How to keep track of restaurants you've been to (and what you ate there).

The short answer: pick one place to log every restaurant, log it at the table, and record the dishes, not just the name. A notes app works for your first few dozen meals. After that, you'll want a map, search, and a score for each dish, which is what a restaurant journal app gives you.

Why a list of names isn't enough

Most people's first restaurant list is just names: a note titled "places we've tried" that grows to forty lines. It answers "have I been here?" and nothing else. It can't tell you whether you liked it, what to order, or which of the three ramen places near the office was the good one.

The useful version records three more things for each visit: when you went, what you ordered, and what each dish was worth. That's the difference between a list and a guide.

Four ways to keep track

1. A notes app

One note per restaurant, or one long running list. It's free, private, and already on your phone. The downsides show up with volume: no map, no sorting by score, photos live somewhere else, and searching "that dumpling place" only works if you wrote "dumpling."

Best for: people who eat out a few times a month and want zero setup.

2. A spreadsheet

Columns for date, restaurant, neighborhood, dish, score and notes. You can sort, filter and average to your heart's content. The catch is that nobody opens a spreadsheet at the table, so entries get written days later from fading memory.

Best for: people who love data and batch their logging.

3. Saved lists in a maps app

Google Maps and Apple Maps both let you save places to lists, and the map view is genuinely useful when you're out. But a saved pin knows nothing about what you ordered. Lists are great for "want to try" and weak for "what was good."

Best for: wish lists, and seeing where your favourites cluster.

4. A restaurant journal app

Apps built for this combine the best parts: a map of places, a record of each visit, and a score for each dish. Some are social (Beli ranks restaurants against each other and shares them with friends); some are private diaries. Our roundup of apps like Beli covers the main options, and the best food rating apps covers the ones that rate individual dishes.

Best for: anyone who eats out often enough to forget.

What to record for each visit

1. The restaurant and date. The date matters more than you'd think: menus and kitchens change.
2. Each dish, with a score. Out of 10 gives you room to separate good from great.
3. One line of why. "Crispy, real heat" or "too sweet" brings the plate back.
4. A photo, if it's quick. It jogs your memory faster than words.
5. Anything practical. Cash only, book ahead, the patio is the move.

The habit that makes all of this work is doing it at the table, in about ten seconds. Here's the ten-second system in more detail.

Keep a separate want-to-try list

A been-there list is about memory. A want-to-try list is about discovery. Keep them apart: when you're hungry and nearby, you want to see either "places I loved" or "places I've been meaning to try," never a mix of both.

Where DishDelish fits

DishDelish is a private restaurant journal app for iPhone and iPad. Every visit gets its dishes scored out of 10 with a note each, the restaurant goes on your map, and the visit's overall score is worked out for you. You can search every dish you've ever logged, and with Pro, describe the meal in a sentence and let AI fill it all in.

Questions