What badge did the DishCue community drop most this week?

Thumbs Up, for the third straight week — 47 drops across 45 dishes in the DishCue dishes collection, up from 46 last week. Runner-up Must Try held flat at 25, so the lead actually widened.

Which dishes have the most Thumbs Up badges?

Two dishes sit at two Thumbs Up each, unchanged for three weeks: the Samurai Roll at Glass Box San Diego in Carmel Valley, and the Banh Mi Chao - Beef Belly at NEP Cafe in Fountain Valley, California. Nothing else in the collection holds more than one Thumbs Up.

What is the Week in Badges?

A weekly tally of the DishCue dishes database: every badge drop summed across the whole collection, so the post reports what the community actually tagged — not what critics or algorithms say. It's the blog arm of the Tagged This Week series on Instagram.

Is a Thumbs Up the same as a five-star rating?

No, and that's the point. A star rating averages everything into one number. A Thumbs Up is a specific person saying: this dish is worth your order. DishCue skips stars entirely — badges are the review.

Which new restaurants showed up in the database this week?

Zuma San Diego, the new Japanese restaurant at 500 W Broadway in downtown San Diego, arrived with five tagged dishes — and a split verdict. Solstice Seasonal Kitchen & Bar in Irvine, California also checked in with six dishes.

How do I get my favorite dish on next week's board?

Open DishCue, add the dish (+25 points), and drop the badge it deserves. Dropping a badge on someone else's dish earns +10. Points climb you from Newbie toward Legend — and every drop moves next Saturday's board.

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October 24, 2026 · 7 min read San Diego DishCue Badges Week in Badges

Week in Badges: Thumbs Up Threepeats

Three weeks at the top, a lead that keeps widening, and a brand-new downtown sushi bar that walked into the database already arguing with itself. This is what the DishCue community actually ate this week — counted, not guessed.

Some streaks are flukes. This one isn't anymore. Thumbs Up has now led the DishCue badge board three Saturdays running, and this week it didn't just hold — it pulled away. The collection grew from 96 dishes to 106, ten new dishes showed up, and the crown still didn't move.

That's the thing about a recommending badge. Must Try is the anointing — the dish you'd cross town for. Thumbs Up is the everyday yes. And week after week, the community's everyday yes is winning by a lot.

The board, by the numbers

Every badge drop in the dishes collection, summed live this Saturday morning:

👍 Thumbs Up: 47 drops across 45 dishes (up from 46 last week)
⭐ Must Try: 25 drops (flat — same as last week, and the week before)
💣 Addictive: 10 drops (up from 9)
😕 Overrated: 8 drops (up from 6 — the week's biggest mover, and not in a good way)
🔥 Fire: 4 drops · 📸 Instagram Worthy: 4 drops · 💎 Hidden Gem: 3 drops

Read that gap again: 47 to 25. The lead went from 21 to 22 while the whole board got bigger. When a database grows and the leader still gains share, that's not noise. That's a habit.

The week-over-week story in one line: the community recommends more than it anoints, and this week it also got a little more willing to say no — Overrated climbing from 6 to 8 is the honest counterweight to all that positivity.

The co-kings won't budge

Three weeks, same two names on top of the Thumbs Up pile. Nobody has broken the tie yet.

Samurai Roll @ Glass Box San Diego

The Carmel Valley roll that started this whole series. Two Thumbs Up, three favorites, and still the dish every other dish in the collection is chasing. It was the co-king when this series debuted on October 10, and nothing in two weeks has touched it.

👍 Thumbs Up ×2

Banh Mi Chao - Beef Belly @ NEP Cafe

The Fountain Valley, California challenger that refuses to go away. Beef belly, banh mi format, same ×2 count as the Samurai Roll — and the tie has now survived three straight Saturday counts. Somebody in Orange County needs to break this deadlock, or somebody in San Diego needs to defend it.

👍 Thumbs Up ×2

If you've had either one and never dropped the badge, this is your assignment. The tie breaks the moment one more person weighs in.

New blood: Zuma San Diego walks in arguing with itself

The week's best subplot isn't the crown. It's the debut. Zuma San Diego — the global Japanese brand's first California location, open since this summer at 500 W Broadway in downtown San Diego, inside The Guild Hotel — showed up in the database with five tagged dishes. And the verdict is split right down the middle.

Chirashi maki @ Zuma San Diego — the one clean yes of the bunch.

