What is a good Google rating for restaurants?
The 570 studied restaurants profiles averaged 4.27 stars and 33.7% sat at 4.5 or higher. Below 4.0 sat 14.9%. That describes the profiles studied, not the whole trade.
Original research · Industry · 2026
The restaurants benchmark 2026
Rating, review volume and profile completeness across 570 restaurants profiles in the United States and the Netherlands.
This page is the industry cut of our deep audit. Every figure comes from public fields the Google Places API returned for restaurants; this is observational research, not a survey.
Deep audit 26 August 2026 · free to cite under CC BY 4.0 · source: Google Maps Platform Places API
Research snapshot
- Study
- The Restaurants Benchmark 2026
- Publisher
- RecensioAI B.V.
- Industry
- Restaurants
- Markets
- United States and the Netherlands
- Profiles analyzed
- 570
- US sample
- 360
- Netherlands sample
- 210
- Audit date
- 26 August 2026
- Research type
- Observational analysis
- Source
- Google Maps Platform Places API
- Version
- 1.0
- Published
- 26 August 2026
These figures describe the 570 profiles studied and are not representative of all restaurants in either country. We do not publish individual business names.
1. Key findings
Every figure below uses the same denominator: the 570 studied restaurants profiles, unless a market is explicitly named.
4.27★
average rating for restaurants
US 4.31 · Netherlands 4.22
Restaurants · n=570
33.7% reached 4.5 stars or higher and 14.9% sat below 4.0.
2,071
median review count
US 2,629 · Netherlands 1,319
Restaurants · n=570
The median describes the profiles studied and is not a target for your business.
1.1%
no website was returned
Restaurants · n=570
No phone number for 1.6% either, and no regular opening hours for 0.7%.
88.9
average field coverage (out of 100)
Restaurants · n=570
A RecensioAI measure across six public API fields. Not a Google score and not a claim about quality.
2. United States versus the Netherlands
Ratings sit closer together than review counts: 4.31 versus 4.22 stars, but 2,629 versus 1,319 reviews for the median profile.
United States
4.31★
median 2,629 reviews
n=360
Netherlands
4.22★
median 1,319 reviews
n=210
3. What was missing on the profiles
Share of the studied profiles for which the Places API did not return the field.
Restaurants (n=570) All six trades
No website
1.1%
9.5%
No phone number
1.6%
5.3%
No regular opening hours
0.7%
3.7%
No photo returned
0.0%
1.8%
Accessibility information was returned for 95.8% of the studied restaurants profiles and an editorial summary for 59.1%.
4. How other trades performed
Same audit, same fields, different cohorts. Each trade has its own benchmark page.
Hair salons
4.60★
median 137 reviews · n=549
Beauty salons
4.62★
median 141 reviews · n=520
Auto repair
4.40★
median 307 reviews · n=520
Cafés
4.29★
median 363 reviews · n=500
Bars
4.39★
median 358 reviews · n=477
The practical side for this trade: what works for restaurants. Every study sits in the research programme.
Quick answers from the research
Each answer refers to the profiles studied and names the sample the figure comes from.
How many Google reviews does a restaurants profile typically have?
The median studied profile had 2,071 reviews: 2,629 in the US sample (n=360) and 1,319 in the Netherlands sample (n=210).
How complete are restaurants profiles on Google?
For 1.1% of the studied restaurants profiles the Places API returned no website, for 1.6% no phone number and for 0.7% no regular opening hours. Average field coverage was 88.9 out of 100.
Do restaurants differ between the US and the Netherlands?
In this sample the average rating was 4.31 in the US and 4.22 in the Netherlands, with medians of 2,629 and 1,319 reviews. The difference sits mostly in volume, not in rating.
How was this industry benchmark measured?
Through the Google Places API, across 570 unique restaurants profiles in the United States and the Netherlands, audited on 26 August 2026. Observational research, not a survey.
Methodology
We requested 570 unique restaurants profiles through the Google Places API (360 in the US, 210 in the Netherlands) and recorded rating, review count and the presence of six public fields for each.
Trade assignment follows the primary category Google returned. A venue that could be seen as both a café and a restaurant sits in one cohort, not both.
The sample is not weighted to the true business mix of either country, and nothing on this page is a claim about ranking causes.
Version and updates
This is version 1.0, published on 26 August 2026. This URL is permanent: new editions and corrections appear here rather than at a new page, so existing citations keep working.
This study is part of RecensioAI's research programme, where we keep our methodology and every edition. The main study is The State of Local Reputation 2026.
An industry average is context. Your street is useful.
Run a free scan of your Google Business Profile and see how your public signals compare with similar restaurants nearby.
How to cite this research
Journalists, agencies and researchers may use these aggregate figures freely under CC BY 4.0. One condition: cite the source and link back to this page.
RecensioAI (2026). The Restaurants Google Business Profile Benchmark 2026: ratings, review volume and profile completeness across 570 profiles in the United States and the Netherlands. https://recensioai.com/benchmark/restaurants
Canonical URL: https://recensioai.com/benchmark/restaurants