This page explains how restaurants get onto Restaurants1, what we check before they do, and what gets a place removed. Every check below is done by Ben Gutenberg, who researches and writes each guide.
Nobody pays to be listed
Restaurants cannot buy a spot or a ranking, and we do not accept free meals, discounts, or anything else from the places we cover. There is no sponsored content on the site. If that ever changes, the page it appears on will say so.
What we check before a restaurant goes on a list
Our guides are built from each restaurant’s own published information: menus, hours pages, event and private dining pages, and social accounts, plus local coverage where it helps. Before a place is listed we confirm four things:
- It is open. Closed restaurants come off the page or are replaced.
- The feature is real. A dog-friendly listing needs the patio policy confirmed in at least two independent places. A private dining listing needs an actual bookable room or space, not just a big table.
- The basics. Address, neighborhood, price range, and days and hours, taken from the restaurant’s own information.
- The link works. Every website link is tested before publishing. If a restaurant’s site will not load, we list the address and phone number instead.
How a guide gets its list
Each guide answers one narrow question, like waterfront seafood in Tampa, and lists roughly four to eight restaurants that fit it, spread across neighborhoods and price ranges. If a city only has four real options for a combination, the guide has four entries. We do not pad.
Which cities we cover
Four so far: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Naples. We build one city out fully before starting the next.
Freshness and corrections
Every guide shows the date it was last updated, and we recheck pages on a rolling basis. Hours still change faster than any site can track, so confirm with the restaurant before you make plans. If you catch something wrong, out of date, or closed, tell us on the contact page and we will fix the page.
Last updated: July 2026.