Ran a little experiment last week. Wanted to see what Google Maps says are the best restaurants in St Louis vs what ChatGPT says. Pulled the top 50 spots from Google Maps near downtown (Arch/Washington Ave area) and separately asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google’s own AI a bunch of versions of “best restaurants in St Louis.” Only 16 of those 50 downtown Google Maps spots ever got mentioned by any AI. The other 34, some with thousands of reviews, never came up once. Kind of threw me as someone still figuring out who to trust around here. Here’s the part that actually got me though. The AI’s clear #1 pick, named by every single engine was Pappy’s Smokehouse. It’s not even on that downtown Google Maps list. Same with Sado, Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill, Russell’s on Macklind, Vicia, Balkan Treat Box, Blues City Deli, basically half the places people brag about when they talk STL food. My guess is the Google Maps list is just ranking what’s closest to one point downtown, while the AI is pulling from best-of-STL roundups and food writing that cover the whole city. Meanwhile some genuinely well reviewed downtown spots (2000+ reviews, solid ratings) never get mentioned by AI at all. Chris @ The Docket and Maggie O’Brien’s, for two. Anyone else run into this kind of mismatch? Curious if it holds for other cities too.   submitted by   /u/Opposite-Bicycle8744   to   r/StLouis [link]   [comments]