Many of best restaurants where I live (Oakland, CA) are non-chain "ethnic" restaurants, often just holes in the wall. "Best" is an ambiguous term. I use it to

Many of best restaurants where I live (Oakland, CA) are non-chain "ethnic" restaurants, often just holes in the wall. "Best" is an ambiguous term. I use it to mean "the food tastes good" and "offers excellent value for money," and not "has great ambience" or "a good place to take a VC, or a date." A good indicator that the food will taste good is that restaurant patrons appears to be from the region.