AI-assisted, human-reviewed
Covering 2,623 Sydney venues properly isn't something a small team does by hand, so we use AI to do the reading: pulling a venue's own menu, hours and description into a draft. What it never does is decide. A person reviews what gets published, and the model only ever sees a venue's real source material — it is never asked what it knows about a Bondi cafe, because that is exactly how invented detail ends up in directories.
We don't invent facts
Checkable facts — an address in Parramatta, a Sunday trading time, whether a Chatswood venue takes bookings — are only published when we have a source. Where we don't know, we say nothing rather than guess, and a listing we haven't verified recently is treated as less reliable until we do. A confidently wrong opening time is worse than no listing at all.
Sourcing & attribution
Our information comes from a mix of sources, including:
- Each venue's own website and menu — our primary source, and the one we lean on hardest
- Google Places for location, hours and rating volume (never for our own write-ups)
- Ticketing and listing platforms for events: Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Moshtix, Meetup and AllEvents
- Reader corrections, most often about a Sydney venue that has closed, moved or changed hands
Where images or facts come from a third party, we attribute them where appropriate and link out so you can check the original.
The Spot Score, in plain language
In practice the Spot Score has to correct for Sydney's geography. Venues in high-traffic areas accumulate reviews that a genuinely good Parramatta or Chatswood place never will, so raw review volume would bury exactly the venues worth telling people about. The score weighs reputation against a venue's own category and context, adds weight for how complete and current our information is, and ignores money entirely — sponsorship is labelled and sits outside the ranking.
Freshness & verification
Venues change constantly, so freshness is built into our process and into the Spot Score itself — older, unverified information counts for less. We re-check listings over time and update them as sources change. Even so, please treat time-sensitive details like hours and menus as a guide and confirm with the venue before you go.
How to report an inaccuracy
Found something wrong, out of date or a venue that's closed? Please tell us via our contact form and we'll review and fix it quickly. Spotting errors helps everyone, and we're grateful for it.