Restaurants Reply to Far Fewer Google Reviews Than Other Local Businesses
The typical restaurant in Diib's data replied to 12% of its Google reviews over the past year, compared with 45% for businesses in other industries.
Most restaurants leave the majority of their Google reviews unanswered, including most of the negative ones. Replying consistently, especially to complaints, is an easy way to look more attentive than the place down the street.
Restaurants get a lot of reviews. They answer relatively few of them.
Diib looked at Google reviews posted over the past 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026) to Google Business Profiles connected to Diib. It only included businesses with at least five reviews in that window. For each business, it calculated the share of reviews that got an owner reply.
What the data shows
- The median restaurant (92 businesses, about 7,000 reviews) replied to 12% of its reviews. The median for about 6,200 businesses in other industries was 45%.
- 23% of restaurants didn’t reply to a single review all year, versus 15% elsewhere.
- Only 25% of restaurants replied to at least half their reviews, versus 49% of other businesses.
- Negative reviews (1 or 2 stars) got replies 19% of the time at restaurants, versus 35% elsewhere.
What this does and doesn’t tell you
This is aggregated Diib data from businesses that connected their Google profile, so it may not represent every restaurant. Volume is a likely factor: restaurants tend to collect reviews faster than, say, a dentist or a law firm, which makes keeping up harder. The data shows the reply gap. It doesn’t show that replying changes ratings or brings in more diners.
But reviews are public conversations. When a potential diner reads a complaint with no answer underneath, the silence becomes part of the review.