The 5-Pillar Community Scorecard & Palate Filter

1. Why We Replaced the Single Restaurant Score with 5 Pillars

Can you really reduce a whole restaurant to one number? No. A hole-in-the-wall Haitian or Jamaican counter spot might have 9.8/10 Food Quality and 9.9/10 Authenticity, but plastic chairs (5.0/10 Ambiance). When platforms mash everything into one score, great food gets penalized for not having chandeliers.

On Oligrail, every restaurant is scored on the exact same 5 checkboxes:

• Food Quality & Flavor (1–10, No 7s)
• Culinary Authenticity (1–10, No 7s)
• Customer Service (1–10, No 7s)
• Ambiance & Vibe (1–10, No 7s)
• Value & Portion (1–10, No 7s)

You check only the boxes you care about — and the leaderboard re-ranks instantly.

2. The “No 7s Rule” (1–10 Scale, 🚫 7 Banned)

When people don’t want to make a real decision, they pick 7 (“it was fine”). That makes every restaurant clump around 7.2 and tells you nothing.

On Oligrail, 7 is disabled:

• 6 or below (1–6) = Not good enough — it missed the mark or needs improvement.
• 8, 9, or 10 = Legitimately good — I vouch for this place and would return.

3. Verified Palate Filter + 180-Day Expiration

Restaurants are for everybody, so every verified human can vote. And when you want authentic regional food (like Caribbean food in Houston or Miami), you can filter scores objectively by Palate Familiarity:

• All Verified Diners — Every human verified once via Keeta ($KTA) KYC.
• Home Palate (“Raised On It”) — Permanent badge for voters who grew up eating that cuisine (verified via Keeta KYC origin proof or our 30-second Cultural Palate Check).
• Eats Regularly (180-Day Rolling Expiration) — Auto-unlocked after 5+ verified visits to that cuisine, and expires automatically after 180 days (6 months) unless renewed with fresh visits!

4. Smart Receipt Scanner & Best Dish List Ratings

No mobile app required: Right from Safari or Chrome on your phone, you can snap your receipt for a 2x Receipt-Verified Weight Boost.

Whenever you rate a restaurant—or when our receipt scanner detects a dish from Oligrail’s 14 Best Dish Lists (like Pizza, Wings, Burgers, Tacos, or Ramen) on your receipt—the system asks you to score that specific dish (1–10, No 7s) to power community-driven Best Dish Lists.