With an endearing turquoise app icon and intuitive interface, the fast-growing social media and food rating platform Beli allows users to connect with friends and bond over recent meals.
Similar to most social media apps, friends can interact with posts on their feeds, and view each other’s “Taste Profiles”—which showcase statistics such as total restaurants eaten, favorite cuisines, and highest ranked cities.
Beli’s ranking algorithm assigns numerical ratings to each restaurant by asking users if they preferred their meal to a previously visited, similar one. As rankings rack up, user “Been” lists (which are sortable by cuisine, location, price, and more) grow. In addition to “Been” lists, Beli has features such as a map display of previously visited restaurants, a feed for friend rankings, and ways to bookmark bucket-list places.
Lara M. ’25 first heard of Beli on social media, where its Instagram account @beli_eats posts reviews of popular restaurants in major cities. It wasn’t until a friend suggested Beli that Lara downloaded it.
One of Lara’s favorite aspects of the social community on Beli are the reviews, which not only describe the food but also the overall experience of eating together, in person.
What differentiates a Beli post from other food rating apps such as Yelp, is the ability to tag friends in reviews. Additionally, only followed users appear on one’s feed—meaning that showcased reviews and posts are full of familiar faces.
“A lot of times when people do reviews on Beli, they explain their whole experience going to that restaurant, their afternoon and then evening—what they ate and what activities followed. That’s really fun,” said Lara.
Lena C. ’25 really appreciates the “casual” and “cute” community on Beli.
“Everyone loves food and everyone loves each other,” said Lena. “It also makes going out to eat with friends exciting—we’re like, ‘let’s put this on our Beli!’”
The Beli community also provides recommendations and advice for future restaurant patrons. “When I put all my details in about what I liked about how I think I made some ordering mistakes, then my friends were able to use my review to say, ‘Oh, okay. This is what we should get,’” said Lara.
For Annabel Y. ’27, there is joy in seeing the restaurants that friends visit around the world.
“It’s super fun to see other people [use Beli], especially when they’re visiting other places—I know people who went to Mexico or New York.”
In addition to the social side of the app, Beli gamifies restaurant-going with a leaderboard of the most active users. “Because I got the app, I want to visit more restaurants so I can keep adding to my list,” said Annabel.
Despite the social media platforms that have fizzled out, like BeReal and Locket, Lara believes Beli is here to stay.
“I’ll remain an avid loyal user because it’s a really fun way to detail my life and to reflect on things,” said Lara. “As I go into college and expect to travel more, I’ll definitely use [Beli] to detail my life and experiences, and I’m excited to keep doing so.”
