Wisconsin restaurateurs who can’t stand the heat of 1-star Yelp reviews should stay out of the kitchen in Hayward, Appleton and Beloit. Better options might be Rhinelander, Fond du Lac and Green Bay, where 5-star reviews are more common, said recent report by small-business software provider Womply.
Overall, Wisconsin diners are among the nation’s nicest, doling out 4- and 5-star reviews 82% of the time.
Womply reviewed site data for 43,000 local restaurants across America. After analyzing reviews posted on sites like Yelp, Google Reviews and TripAdvisor, they ranked the states and cities with the kindest and harshest critics. They designated 4- and 5-star reviews as positive and 1- to 3-star reviews as negative.
Wisconsin ranks 10th when it comes to percentage of positive ratings. We’re sandwiched between Minnesota (9th) and Iowa (11th).
The Midwest may have a reputation for being polite, but we didn’t top the nice-o-meter this time. Diners in Montana are the kindest in online reviews to local restaurants (83.7% positive), followed by Maine (83.7%) and Mississippi (83.5%).
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Maryland has the harshest restaurants customers (76.5% positive), followed by Virginia (77.9%) and Massachusetts (79.4%).
This is where I refrain from making a snide comment about East Coast parenting practices because I’m a nice Wisconsin boy who knows that if I can’t say anything nice …
Back in Wisconsin, there’s little correlation between population or region and positive reviews. Appleton and Green Bay have similar populations and a scant 33 miles between them, yet there’s nearly a 13% difference when it comes to positive ratings.
Rhinelander’s 88.9% makes it the 19th best city nationally when it comes to positive online ratings. Fond du Lac and Green Bay are the only other two Wisconsin cities in the top 100.
Milwaukee finds itself solidly in the middle of the Wisconsin pack for positive ratings.
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Wisconsin cities by rate of positive restaurant reviews
- Rhinelander 88.9%
- Fond du Lac 86.6%
- Green Bay 86.2%
- Stevens Point 85.8%
- Sheboygan 85.8%
- Manitowoc 85.6%
- Eau Claire 84.8%
- Rest of state 84.6%
- Racine 84.1%
- Menomonie 84%
- Waupaca 82.6%
- Milwaukee 82.4%
- La Crosse 81.8%
- Janesville 81.1%
- Wausau 80.3%
- Wisconsin Rapids 79.6%
- Madison 79.6%
- Kenosha 79.3%
- Delavan 76.6%
- Oshkosh 75.5%
- Marinette-Menominee 75.2%
- Beloit 74.6%
- Appleton 73.7%
- Hayward 70.1%
Contact Daniel at (920) 996-7214 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @HigginsEats and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/higginseats/.
