Why not just ask AI?

We asked AI 100 questions about local restaurants. Here is how it went.

Five popular AI tools, 100 locked questions, every answer checked against the spot's own website or Facebook page. October 15 and 16, 2026. AI is good at the common questions; it is weakest on the ones that decide a night: is trivia on, is the kitchen open after 11, is the happy hour still running.

Find the RightPlace to eat & drink · Try the restaurant demo

The test in one chart

Everyday questions, 250 answers: 89 named a place we could confirm, or found the deal; 0 found the deal, a detail wrong; 101 named places, none confirmed, or missed the deal; 42 said something false or out of date; 18 hit a sign-in wall (left out of every number)
Deals not on RightPlace, 125 answers: 82 named a place we could confirm, or found the deal; 6 found the deal, a detail wrong; 31 named places, none confirmed, or missed the deal; 0 said something false or out of date; 6 hit a sign-in wall (left out of every number)
Deals on RightPlace too, 125 answers: 69 named a place we could confirm, or found the deal; 9 found the deal, a detail wrong; 37 named places, none confirmed, or missed the deal; 0 said something false or out of date; 10 hit a sign-in wall (left out of every number)

See every question and answer

Every bar counts answers, not questions: 50 questions to 5 tools each, then 25 and 25. "We could confirm" means the spot's own website or Facebook page says it fits; an answer we couldn't check either way was not counted against the tool.

Three numbers worth keeping

20 of 50 everyday questions got no confirmed answer from any of the five tools. Trivia or karaoke tonight, live music with no cover, the game with the sound on, food after 11, a heated or wheelchair-accessible patio, an outdoor bar, dogs inside, a gluten-free fryer, a room with a projector, kids' meals under $5.
1 in 3 answers about a deal on a spot's own website missed it or got a detail wrong. 43 of 125 answers on 25 deals that were on the spot's own page but not on RightPlace. The other 7 in 10 found it. Plus or minus 8 points.
59% of answers to everyday questions named no place we could confirm fits. 136 of 232 answers, and 42 of them (18%) said something false or out of date. Plus or minus 6 and 5 points.

Where the answers went wrong

We won't name the spots; they didn't do anything wrong, and the owners hear it from us in person. The kinds of mistakes are worth knowing before you drive somewhere.

Closed, gone, or in another state: Sent people to a place closed that night, closed for good, or two states away.
Wrong day or old hours: A happy hour or wing night on the wrong day, or at hours the spot stopped running a while ago.
Nights that aren't on: A trivia or karaoke night at a spot whose own page doesn't mention one.
Disagreed with the spot: Two of the five tools said a brunch drink deal is against Ohio rules while the spot advertises it on its own website.

What held up, and how we checked

Where the answers were fine
- Deals a spot posts on its own website were found 7 times in 10. If a spot writes it down online, AI usually sees it eventually.
- Facts that rarely change did well: a river view, pool tables and darts, breakfast all day, a private room for 20.
- The tools that search the web as they answer did better than the ones answering from memory. None of them did well on "tonight".
How we did it
- The 100 questions were written and fingerprinted before any answer was collected, so none could be swapped in later.
- Each tool was asked once, signed out, on a computer in Summit County. Every answer was saved with a screenshot and the time.
- Every place an answer named was checked against the spot's own website or Facebook page. For the 50 deal questions we saved a copy of each spot's page the day before.
- A second grader regraded a random 1 in 5 without seeing the first grades: agreement 87% on everyday questions, 96% on deals.
- Next run: January 2027, same questions, new answers.

What to do with this

If you run a spot: The facts nobody could find are the ones guests ask about most: which night is trivia, how late the kitchen goes, whether the patio has heaters, whether the dog can come inside. Put them where people look: your own website, your Facebook page, and RightPlace, where a deal shows the way you wrote it with the day you posted it, and a night like trivia shows only on the nights you said. Try the restaurant demo
If you're picking a place: Ask AI for ideas, then check before you go. The spot's own website, its Facebook page or its RightPlace page will tell you whether tonight is the night. A quick look saves a drive to a dark building. Find the RightPlace to eat & drink

Questions owners ask

Which AI tools did you test?

Five of the AI assistants and AI search answers people use most. We'll name them here once our wording for comparisons has been checked. The numbers are the same either way.

How do I know you didn't pick the questions that make AI look bad?

The questions were locked before we asked anything, every answer is saved with a screenshot and the time, a second grader rechecked 1 in 5, and we publish the part where AI did fine too. Every question and answer is on the data page.