Scroll through restaurant listings online, whether on OpenTable itself or on review aggregators and food blogs that pull from its data, and you will eventually run into a small badge that reads Diners' Choice Award. Unlike a Michelin Star or a James Beard Award, this one is not decided by a panel of professional inspectors or industry judges. It comes entirely from the people who actually ate the meal, which makes it a different, and in some ways more transparent, kind of recognition.
The Diners' Choice Award is a recognition program run by OpenTable that identifies top restaurants based purely on verified diner feedback collected through the platform. After every completed reservation made on OpenTable, the diner is prompted to rate their overall experience on a one to five star scale and can add comments covering specific aspects of the visit, including food quality, service, ambiance, and value. OpenTable aggregates that feedback across its network and uses it to identify restaurants that consistently earn strong praise, then groups winners into categories like Best Overall, Best Service, Best Ambiance, Best Food, Best Value, and Best Outdoor Dining, as well as by geography, covering specific cities, neighborhoods, and broader regions.
Not every well reviewed restaurant automatically qualifies. Restaurants generally need to clear a minimum volume threshold, commonly cited as at least 20 total reviews and 10 completed reservations, along with a minimum average rating, often described as 4 stars or higher for a national distinction and slightly lower for some regional categories. Restaurants are then ranked within each category based on their average rating in that specific area, which is why a restaurant can win Best Ambiance without necessarily topping the Best Value list, since the categories are scored independently of each other.
One detail that surprises people is that a restaurant's Diners' Choice Award rating will not always exactly match the overall rating shown on its current OpenTable profile. A restaurant's general overall rating is a continuously updated score based on reservations from roughly the trailing 120 days, while the Diners' Choice Award specifically reflects the 120 day window leading up to the day the awards are decided. Because those two windows can shift slightly out of sync with each other, a restaurant's badge and its live star rating can occasionally diverge, even though both numbers are pulling from the same underlying pool of verified diner feedback.
For restaurants, a Diners' Choice badge functions as a visibility tool as much as a point of pride. It makes a restaurant's profile stand out to browsing diners as a proven, top rated option, and OpenTable provides winners with customizable marketing graphics and toolkits restaurants can use across their own website, social media, and email marketing. Because the recognition is built entirely on genuine diner feedback rather than an outside panel's opinion, restaurants also tend to treat it as a particularly credible form of word of mouth, since it represents the accumulated experience of real guests rather than a single visit from a critic or inspector.
| Award | Judged By | Basis |
|---|
| OpenTable Diners' Choice | Verified diners after completed reservations | Aggregated star ratings across categories like food, service, and ambiance |
| Michelin Star | Anonymous professional inspectors | Cooking quality, technique, and consistency over repeat visits |
| James Beard Award | Industry committees and judging panels | Nominated and voted on by culinary professionals and critics |
You can read more about how those other recognitions work in our guides to what a Michelin Star means and what the James Beard Awards recognize, and see the full range of accolades restaurants can earn in our guide to award winning restaurants.
OpenTable itself has spent more than two decades building the reservation network that Diners' Choice now draws its data from, and the awards program grew naturally out of that scale rather than launching as a standalone feature. As more restaurants adopted online reservations and more diners got into the habit of leaving feedback after a meal, OpenTable had enough consistent, verified data across enough restaurants to start meaningfully ranking them against each other by category and geography rather than just displaying a simple star average. That gradual buildup is part of why Diners' Choice functions less like a one time contest and more like an ongoing, continuously refreshed snapshot of which restaurants are currently earning the strongest guest feedback.
Diners' Choice has been running for years as OpenTable's core, review driven recognition program, but the company has also started experimenting with more curated award formats. In 2026, OpenTable launched its first dedicated restaurant awards ceremony in London, introducing new categories including OpenTable Icons, a list of standout restaurants selected by a panel of industry experts and critics rather than by diner reviews, alongside a Restaurateur's Choice category covering honors like an Everyday Hero award and an Innovation award, and a separate People's Choice category decided by public voting. That expansion suggests OpenTable is moving toward a broader mix of recognition styles, some driven by expert judgment and some by public input, rather than relying on diner reviews alone going forward. See our roundup of OpenTable Icons winners for more on that newer, expert judged program.
Beyond the badge itself, restaurants that win a Diners' Choice Award often lean on the recognition well beyond OpenTable's own platform. It is common to see a small Diners' Choice sticker on a restaurant's front window, referenced in an email newsletter, or mentioned in a local news writeup about a neighborhood's best places to eat. Because the award updates on a regular cycle rather than being a one time, permanent title, restaurants that want to keep the recognition have to keep earning it, which is part of why the badge tends to carry more weight with repeat, engaged diners than a static award that a restaurant might have won once years earlier and simply kept displaying.
One detail that sets Diners' Choice apart from many other restaurant awards is how granular the categories can get. Rather than naming one single best restaurant for an entire city, OpenTable breaks recognition down by neighborhood, by specific category such as Best Ambiance or Best Outdoor Dining, and by broader region, which means a small, unassuming neighborhood spot can realistically win recognition in its own right rather than competing directly against a city's most famous fine dining destination. That structure tends to surface a wider, more varied set of restaurants than an award format built around a single overall winner per city.
A Diners' Choice badge is a useful signal, but it works best read alongside other information rather than as the only factor in a decision. Because it is based on aggregated star ratings rather than a detailed written review, it tells you a restaurant has consistently pleased a large number of guests without necessarily explaining what specifically stood out. Reading a handful of the actual written reviews behind the badge, and checking whether the restaurant's strengths, whether that is value, ambiance, or food quality, actually match what you are looking for from a particular meal, tends to give a fuller picture than the badge alone. For more on how restaurant review systems work generally, see our explainer on how restaurant reviews are calculated and our guide to what makes a five star restaurant.
Frequently asked questions
The award is based entirely on verified feedback from diners who completed a reservation through OpenTable and rated their experience afterward, rather than being judged by a panel of critics or industry experts.
Restaurants generally need to meet a minimum threshold, commonly cited as at least 20 total reviews and 10 completed reservations, along with a minimum average star rating, to be eligible for the award.
The Diners' Choice Award reflects diner feedback from a specific 120 day window leading up to the award date, while a restaurant's general overall rating updates continuously based on its own trailing 120 day period, so the two figures can be slightly out of sync.
No. A Michelin Star is awarded by anonymous professional inspectors based on cooking quality and consistency, while a Diners' Choice Award is based on aggregated ratings from everyday diners who booked through OpenTable.
OpenTable Icons is a newer, separate recognition program that launched as part of OpenTable's first dedicated awards ceremony in 2026, selecting standout restaurants through a panel of industry experts and critics rather than through diner reviews.
It is a helpful signal but works best combined with other information, such as reading a few of the actual written reviews behind the badge, since the award reflects overall consistency rather than details about what specifically makes the restaurant stand out.
Reviewed and verified by the Restaurant Listings Editorial Team for accuracy and relevance. Our content is researched using official restaurant sources, public records, government agencies, and recognized food safety and hospitality industry resources.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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