TripAdvisor's top 10 in any major city are mostly the same: heavily marketed, photo-optimised, and priced for people who won't be back. There are better ways to find somewhere genuinely worth eating.

Walk Away From the Main Square

The single most reliable rule. Restaurants within 200 metres of the main tourist drag charge a premium for location and rely on foot traffic rather than repeat custom. Walk two streets back. The menu prices drop, the décor gets worse, and the food gets better. Not every time, but consistently enough to make it your default move.

Use Google Maps Street View, Not Reviews

Before booking anywhere, pull up the restaurant on Street View. You want to see: does this place look real? A restaurant that has been there for years will have a worn awning, a handwritten specials board, locals out the front. A tourist trap will look polished, have a laminated photo menu displayed outside, and possibly a man standing at the door trying to wave you in. Avoid anyone who stands at the door and waves you in.

Instagram Location Tags Beat Formal Reviews

Search the restaurant's name on Instagram, or search the neighbourhood as a location. What you're looking for is ordinary people's food photos, not press shots. If locals are posting their lunch there, it's a reasonable signal. If all the photos look professionally staged, someone has been managing the account and you're looking at marketing.

Ask Someone Who Has No Reason to Lie

Hotel front desk staff often give safe, commissionable recommendations. Instead, ask the bartender at whatever bar you end up in your first evening. Ask your Airbnb host specifically for where they eat lunch, not dinner. Ask a taxi driver. The question "where do you actually eat around here?" gets more honest answers than "what do you recommend."

Read the Room at Lunchtime

Walk past restaurants around 1pm and look through the window. If the clientele is mostly local, the prices are reasonable, and the place is more than half full on a Tuesday, you're looking at something that earns repeat custom. A restaurant doing good lunch trade in a non-tourist area doesn't need to cut corners on quality.

Trust Unsexy Neighbourhoods

The best meals on city breaks are often in residential areas that have no particular reason to be on a tourist itinerary. Find where the office workers go for lunch, find the neighbourhood that has three generations of the same family at a table, and eat there. It requires slightly more effort to navigate, and it is almost always worth it.

The short version: ignore the lists, use your eyes, and ask someone local.