Where the numbers come from

Every recommendation site shows you a rating and a row of dollar signs and leaves you to guess what either means. These pages say exactly what our numbers are built from, and — more usefully — what they cannot tell you.

What a night out actually costsThe per-person bands, why a $$$ bar and a $$$ restaurant differ, and where we show nothing rather than a number.How we work out when a place is busyModeled, not measured — what the curve is built from, and what it cannot see.Why a 5.0 does not winBayesian shrinkage, several searches per vibe, and the one thing we refuse to rank on.

Common questions

Is Tonight's Plans free?
Yes. No account is needed to search, and there is nothing to pay. Saving places to come back to sets an anonymous cookie; it does not ask for an email.
Does it show real-time crowd levels?
No. Google sells no live crowd data through any public API. Our busyness chart is modeled from the venue's category, its opening hours and how well known it is, and every chart is labeled an estimate. The app can be switched to a paid provider that does sell measured data.
Where do the dollar amounts come from?
They are our inference from Google's price tier and what kind of place it is — a per-person band multiplied by your party size, shown before tip and tax. Google publishes a tier, not a price. Where there is no tier we show no estimate rather than guess.
Can it book a table?
No. No reservation platform sells public availability through an API — not OpenTable, not Resy — so any site claiming live availability is either a partner or guessing. We link you straight to the venue's own booking page and tell you when a place usually needs booking ahead.
Which cities does it cover?
Anywhere in the United States. Places come from Google live at search time, so there is no catalog to be missing your city from. It was built and tested in Detroit.
How many reviews does it read?
Five per place — the maximum Google returns — plus more from a second source where one is configured. Five is a sample, not a consensus, and the interface says so rather than implying otherwise.