The best way to keep track of restaurant recommendations

The Notes list

One long note titled “Restaurants 🍜” — everyone has had one. Capture is decent: typing a name takes ten seconds. Retrieval is where it dies. No map, no addresses, no idea which city “Casa Julia” was in, and at least three entries that just say “sushi place near the canal?”.

Verdict: fine for a dozen places in your home city. Falls apart with volume, travel, or time.

Google Maps saved lists

Pinning to Google Maps lists gets you the map, addresses, opening hours, and directions — genuinely good retrieval. Two costs: capture is manual (every tip means searching Maps, matching the right venue, saving it), and context evaporates (the pin doesn’t remember the video or the friend that sold you on it, or which dish to order).

Verdict: strong retrieval, weak capture. Works if you’re disciplined; most people’s discipline lasts about two weeks.

The spreadsheet

The maximalist option: columns for city, cuisine, price, who recommended it, notes. Total control, great for planning a big trip with someone else — and capture friction so high that only the most committed keep it alive. You will not open Sheets on the sidewalk while a friend is mid-recommendation.

Verdict: excellent for the one big trip you’re actively planning. Not a system for a running life-long list.

A food map app

The newer option is an app built for exactly this. Korka’s version: tips from Instagram or TikTok get shared straight from the feed — one tap, and the venue is identified automatically and pinned. Tips that arrive as words (a friend’s message, a name on a podcast) you add by pasting text or a Google Maps link. Everything lands on one map, organized by city, with photos, hours, the link back to the original post, and a note of what made you save it.

Because capture is one tap, the list actually grows; because it’s a map, retrieval is instant. It also covers the social loop the other systems miss: when a friend asks “where should I eat in Copenhagen?”, you send a code and they get your whole Copenhagen map instead of you re-typing five names into a chat.

The honest recommendation

Whatever you choose, choose for capture. Every system has acceptable retrieval if you keep feeding it — but a system that asks for data entry after every tip stops being fed within a month. The best system is the one where saving is as easy as the Instagram bookmark you’re already tapping. That’s the design principle behind Korka, and it’s free to try with your next five saves.