By September 2024, BigChefs Tripoli had 519 reviews on Google. The restaurant opened to the public on 12 April 2023, so that count was built over about 17 months.
Disclosure: BigChefs is a client of Globe Verifiers and pays us to manage its Google Business Profile. The review count is the figure Google showed in September 2024.
Seventeen months, 519 reviews
BigChefs is a Turkish cafe-brasserie group, founded in Ankara in 2007, with more than 60 restaurants by 2023. Its restaurant in Hay Al Andalus, Tripoli, is the group’s only branch in Libya and the first BigChefs in Africa. It launched with a VIP ceremony on 21 March 2023, reported by the Libya Herald, and opened to the public on 12 April 2023.
Each of the 519 is a public rating on Google, and nobody is obliged to leave one.
What the number tells you, and what it does not
A review count shows how many people took the trouble to rate a place publicly. It does not show whether they liked it: the star rating and the reviews themselves do that, and they are worth reading in full, the critical ones included.
The count also matters for search. Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking, and that there is no way to request or pay for a better one.
Our part
Globe Verifiers manages BigChefs’ Google Business Profile, and our first article about that work appeared in December 2023. The job is to keep the profile accurate and current: the address, opening hours and photos, and replies to reviews.
The latest on BigChefs
For the latest, see BigChefs Tripoli Reaches 750 Google Reviews (September 2026) and our guide, Inside BigChefs Tripoli. Earlier in this series: verifying and managing the Google Business Profile (December 2023). Next: 600 Google reviews (June 2025).
Review count: Google, as recorded in the original version of this post, September 2024. Opening details: Libya Herald, 25 March 2023, and BigChefs’ own Google Business Profile post announcing the 12 April 2023 trial opening. Group background: Dünya, April 2023. Google’s guidance: Google Business Profile Help, “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google”, as read on 13 October 2026. Photograph: from the original post. Disclosure: Globe Verifiers manages BigChefs’ Google Business Profile.
Updated 13 October 2026: facts corrected. The 519 reviews came about 17 months after the April 2023 public opening, not “in just one year”, and the count was 519, not “more than 519”; background on the Turkish BigChefs group was added; the “over six months” of management, which understated the time since our December 2023 article, is removed; claims of “tremendous growth”, “new heights”, being “a leader” and “one of the most visible and trusted restaurants in Tripoli”, which we cannot support with figures, are removed; a section announcing Storified’s Website v8 product, which was not about BigChefs’ Google profile, is removed; the work is credited to Globe Verifiers (the original named Storified). First published on 17 September 2024.