Whether it is to connect with friends, keep track of your must-have food spots or rank your favorite restaurants in the city with the platform’s unique ranking system, Beli is the latest app taking over food review spaces.
Launched in 2021, Beli was founded by Judy Thelen and Eliot Frost, a couple who met in New York City and built their relationship around the restaurants in the city. Beli is similar to Yelp, serving as a public diary for meals on which users can incorporate their opinions on all the places they have eaten and specific items that they ordered from menus with their friends.
“What I like most about the app is that it’s really easy and simple for us to make reviews about restaurants,” junior Lucas Chu said. “I have about 12 followers or friends on Beli and almost all of them go to Portola [High] except for a few.”
Beli has a unique ranking system where users rank food spots by category, which are divided into restaurants, bars and desserts. This means a person can rank their favorite American restaurant amongst their favorite sushi spot, which some users may find overwhelming when having to compare favorite places that are entirely different from each other.
Yet, Beli has been a global hit, growing worldwide since its launch. Ten percent of Beli users are international and Beli has over 60 million reviews globally, surpassing Yelp. The app includes city-wide leaderboards as well, leading influencers and young people to flock towards Beli and post their food-related content.
“I like Beli because Instagram is for a moment when you’re going out somewhere fancy, or have good clothes,” senior Koeun Kwak said. “But Beli, you just take a picture of the food, so it’s really casual and easy to use. You don’t have the pressure to look good.”
The app’s map is formatted to have a birds-eye view of whatever city you are in, allowing you to see restaurants and their ratings. Beli is the platform to explore when questioning both “where should I eat?” and “where is everyone else eating?” according to TODAY.
With different social media platforms rising, it is comforting to find a popular app that revolves around a common interest that so many people share: food. Connecting people with friends and their favorite food spots in town, Beli has been a delightful way for people to use social media as a tether to reach out and grow their foodie horizons.
