Just venting a wee bit, but i dont get this still. Not so much with the normal voting public, but i find appeals will always accept cafes and dessert parlours, but will reject restaurants unless they include a bar or have a history to them. Even if its the only Italian restaurant in the area, reject as theres no proof its “hyperlocal” (which, imo, is a pointless thing cause most places dont have that kind of culture to say hyper local for venues)
To me, all 3 serve the same thing, they serve food, offer tables, basically encourage socialising. Cafes for breakfast and lunch and lunch time, restaurants for lunch and dinner time (some do breakfasts as well) and a fair few have bars, dessert parlours about lunch and dinner time too.
To be clear, I think cafes and dessert parlours are great waypoints, but I think restaurants should be held to their standard, not a a higher one (as in, so long as not a chain and not got less than 3 atar reviews on google lol)
It’s taken me a while to realise that cafes and restaurants should be eligible, and so far I have mostly submitted cafes with just a couple of restaurants, all with high google reviews (4* or better).
I also can’t see why restaurants are held to a higher standard than cafes and dessert parlours. It’s rare for people to be eating alone in restaurants, so apart from solo eaters and couples having an argument, everyone is going there to be social.
Maybe it’s because restaurants tend to be in clusters, so why should one be better than the others as most reviewers wouldn’t accept the entire line of them, and this gets transposed to restaurants which are not in clusters.
We often talk about a point of interest being a great place for something, as opposed to being a place that you can do something. I struggle to apply this to restaurants.
Is it just a place to pick up food where you can sit with a friend, or a great destination you absolutely should check out?
Maybe another way to look at it would be “would you invite someone else to the same place”.
There is the problem of personal taste, I have had suggestions for “great food” which I found to be terrible.
This and the likelihood that you are unlikely to have visited the place is why “most” use the review scores for a consensus on what people think of it.
I am not a big restaurant visitor so when I go it tends to be with a group such as Christmas, Birthdays etc so definitely going as “social”.
I would find Cafes harder as more likely people will grab food and go. When I go its usually that the food is fine and the place is convenient, don’t expect restaurant level food at a cafe.
The whole point of restaurants is to have food with friends, family or dates, last I checked, those 3 are socialising, yes there may be people to eat alone, but most people choose a restaurant to socialise and enjoy food
And as i said, cafes, dessert parlours, they provide the exact same experiences, only cafes are more lunch and breakfast while dessert parlours are after dinners. Why do they 2 get through when restaurants dont?
Restaurant: These tend to be higher end offering the full works. Starters, Main, Dessert and usually specialising on 1 type of cuisine. Usually will have a licence to sell alcoholic drinks. Busy time will be in the evening.
Cafe: Usually offering simpler meals. Usually starting with Breakfasts. Lots will have lunch time specials such as Pie, chips and peas, simple currys, lasagne. Always served with Tea or Coffee.
McDonalds is only a Restaurant in name only and due to the fact that they told us it was… Think if you offered to take someone to a Restaurant on a date and you take them to McDs you would expect them to walk straight out never to be seen again
We have another option in the UK with a lot of Pubs transforming in to a Restaurant and a bar. Many have the food brought in half cooked and they complete the cooking process on site. The meals tend to be in the middle with the quality going from Fantastic to “you would have been batter getting a microwave meal”.
I think that y’all are taking my message to mean that I don’t submit restaurants. I have submitted many and had many accepted. I don’t have this cafe vs restaurant dilemma. I meant what I said, that I have trouble drawing the line between a great place to be social and just a place you can eat. Trying to find some examples that aren’t from the ML accept period:
Admit I did think this with the 1st post but your 2nd post cleared it up.
Another language issue as to me, a “Restaurant” (not including fast food places that call themselves that) would always to “Social” so the only criteria is whether they are great.
We would never call Cafes etc a Restaurant, these are 2 different styles of establishment to me.
For me, a Restaurant visit would always be an event.
I would nip to a cafe for lunch during work or meet up with a brother to have a chat.
Cafe: Somewhere that definitely has proper coffee, with lots of options, and lots of teas, and cakes and sandwiches and fancy things and a menu and you might have to wait as long for it to be prepared as you would in a restaurant but it is definitely a cafe not a restaurant.
Maybe it’s the coffee maker behind the counter or the cakes on display on the counter. It’s probably that you can just run in, get something quickly and leave, or linger and have a full meal, or just a snack, and it is considered appropriate. You can’t do that in a restaurant, but I’d struggle to find a clear way of describing the difference.
Just to blur the boundaries further, I came across this headline on a newspaper website: “The small plates that stole dinner: how snacks conquered Britain’s restaurants”. So restaurants might now serve snacks, making it even harder to clearly define what a cafe is, yet I suspect I could look at any establishment and very quickly determine cafe or restaurant.
Think if you offered to take someone to a Restaurant on a date and you take them to McDs you would expect them to walk straight out never to be seen again 
