What this is. We read the most recent 120 Google reviews of 36 independent restaurants in Boston, 4,212 reviews in total, and report the aggregate numbers here. No individual business is named; every figure is an average across the group.
Key numbers for Boston
| Businesses analysed | 36 |
| Average Google rating | 4.33 ★ |
| Share of businesses at 4.5 ★ or above | 22% |
| Owner response rate | 27.9% |
| Unanswered negative reviews per business | 16.9 |
What customers in Boston complain about most
The single biggest complaint theme in each report, counted across the sample.
| Complaint theme | Businesses where it ranks first |
|---|---|
| Slow, Inattentive Service | 3 |
| Seating Delays Despite Reservations | 2 |
How to read this
An owner response rate of 27.9% means that roughly 28 out of 100 reviews get a public reply. Unanswered negatives are the cheapest thing to fix: replies are public and are read by the next person deciding where to go.
Method
- Source: public Google reviews, most recent 120 per business.
- Rating is the mean of the per business average.
- Response rate is the share of reviews with a published owner reply.
- Unanswered negatives counts reviews of three stars or fewer without a reply.
- Reports that failed automated quality checks are excluded.
- Data collected July to October 2026.
Cite this data
These figures are free to reuse in articles, reports and presentations with attribution and a link to this page.
Suggested citation:
Get Kandid (2026). Restaurant reviews in Boston: benchmarks from 36 businesses. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://get-kandid.com/review-benchmarks-restaurant-boston/
One line you can quote: “Restaurants in Boston reply to only 27.9% of their Google reviews and leave 16.9 negative reviews per business unanswered, according to a Get Kandid analysis of 36 businesses.”
Journalists and researchers: we can provide the underlying aggregate tables, a city comparison or a custom cut by segment on request. Write to hello@get-kandid.com.
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