The ActiVeg Network Score

The score is a magic number that represents how good a restaurant is for veggies, and especially vegans.

The number incorporates how well the place caters for vegans and veggies and how popular it is.

A score of 0.1 is a minimum score. Do not have high expectations of these place, but vegans will get something. Scores of over 3 are recommended. These tend to be basic vegetarian places and good omnivore places. Those hitting the 7+ are special and will be the best vegetarian places and exclusively vegan places.

Most rating system are merely based on the scores of a few reviews. As we all know, that first great review is most probably the owner and that out of place terrible review was someone who got sacked from the place. The AVN uses a wide set of criteria to smooth out over enthusiastic reviews and to include facts about the place in the score.

The AVN score is also proportional to all the other scores. If a restaurant is scoring a 10 now, but other places start to get better, then that 10 will drop regardless of any changes to restaurant's status. Everything is relative.

How to improve the scores of your favourite places

Reviews scores have a large effect on the overall score. So if you see a fab restaurant with a mediocre score, that may well be because it has no or few reviews - and we take little heed of places with one review saying it is 'the best' or 'rubbish'.

Also the quality of the data we have about a place effects its score. The number of vegan or vegetarian dishes and how the menu is marked up also has a bearing. So, if you think we can improve our data please just use the 'out of date information' link each page to tell us the facts.