👍 Thumbs Up ×1

Spicy Beef Tenderloin @ Zuma San Diego — rich, seasoned, worth the order.

🍖 Savory ×1

Chicken with Spring Onion @ Zuma San Diego and Grilled Scallop Skewers @ Zuma San Diego — both tagged Overrated. (A fifth Zuma dish, the Miso Black Cod, rounds out the set.)

😕 Overrated ×1 each

I love this. A fancy new room doesn't get a free pass in DishCue — it gets five dishes, two thumbs-down, and a homework assignment. That's the whole system working: the badge tells you which dishes to order and which to skip, from people who actually sat in the room. If Zuma's regulars disagree, the board is right there waiting for the rebuttal.

The three-dish clubs

Two restaurants now hold three Thumbs Up dishes each — the deepest benches on the board.

Stir Fried Beef with Peppers @ Chef Fei, Crispy Walnut Shrimp @ Chef Fei, and Crispy Pineapple Orange Chicken @ Chef Fei — the Westfield UTC La Jolla trio that debuted last week and hasn't lost a badge since. Chef Fei is the first-ever US location of the Chinese chain, and its regulars are already building the most consistent shelf in the app.

👍 Thumbs Up ×1 each

Shrimp Rice Crepe @ New Asian BBQ, Shrimp Dumplings @ New Asian BBQ, and Masako Pork Siu Mai @ New Asian BBQ — the Las Vegas, Nevada dim sum room holding the same three-badge line. This slot is US-wide by design, and Vegas keeps earning its place on a San Diego-born board.

👍 Thumbs Up ×1 each

And a quick Irvine check-in: Solstice Seasonal Kitchen & Bar (18555 Jamboree Rd, Irvine, California) arrived with six tagged dishes of its own, including two Thumbs Up — Ribeye 14oz and Grill Branzino — plus a Must Try each on the Roasted Chicken and Braised Short Rib Pappardelle. Orange County is quietly building a second front in this database.

Badge to watch: Must Try's lonely ×2

While Thumbs Up runs away with the week, the Must Try race has a different shape: one dish, alone at the top, still waiting for company. The Truffle Udon Carbonara Katsu Chicken @ JOEY La Jolla is still the only dish in the entire collection holding more than one Must Try — the same dish the udon guide flagged last Monday. JOEY La Jolla is building a shelf around it, with a Must Try each on the Joey Classic Steak and the Sake Glazed Chilean Seabass, but the truffle udon is still the only ×2.

⭐ Must Try ×2

That's the gap to watch next Saturday. Thumbs Up has its threepeat. Must Try has a frontrunner with no challenger. The first dish to reach ×2 Must Try after the truffle udon changes the shape of the whole board.

What this week actually says

Three weeks of the same winner could read like a boring board. It's not. The board got ten dishes bigger, a downtown fine-dining debut walked in and immediately split the room, Overrated found its voice, and the two co-kings survived another week untouched. Stability at the top, argument everywhere else — that's a healthy community, not a stale one.

And one honest footnote from yesterday's hunt: the Marufuku ramen hunt hasn't paid off in the database yet. As of this morning's pull, there is still not a single ramen dish tagged in DishCue — the Hakata Tonkotsu is still sitting there, untagged, waiting for whoever goes first. The ramen ranking gave you five bowls. The board is giving you an opening.

This post is the blog arm of the Tagged This Week series on Instagram — the same idea, counted weekly instead of posted as one card. No new Tagged This Week edition has posted since Edition 1, so the series anchor stays the same: the Pork Chop Fried Rice @ Din Tai Fung, Westfield UTC La Jolla card on @dishcue, ⭐ Must Try ×1. When the next edition drops, this column will carry it.

Tag It in DishCue 📱

A 5-star rating can't capture what this board just showed you — a co-crown tie that won't break, a new restaurant arguing with itself, a Must Try frontrunner with no challenger. That's exactly why DishCue ditches stars for badges. Had a dish worth remembering this week? Drop the badge it earned:

👍 Thumbs Up · ⭐ Must Try · 💣 Addictive · 🔥 Fire

Tag the dish, not the restaurant. Posting a dish earns +25 points, dropping a badge on someone else's dish earns +10, and every point climbs you from Newbie toward Legend. The board you just read was written by people doing exactly that.

So tell us: which dish breaks the Samurai Roll tie first — and is Zuma's split verdict fair, or does the room deserve a second hearing? 👇