes from

We read public reviews of each place on Google Maps and HappyCow, and its menu where we have one. From them we work out how good the vegan food is, dish by dish, and how easy the place makes it to eat vegan. On each venue page, the Google and HappyCow star ratings sit next to ours, with a link to read the reviews there.

Every list shows the date of its last refresh. See the Vegan Friendliness page for how the A–E grade is built.