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About OC Food Recs

A ranked, searchable map of the Orange County restaurants that Reddit keeps recommending, built from 285 threads in 20 subreddits.

How it works

  1. Collect. Each source thread below is saved as a snapshot of its public comments.
  2. Read. A language model reads every comment and pulls out the restaurants it names, with a city, street and cuisine when the comment gives one.
  3. Locate. Each restaurant is geocoded to a map pin where an address can be found.
  4. Filter. A curated list removes chains and corporate-owned brands, and restaurants known to have closed.
  5. Score. Restaurants are ranked by the Reddit points behind them, as below.

The score

Each recommendation is a Reddit comment, and its points are the comment’s upvotes. A comment counts when it is the one that brought the restaurant up, or when its text actually names the restaurant. A reply that only says “agreed!” under someone else’s pick adds nothing.

A comment that names several restaurants is a list, not several full endorsements: its upvotes are split evenly across the restaurants it names.

So that one enthusiastic person cannot read as consensus, each commenter’s repeat recommendations of the same place are discounted: their best comment counts in full, the next at ½, the next at ¼, and so on.

Finally the total is scaled by voices ÷ (voices + 2), where “voices” is the number of distinct commenters (the “people” shown on each card). A place praised by one person is held back; the penalty fades as more people agree.

One person recommends a place twice, in comments with 40 and 30 points (each naming only that place): 40 + 30 × 0.5 = 55.

A second person adds a comment with 20 points: 55 + 20 = 75, from 2 voices. Scaled by 2 ÷ (2 + 2), the score is 38.

Source threads

Every recommendation comes from one of these 285 threads, grouped by subreddit. Each quote on the site links back to its original comment.

r/Anaheim · 52

r/huntingtonbeach · 52

r/irvine · 35

r/newportbeach · 30

r/CostaMesa · 17

r/LagunaBeach · 15

r/csuf · 14

r/orangecounty · 14

r/UCI · 14

r/Fullerton · 13

r/SanClemente · 11

r/santaana · 7

r/BuenaPark · 4

r/Brea · 1

r/danapoint · 1

r/GardenGrove · 1

r/lagunaniguel · 1

r/MissionViejo · 1

r/RanchoSantaMargarita · 1

r/Tustin · 1

What it leaves out

The data covers 2,725 restaurants, drawn from 5,090 quotes by 2,402 Reddit users, out of 7,970 comments read. It is a snapshot of what a few threads said, not a survey of Orange County.

  • Snapshot of October 6, 2026. Threads are not re-read automatically, so newer comments, new openings and recent closures are missing.
  • 30% have no map pin (820 restaurants). The comments did not give enough to find an address. They are left out of the list by default; switch on “Unmapped” to include them.
  • 34% have no cuisine (939 restaurants). They appear under “Uncategorized”.
  • Chains are left out. 166 chains and corporate-owned brands, plus 10 closed restaurants, were removed from the list. The “Mom & pop” filter additionally hides places that look like chains but have not been confirmed.
  • Extraction is automatic. A model can misread a name or merge two restaurants. Use “Report a chain” on a card, or write to the address below, to flag a mistake.

Attribution, removal and privacy

Every recommendation is a real Reddit comment; each quote links to its original. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Reddit, Inc.

Ask for a quote to be removed

If you wrote a comment shown here and want it gone, email knakamura13dev@gmail.com with the permalink of the comment. The quote comes down within 7 days. Nothing else is needed: no account and no reason.

Near me and your location

Near me and the map's location button ask your browser for permission only when you press them. Your coordinates stay in browser memory for this session: they are not saved, sent to our server or analytics, or included in shared links. Reloading the page or choosing “Forget location” clears them. Shared links keep your other filters but omit the radius and distance ordering.

Distances are straight-line miles, not driving distances. An active radius excludes places without coordinates. The map loads tiles from OpenStreetMap; viewing a map centered on your location lets that tile provider see the requested map area.

“Last mentioned” is the newest dated Reddit comment in the current view. It is not a check that a restaurant is still open. Old recommendations remain visible unless you choose a recency filter; missing dates are labeled “Mention date unknown”.

What we count

To learn which features are used, the site counts seven interactions: a search submitted (and whether it found anything), a filter applied (which kind), a restaurant card expanded, the map opened, a restaurant saved, a share link copied (from the toolbar or from a card), and a Google Maps link clicked. Each is stored as the event name, the time, and at most one of the fixed labels above.

Nothing identifies a visitor. There are no cookies, no accounts and no third-party scripts. We do not store IP addresses, browser details or any visitor ID, and never what you typed or which restaurant you looked at. Your saved list stays in your own browser.

Credits