Anisha & Suharsh Restaurant Review Blog

A Jekyll-based restaurant review blog hosted on GitHub Pages, featuring a unique 100-point rating system for restaurant reviews.

Overview

This is a personal blog maintained by Anisha and Suharsh, focused on providing detailed restaurant reviews with a custom category-based scoring system. The blog challenges traditional 1-5 star ratings by offering more granular, category-specific evaluations.

Live Site: anishasuharsh.com

Project Structure

suharshs.github.io/
├── _config.yml           # Jekyll configuration
├── _includes/            # Reusable HTML components
│   ├── footer.html
│   ├── header.html
│   ├── head.html
│   ├── rating_chart.html
│   └── social.html
├── _layouts/             # Page templates
│   ├── default.html
│   ├── home.html
│   ├── page.html
│   └── post.html
├── _posts/               # Blog posts (restaurant reviews)
├── _site/                # Generated static site
├── about.markdown        # About page with rating methodology
├── index.markdown        # Home page
├── 404.html             # Custom 404 page
├── CNAME                # Custom domain configuration
├── Gemfile              # Ruby dependencies
└── Gemfile.lock         # Locked dependency versions

Rating System

The blog uses a 100-point rating system with the following categories:

Yumminess (60 points): Taste and flavor of the food
Quality (15 points): Ingredient quality and preparation
Service (10 points): Customer service experience
Value (10 points): Price-to-quality ratio
Ambiance (5 points): Restaurant atmosphere

Technology Stack

Static Site Generator: Jekyll 4.x
Theme: Minima (~2.5)
Hosting: GitHub Pages
Domain: Custom domain via CNAME (anishasuharsh.com)
Plugins:
- jekyll-feed (RSS feed generation)

Post Structure

Each restaurant review post includes:

---
layout: post
title: "Restaurant Name"
date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS -0700
categories: ["Location", "Cuisine Type"]
yumminess: 0-60
quality: 0-15
value: 0-10
service: 0-10
ambiance: 0-5
---

## What We Ordered
- Dish 1
- Dish 2

## Our Review
Detailed review text...

Current Reviews

The blog currently features reviews of restaurants in the Bay Area/South Bay, CA, including:

Thai: Dusita Thai, Old Siam, Sri Vasantha Bhavan
Mexican: Casa Lupe, Margaritas Taqueria
Pizza: Cicero’s Pizza
Ramen: Ramen Izakaya

Local Development

To run the site locally:

# Install dependencies
bundle install

# Serve the site locally
bundle exec jekyll serve

# Site will be available at http://localhost:4000

Deployment

The site is automatically deployed via GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the main branch.

Philosophy

The blog was created to address two main problems with traditional review sites:

Simplistic Ratings: 1-5 star systems lack nuance and specificity
Lack of Context: Reviews often don’t clarify the reviewer’s perspective and preferences

By providing detailed category scores and comprehensive reviews, the blog aims to help readers determine if a restaurant matches their specific preferences, regardless of whether their tastes align with the reviewers’.

Content Guidelines

When adding new restaurant reviews:

Create a new file in _posts/ with the format: YYYY-MM-DD-restaurant-name.markdown
Include all required front matter fields (layout, title, date, categories, ratings)
List dishes ordered under “## What We Ordered”
Provide detailed review under “## Our Review”
Be honest about both positives and negatives
Include specific details that help readers make informed decisions

Contributing

This is a personal blog, but if you’d like to suggest improvements or corrections, please open an issue or submit a pull request.