Restaurants

Every local restaurant I have ever submitted but one has been denied & I have listed awards, etc (sold it to the reviewer) but they have still been denied. None were part of a chain. We need better clarification on this. It’s a place where someone is going to meet up with friends or family & they are ALWAYS accessible. None are private & I assume that a POI will only improve business. A better clarification on what does/does not meet criteria is desperately needed. They are great gathering places. I’m always on my phone every time I go to local restaurants. A POI at the unique ones would be helpful not only to myself but I assume to every community in the world. A bar can be seen in the same light as a restaurant because people mainly gather to be social with one another. Do unique local restaurants that are great gathering places meet criteria or not?
Comments
On the criteria, in the "A great place to be social with others", popular restaurants are among the acceptable criteria. Recently, my success with restaurants have been mainly positive. A few still got declined, but overall, much better compared to a year ago. Like you, I list the awards that the restaurants received. It is also helpful to include the url to the website.
If a restaurant have a bar, it is typically fine. If it is just a bar, it is considered an adult-oriented service.
Not every restaurant has to be a portal.
I’m not talking about chain restaurants. Only the unique ones. In reality though every restaurant can be seen as a place of gathering. I don’t see why a POI shouldn’t be at these places. The positives far outweigh the negatives.
Where I live local reviewers aren’t accepting restaurants at all. If there was a better clarification, maybe they would be more willing to accept them. I forgot to mention that. I always list url as well. That is a great piece of advice. It’s a good idea to list url for any POI that has a url. Helps the reviewer learn & see more facts
Niantic needs to do a better job of getting sponsors as well. Then a lot of these chain restaurants could have POI at them as well. I’m sure a lot would
I'm 50/50 for restaurants, and I've only submitted two. 😆
Truth be told, I'm not too bothered by the second restaurant being rejected since it's more on the pricey side and is off a busy street. Probably not the best "get-together" sort of restaurant, but it does make me wary of submitting them in the future.
I’ve had some like that too. I just wanted a better clarification so we could know whether unique restaurants that were interesting could be deemed acceptable
For what it's worth, my most recent accepted appeal is a popular local restaurant that has won several local awards.
That is great to hear. I haven’t appealed any restaurants but was hoping that we could get some insight with this. Thank you for sharing this info @HankWolfman-PGO. Gives me some hope & im sure it gives others hope as well. I plan on submitting some in communities around me
Well I had what I considered a good restaurant submission, which was independent, popular, no awards, but amazing online reviews, it ticks lots of the boxes, but just got rejected at appeal by Niantic.
I will take that as a clear instruction from Niantic to just reject all restaurants now when I am reviewing, aside from very clear exceptional examples in future.
I wish Niantic would just clarify so there’s not confusion. Things need discussed without waiting for an AMA honestly so we better the platform sooner rather than later. I’m not complaining. I personally just don’t like waiting for these AMA’s to ask important questions. None of us honestly should have to wait either. There are thousands of questions that clearly need answered. Some aren’t ever going to get through the AMA’s as a front runner & just need answered so we know. It’s the same with cemeteries. Clarification needed there as well. No more should we be in the dark. I personally love Niantic but this is an issue that needs to change now
The problem is that Niantic does not provide a rubric to determine what is a "generic business" and what is not. And in the absence of a rubric, reviewers are left to their own interpretations of what falls under that rejection criterion. And no, you cannot say that generic businesses are JUST franchises and chains because those are listed as separate items from "generic business". Again, that is simply applying your own interpretation to what the rejection criterion means.
You’re right. That’s why I said what I said about confusion. We need answers now so there is no more confusion, this is why things are being rejected that should be accepted
Oh, and here is an appeal of a local restaurant that was accepted by Niantic. I've submitted this a total of 5 times over the course of three years, but each time it got rejected. Of course, given the type of restaurant that this is, it should be obvious why this appeal was successful.
So even the mention of Jan 2020 clarification didn't initially get it approved?
I am having the same issue with local restaurant even if they are unique restaurant
In my country (Italy) I insisted very much. I was the first try to propose Restaurants and Pubs. Now they are all very nice Gyms 🥰
Update:
Every unique restaurant that I appealed recently has been accepted through appeals
Whoops. Accidental necropost! How did I end up here? 😬
It’s okay! 😛 happens to all of us. I like what you had to say originally before you edited it though. You’re completely right