This page explains how we decide what goes into the guide, and what you can and cannot assume about anything you read here.
Nobody pays to be included
We do not accept payment, commission or hospitality in exchange for inclusion, position or a favourable write-up. No venue on this site has paid to be on it. If that ever changes for a specific piece, it will be labelled clearly on that piece.
Who writes it
Every page carries a byline, and it is the same one: Robert J Wills. A guide that will not say who wrote it is asking you to take it on trust.
How we check things
Before a venue is listed we confirm it is trading, and we check specifics like booking policies and opening seasons against the venue’s own published information rather than against other guides. Guides copy each other constantly, which is how a bar that closed three years ago stays on “best of” lists indefinitely.
Where we have not been somewhere ourselves, we say what it is known for rather than implying a visit. We would rather be less colourful and more accurate.
Prices
We quote the exact figure the venue publishes, with the date we read it. A band is vaguer than the restaurant’s own menu and no more durable, so it helps nobody. Where a venue publishes nothing, we say that instead of guessing a range.
Things change
Bars close. Restaurants move. Michelin stars are reassigned every year. We update pages when we learn something has changed, and pages that make a freshness claim carry the date they were last checked.
If you find something out of date or wrong, tell us. Corrections are the most useful thing a reader can send and they get acted on quickly.
Links
We do not link out. Every link on this site goes to another page on this site, so nothing here is an affiliate link, a paid placement or a referral. We name the venue, quote what it publishes and leave you to search for it. If that ever changes for a specific piece, it will be marked on that piece.
Contact
Corrections, suggestions and complaints: see the contact page.