What is the Dianping Must-Eat List, and how are restaurants chosen?
The Dianping (大众点评) Must-Eat List (必吃榜) is an annual restaurant ranking, published since 2017 and chosen from real diners' reviews. It takes no manual nominations and no commercial partnerships. The 2026 edition, its 10th, lists 4,279 restaurants in 264 cities worldwide, 45 of them in Malaysia. A place is not permanent: restaurants that slip are removed.
How does Dianping choose Must-Eat List restaurants?
Diners choose them through their reviews; there is no judging panel. In the 2026 cycle, 130 million diners took part and wrote 400 million genuine food reviewsXinhua, 2026-06-24. As Tao Xuexuan, Meituan (美团) vice president and head of Dianping, put it: the list "has never been one we pick; it is one real diners eat their way to."
The bar went up in 2026: a listed restaurant has to be consistently good, not good on one lucky visitXinhua, 2026-06-24.
Dianping has not published a scoring formula or weighting, so treat anyone who claims to know "the algorithm" with caution. What the platform has said is that the list is a statistical selection from public reviews and needs many diners and enough data, so a great restaurant with few customers is hard to surface. It judges each store on its own, and branches of the same chain can differ36Kr, 2025-06-27.
What selection standards has Dianping published?
In a 2023 public notice Dianping listed seven selection standards and said the selection involves no commercial interest and charges no selection fee of any kind. That is the 2023 wording; in 2026 the platform also stressed consistency.
- Genuine reviews: only real users' reviews count.
- Best taste: the food has to be good.
- Consistent experience: a good visit, every time, over time.
- Everyday prices: priced for regular dining, not special occasions.
- Everyday choice: a place people actually go back to.
- No commercial influence: a business relationship does not affect the result.
- No violations: restaurants with legal or regulatory breaches are left out.
Can a restaurant apply or pay to get on the Must-Eat List?
No. The Must-Eat List accepts no manual nominations and no commercial partnerships, so there is no way to apply and no place to buyChina News Service and Yicai, 2026-06-25.
The platform also goes after fakes. From 2025 to June 2026 Dianping handled 722 cases of false Must-Eat claims involving more than 1,600 stores, 272 of them together with market regulators, and opened a public reporting channel. Courts have acted too: a Shenzhen court ordered a restaurant chain's head office to pay RMB 1.5 million for distributing fake Must-Eat signsYicai, 2026-06-25.
MerchantNgin (赢商), Dianping's official partner in Malaysia, cannot get any restaurant a place either. What a merchant can do is keep its page, food photos and review replies in good shape so real customers leave real reviews, and let the platform decide.
Involving more than 1,600 stores, 2025 to June 2026.
Plus a public reporting channel open to all users.
Against a chain head office that handed out fake Must-Eat signs.
Can a restaurant lose its place on the Must-Eat List?
Yes. A listing is not for life. Zhao Yan, who heads Dianping's star-rating and rankings business, has said a listed restaurant whose experience keeps slipping, or that breaches the list's credibility rules, will be dropped. In 2025 nearly 40 listed restaurants were removed for falling quality, credibility violations or food-safety problemsXinhua, 2026-06-24; China News Service, 2026-06-25.
After listing, the platform monitors restaurants for the whole cycle with year-round quality checks, and uses AI to help human reviewers verify that reviews are genuineChina News Service and Yicai, 2026-06-25. Getting listed is not the finish line; the reviews have to stay good. Dianping has not published any appeal route after removal.
- MonitoredThe whole cycle
- Quality checksYear-round
- AI-assisted checksHuman review of genuine reviews
- Removed if it slipsNearly 40 in 2025
How many Malaysian restaurants are on the Must-Eat List?
The 2026 list includes 45 Malaysian restaurants in 5 cities and 7 cuisine categories. Kuala Lumpur has the most, 13, from a third-generation bak kut teh shop and a Nanyang-style ice cafe to a roadside crab stall. Malacca and Semporna are new to the list this yearShenzhen News, 2026-08-27.
The ceremony for the 2026 Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas list was held in Kuala Lumpur on 26 August 2026, with 489 restaurants in 48 citiesShenzhen News, 2026-08-27.
After publication, traffic to newly listed Malaysian merchants rose 91.5%, and newly listed overseas merchants overall rose 124% month on monthShenzhen News, 2026-08-27. That is what happened to listed restaurants, not a result any service can promise.
- Kuala Lumpur13
- MalaccaNew this year
- SempornaNew this year
How is the Must-Eat List different from the Popular Ranking?
The Must-Eat List and the Popular Ranking (热门榜) are two different rankings shown on Dianping store pages. The Must-Eat List is an annual list chosen from genuine reviews, with no applications and no commercial partnerships. The Popular Ranking is an automatic ranking per category and per area, such as Japanese food in one neighbourhood: it shows on the store page (for example, a label showing where the store ranks for Japanese food in the area) and can be browsed as its own list by cuisine. Dianping has not published how it is calculated or how often it updates; as far as we know it draws mainly on reviews and recent visit traffic.
One official Dianping case from Osaka shows the difference: a signature-set strategy sold more than 30,000 sets at a 90% positive rating and reached the top of a regional Popular Ranking, not the Must-Eat List.
| Compared | Must-Eat List | Popular Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| How often | Once a year | Update frequency not published |
| How it is made | Chosen from genuine reviews, with no applications and no commercial partnerships | Generated automatically per category and area; as far as we know it draws mainly on reviews and recent visit traffic |
| Where it shows | Dianping store pages | Store pages, and as its own list by cuisine |
Must-Eat List: frequently asked questions
How often is the Dianping Must-Eat List published?
Once a year. The list has been published annually since 2017, and 2026 is its 10th edition. The 2026 list was announced in Shanghai on 24 June with 4,279 restaurants in 264 cities worldwideXinhua, 2026-06-24. The ceremony for the Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas list followed in Kuala Lumpur on 26 August, with 45 Malaysian restaurants named.
Can a chain or a new restaurant get on the Must-Eat List?
The platform judges each store on its own, chain or not, and branches of one brand can perform differently. Because the list is a statistical selection from public reviews, it needs many diners and enough data, so a new restaurant with few customers is unlikely to be picked. Dianping has not published a minimum trading period or review count, and a store does not need to be a verified merchant: unverified, free store pages can be listed too.
Someone says they can get me on the Must-Eat List. Is that real?
No. The list accepts no manual nominations or commercial partnerships, and Dianping has said it charges no selection fee. The platform has handled 722 cases of false Must-Eat claims involving more than 1,600 stores and runs a public reporting channel, and courts have ordered businesses to pay over fake signs. Turn the offer down.
Does getting on the Must-Eat List help business?
Platform data says it does. After the 2026 list was published, traffic to newly listed Malaysian merchants rose 91.5%, and newly listed overseas merchants overall rose 124% month on monthShenzhen News, 2026-08-27. That is an outcome for listed restaurants; places are decided by diners' reviews, and nobody can promise one.
Where in Malaysia are the Must-Eat List restaurants?
The 2026 list includes 45 Malaysian restaurants in 5 cities and 7 cuisine categories. Kuala Lumpur has the most with 13, including a bak kut teh shop, a Nanyang-style ice cafe and a crab stall. Malacca and Semporna are new to the list this year. The 2026 overseas ceremony was also held in Kuala Lumpur, on 26 August.
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