For bars
Your bar is on the list. Here’s how it works.
Kinda Decent scores every bar with the same published formula. Nobody applies and nobody pays. What you can do is make sure your record is right.
- How does a bar get on the list?
- The list starts from published award lists: World’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, the Spirited Awards and the regional programs named on the methodology page. There is no application form and no entry fee. When a new edition of one of those lists comes out, its bars are added.
- Can we pay to be listed, or to move up?
- No. Money can’t change a bar’s inputs, its weights, its rank, its stars or what we write about it. The rules are on the independence page.
- What counts toward our score?
- Seven signals: guest ratings, World’s 50 Best Bars, Top 500 Bars, the Spirited Awards, regional awards, reviewed press and Social Vibes (dated, firsthand accounts from guests and bar staff). Awards fade 10% a year, so recent recognition counts more. Hosting more than seven guest shifts by visiting bartenders in a year (anniversary events excluded) lowers the score. Your bar’s page shows every input we used.
- Something on our page is wrong.
- Use “Send a correction” on your bar’s page, or email team@kindadecent.org with the field that’s wrong and a public link that shows the right answer. We check it against the source and, if it changes a scored input, the ranking recalculates at the next release. See the corrections policy.
- We moved, renamed or closed.
- Tell us with a link to an official announcement, your website or your social account. We keep a bar’s history with it when it moves or is renamed, and mark it closed rather than deleting it.
- Can we send reviews or press?
- Send links, not copies. Press counts when it is independent, dated and about your bar specifically. Guest accounts count when they’re firsthand and dated. Your own posts, paid features and award announcements you wrote are not counted as guest or press evidence.
- What do the stars mean?
- ★★★ Genuinely Exceptional, ★★ Actually, Very Good, ★ Kinda Decent. Stars go to bars above fixed score lines, and one-star places are capped by city size. The 2026 stars are provisional until the edition freezes on 1 December 2026, once the World’s 50 Best Bars 2026 and Top 500 Bars 2026 results and the remaining accepted 2026 inputs are locked in a reviewed, committed snapshot.
- How can we share our ranking?
- Link to your bar’s page on kindadecent.org and use its share image freely. Please write “Kinda Decent Bars 2026 (provisional)” next to a rank or star while the edition is provisional, and don’t alter the image or imply that Kinda Decent endorses a product.
Get in touch
Email team@kindadecent.org with your bar’s name and city. Journalists, see the press page.
Page last updated 7 November 2026.