Beli App

Pictured: Not Beli

I made a huge mistake by joining Beli. My 22-year-old niece, hard-launched from college and navigating the post-grad job hunt with boredom and big dreams, was my main influence for joining the app. I had to beg (ask) her for an invite, and then I was immediately sucked into all the fun of ranking restaurants. Remember Yelp!? It’s like that but better. Ten years ago, that was my thing. I was a Yelper. I have mixed feelings looking back at who I used to be.

I am trying to balance my phone time with my free time, and Beli ruined that (or did I ruin that?). I ranked restaurants… for a long time. Now that I've got that out of my system, I am worried about what I’ll do once I get to a restaurant IRL. “Don’t eat that yet; I have to take a pic!” I’d say. Yuck. I usually just like to dig in.

What’s interesting is that I invited friends (they make you do that), and a few of them joined. I immediately got texts saying “I’m addicted” and “OMGGG why is this so fun” and “I reviewed for hours.” I can’t say I disagree.

What do I like about the app? I like that the ranking is based off your own list. It’s not a 5-star, Likert scale rating. I like that you don’t have to even write a review. You can label it or just leave it as-is and give it your ranking. What’s hard about it? Choosing whether I like a greasy burger place over a fine-dining restaurant. The fancy place doesn’t always win. I do like that Beli is making me decide binar-ily (because I don’t usually think that like) and then automagically puts all the places on a spectrum (I usually think like this).

Thanks, Beli, for ruining and enhancing lives, one food-lover at a time.