Man shares his 'sweet spot' tip for ordering Chinese food

An influencer has shared a trick to help lovers of Chinese food to always get the best option when ordering takeout.

The age of digital technology means that we can now summon food from the ether using a handheld device our ancestors might have burned us at the stake for possessing.

But with this miracle of the modern world comes a whole new set of problems -chief among them being the agony of choice.

You know the situation, you're sat at home tired and not wishing to cook something.

After much wrangling you decide on Chinese takeout, only to be bombarded with such a wide range of choices you end up trapped in a cycle of weighing up the pros and cons of each one.

Maybe one does better bao buns but another has a better selection of dumplings, or not enough vegetarian options.

Before you know it an hour has passed and you're still no nearer to deciding on where you want to order from.

That is unless you use a technique which uses the restaurants' ratings systems, according to TikToker @rocketjump.

So, you just select the highest-rated one right? Wrong!

In fact, you should not just go for the highest-rated one as, according to the TikToker, there's a 'sweet spot' for ratings which means that the food will be excellent.

So what's the sweet spot? On Yelp, it's around 3.5 stars.

But why such a specific number?

The TikToker explained: "If a restaurant has more than 3.5 stars, it means too many white people like it, [so] the service is too good [and] the food is not as good as it could be."

But why the difference in service?

He continued: “Cultural expectations are different in Asia. [Servers are] not as proactive, they’re not gonna come up to you.

“[People on Yelp are] dinging on all these restaurants because the service is bad. "However, the food balances it out. So you have that 3.5 stars.”

The video has racked up some 7 million views on TikTok, and others took to the comments to share similar rules that they use.

One described the 'menu rule'. explaining: "If there's super faded pictures of food on the wall above the register then it's gonna be fire."

While another said they use the 'welcome rule', saying: "If u walk in and they greet you just leave cuz food will be mid. I want them to ignore me like my hs crush.” [sic]"

Decor is also a clue for how the food might be, with another TikToker suggesting: “I look for the quality of the chairs. If they have those faded pink pleather chairs and lots of Chinese movie posters, the food is gonna be."