October 31, 2026 · 7 min read San Diego DishCue Badges Week in Badges

Week in Badges: Thumbs Up Fourpeats

Four weeks at the top, zero movement below it, and a tie that has now survived a full month. This is what the DishCue community actually ate this week — counted, not guessed. And yes, the stillness is the story.

I pulled the numbers Saturday morning expecting the usual small shifts — a dish or two added, a badge count ticking up somewhere. Instead I got a board that looks like someone hit pause. Same 106 dishes as last Saturday. Same 47 Thumbs Up. Same 25 Must Try. Same everything, down the line.

Four weeks ago this series started because Thumbs Up kept winning. Now the question has flipped: can anything at all move this board? A fourpeat is a streak. A fourpeat with identical numbers underneath it is a dare.

The board, by the numbers

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

👍 Thumbs Up: 47 drops across 45 dishes (unchanged from last week)
⭐ Must Try: 25 drops (unchanged — flat for four straight weeks)
💣 Addictive: 10 drops (unchanged)
😕 Overrated: 8 drops (unchanged)
🔥 Fire: 4 drops · 📸 Instagram Worthy: 4 drops · 💎 Hidden Gem: 3 drops (all unchanged)

Below the headline, the rest of the shelf holds steady too: Comfort Food at 6, Healthy at 3, Spicy and Savory at 2 each, and one each for Sweet Tooth and Unexpectedly Good. Total drops: 117, across 106 dishes, in 55 restaurants.

The week-over-week story in one line: nobody new showed up and nobody changed their mind — which means the next person to drop a badge isn't joining a trend, they're breaking a tie.

The tie that won't break

A full month now. Four Saturday counts. Same two names on top of the Thumbs Up pile.

Samurai Roll @ Glass Box San Diego

The Carmel Valley roll that started this whole series. Two Thumbs Up, 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 four weeks of counting haven't 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 four 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. It has survived a month of chances. It will not survive yours.

The one ripple: Zuma's fifth dish speaks up

Last week the downtown debut was the subplot: Zuma San Diego, the global Japanese brand's first California location at 500 W Broadway in downtown San Diego, walked into the database with five tagged dishes and a split verdict — one Thumbs Up, one Savory, two Overrated, and one dish standing quietly off to the side.

That fifth dish, the Miso Black Cod, now shows a badge of its own. The rest of the Zuma set is exactly where it was: Chirashi maki still the one clean yes, Spicy Beef Tenderloin still the rich, seasoned order, and Chicken with Spring Onion and Grilled Scallop Skewers still carrying the two Overrateds.

👍 Thumbs Up ×1 · 🍖 Savory ×1 · 😕 Overrated ×1 each

One badge on one dish is the whole week's movement at Zuma, and honestly? That's the system working at its smallest scale. Somebody went back, or went for the first time, and weighed in. The rebuttal window is still open — Zuma's regulars have had two weeks to answer those Overrateds, and the board is still waiting.

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 weeks ago. JOEY La Jolla is building a shelf around it, but the truffle udon is still the only ×2.

⭐ Must Try ×2

That's the gap to watch next Saturday. Thumbs Up has its fourpeat. 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.

Still no ramen on the board

And one honest footnote, now two weeks old: the Marufuku ramen hunt still hasn't paid off in the database. As of this morning's pull, there is still not a single ramen dish tagged in DishCue — no Marufuku, no tonkotsu, no hakata anything. 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.

Today is also your easiest opening of the year to change that. The International Food & Music Festival takes over Embarcadero Marina Park North today and tomorrow — free entry, 50+ international food vendors, Halloween Saturday, Día de los Muertos Sunday. Fifty vendors, zero of their dishes tagged yet. Go eat something nobody has named, and be the first badge on it.

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. As of this morning, 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.

Frequently asked questions

What badge did the DishCue community drop most this week?

Thumbs Up, for the fourth straight week — 47 drops across 45 dishes in the DishCue dishes collection, exactly the same count as last week. Runner-up Must Try also held flat at 25, so the 22-drop lead didn't move either.

Which dishes have the most Thumbs Up badges?

Two dishes sit at two Thumbs Up each, unchanged for four 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.

Did the badge board move at all this week?

Barely. The collection still holds 106 dishes, the same as last Saturday, and every headline badge total is identical to last week's count. The one ripple: Zuma San Diego's fifth dish, the Miso Black Cod, now shows a badge where last week it showed none.

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.

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.

Tag It in DishCue 📱

A 5-star rating can't capture what this board just showed you — a fourpeat built on identical numbers, a tie that has survived a month, a Must Try frontrunner with no challenger, and a festival happening today with fifty vendors waiting for their first badge. 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 what are you badging at the festival today? 👇