How we rank.

The Hit List Score

Every listing with a public rating gets a score from 0 to 100. It's worked out the same way for every restaurant, recomputed on every site build, and nobody can pay to change it.

Score = (1 − c) × (75% × Public rating + 25% × Halal assurance) + c × Community, capped at 100.

• Public rating (75%)
  The Google rating, weighted by how many reviews it rests on. We add 50 imaginary reviews at 4.2 stars before averaging, so a 5.0 from a dozen reviews doesn't outrank a 4.7 from two thousand. The adjusted rating is then scaled: 3.5 stars or less is 0, 5 stars is 100. Ratings are always shown with “Google” next to them.
• Halal assurance (25%)
  Certified by a named certifier: 100. Fully halal (checked on our visit): 85. Self-reported halal: 70. Halal options: 40. No listing carries a certifier label yet; see below.
• Community votes (c)
  Readers' answers to “Would you recommend it?”: the share who say yes. Voting isn't open yet, so this is 0 for every listing today. Once it opens, votes count only after a page has 10. Then their weight c starts at 10% and rises to 25% at 100 votes.

Score tiers:

• Exceptional: 85+
• Excellent: 75–84
• Very good: 65–74
• Good: 55–64
• Mixed: 0–54

A listing without a public rating yet shows “Score pending”. It stays out of rankings and search engines until it's rated.

Every listing is treated the same

Our team visited 156 of these spots in the past. Those visits don't change the score: there's no bonus and no verdict in the formula, and a visited spot is ranked exactly like any other. Visited spots carry a neutral “Visited by our team” tag, and for them the halal label was checked on our visit. We're not making new visits.

How halal status is labelled

For spots our team visited, halal status was checked on our visit: we asked about certification, suppliers and alcohol. It is a record of what we found at the time, not a certification. For OpenStreetMap listings, the label comes from the place's OpenStreetMap tags and we haven't visited. Every listing carries one of these labels, and every label says confirm before ordering.

• Certified by X (as of date)
  Taken from the certifier's own published list, with the date we checked it. We only use lists we have permission or an open licence to use, so no listing carries this label yet.
• Fully halal (checked on our visit)
  On our visit, the whole menu was halal and no alcohol was served.
• Self-reported halal
  Listed as halal (by the restaurant or its OpenStreetMap entry), but we didn't confirm the whole menu.
• Halal options, not fully halal
  Some menu items are halal and some aren't, or alcohol is served. OpenStreetMap listings get this label when their tags say halal is limited or alcohol is served, and for chains whose halal status varies by location. Confirm which items are halal and how they're prepared before you order.

Statuses change: suppliers switch, menus change and restaurants are sold. Always confirm with the restaurant. The main halal certification bodies operating in Canada include the Halal Monitoring Authority (HMA), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of Canada (IFANCC).

What we don't do

• No paid placements. No sponsorship and no featured spots
• Scores and awards can't be bought
• We don't adjust anyone's score by hand
• We don't copy reviews from other sites, and we don't scrape
• We don't present a halal status as certain. Every label says confirm before ordering

Where the data comes from

• Our visits: 156 spots, with halal status checked on our visit.
• OpenStreetMap: places tagged as serving halal food, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. You can fix a listing on OpenStreetMap; we pick up changes the next time we import.
• Google: star rating and review count only. A monthly refresh through Google's official Places API is being set up; until then, ratings are the ones recorded when each spot was added. We don't copy Google reviews or photos.
• Halal certifiers: we plan to ask certifiers for permission to use their published lists. Until then, no listing says “certified”.

Menus, suppliers, and ownership change. Always confirm halal status directly with the restaurant before you order.