THE SEARCH LEDGER · BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS · FOOD & DINING
Every month Boston types 1,579,080 food & dining searches into Google. This is the public record of what those searches are, what they cost, and who currently answers them.
Relative search interest by month, indexed 0–100. The pink outline marks the peak. Interest runs highest in OCT and lowest in FEB.
SRC: Google Trends relative interest for the Food & Dining category in Boston — a 0–100 index, not a search count. One curve per category is the granularity available; it is not split per keyword.
The 20 highest-volume of 629 tracked keywords, priced at what advertisers actually bid. The dearest click here is “laughing monk cafe boston” at $2.58.
| # | KEYWORD | VOL/MO | CPC | DIFFICULTY | INTENT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | restaurants near me | 673,000 | $0.36 | 7 | transactional |
| 2 | bars near me | 90,500 | $0.32 | 0 | transactional |
| 3 | breakfast near me | 74,000 | $0.26 | 23 | transactional |
| 4 | coffee shops near me | 49,500 | $0.24 | 0 | transactional |
| 5 | pizza near me | 49,500 | $0.81 | 12 | transactional |
| 6 | tattes bakery | 40,500 | $0.08 | commercial | |
| 7 | bovas bakery | 33,100 | $0.51 | 9 | commercial |
| 8 | thinking cup coffee shop | 33,100 | $0.28 | commercial | |
| 9 | grill 23 and bar boston | 22,200 | $0.21 | 11 | commercial |
| 10 | seaport boston restaurants | 14,800 | $1.29 | 20 | commercial |
| 11 | cafe vittoria boston | 14,800 | $0.13 | 4 | commercial |
| 12 | north end restaurants | 12,100 | $2.28 | 8 | commercial |
| 13 | best restaurants boston | 12,100 | $1.00 | 12 | commercial |
| 14 | santarpios pizza | 9,900 | $1.26 | 7 | commercial |
| 15 | laughing monk cafe boston | 9,900 | $2.58 | 13 | commercial |
| 16 | oak long bar boston | 9,900 | $0.18 | 4 | commercial |
| 17 | south end boston restaurants | 8,100 | $1.29 | 21 | commercial |
| 18 | bar mezzana boston | 8,100 | $0.10 | 16 | commercial |
| 19 | bleacher bar boston | 8,100 | $0.40 | 7 | commercial |
| 20 | hong kong eatery boston | 8,100 | $0.62 | branded |
SRC: DataForSEO, Boston metro, Sep 8, 2026. Volume and CPC are Google Ads twelve-month averages, so neither moves week to week. Difficulty is DataForSEO’s 0–100 score; blank where it has not been scored.
Live position tracking for 2 of the tracked keywords in this vertical — who Google puts in the map pack, and who holds page one.
SRC: DataForSEO, Boston metro, Sep 8, 2026. LOCAL marks an organic domain that matches a business tracked in this metro; an unmarked domain is simply not one of them, which includes directories and firms we do not track.
The 12 most-reviewed businesses we track in this vertical, with the profile signals that put them where they are.
| RANK | BUSINESS | RATING | REVIEWS | CATEGORY | WEBSITE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Quincy Market | 4.5 ★ | 14,295 | Market | YES |
| #2 | Union Oyster House | 4.3 ★ | 11,311 | Seafood | YES |
| #3 | Union Oyster House | 4.3 ★ | 11,311 | Seafood | YES |
| #4 | Regina Pizzeria | 4.6 ★ | 7,450 | Pizza | YES |
| #5 | The Barking Crab | 4.1 ★ | 7,035 | Crab | YES |
| #6 | Boston Public Market | 4.6 ★ | 6,860 | Farmers' market | YES |
| #7 | Legal Sea Foods - Harborside | 4.4 ★ | 6,819 | Seafood | YES |
| #8 | Boston Sail Loft | 4.6 ★ | 6,689 | Seafood | YES |
| #9 | Boston Sail Loft | 4.6 ★ | 6,689 | Seafood | YES |
| #10 | Boston Sail Loft | 4.6 ★ | 6,689 | Seafood | YES |
| #11 | Legal Sea Foods - Long Wharf | 4.3 ★ | 6,561 | Seafood | YES |
| #12 | Mike's Pastry | 4.3 ★ | 6,492 | Pastries | YES |
SRC: Google Maps listings, DataForSEO, Boston metro, Sep 8, 2026. Ranked by review count, which is a proxy for how established a listing is — not a ranking claim.
Branded demand is the clearest read on who has built recall here — searches for a business by name, the volume nobody has to bid for.
SRC: DataForSEO, Boston metro, Sep 8, 2026. Brand searches identified from the tracked keyword set.
People Also Ask questions collected verbatim from Boston food & dining results — the literal wording Google is already surfacing.
What is Tom Brady's favorite restaurant in Boston?
What are Boston's best hidden gem restaurants?
Where to eat in Randolph, MA?
What are some must-try restaurants in Boston?
What is the 2 hour rule for pizza?
Who has the best pizza deals out right now?
Where can I find good pizza near Boston, Massachusetts?
Who has the best pizza in Chester County, PA?
SRC: Google People Also Ask, DataForSEO, Boston metro, Sep 8, 2026. Questions are reproduced as collected; we do not answer them here.
Everything above is the market. If you want to be in it, start with where you stand today.
Every other vertical we track in this metro, with its monthly search demand.
FOOD & DINING IN OTHER METROS
HOW THIS PAGE IS MADE
Every figure is collected, not estimated. Keyword volume and cost-per-click come from Google Ads via DataForSEO and are twelve-month averages, so neither moves week to week — a weekly delta on either would measure the averaging window, not the market. Map-pack and organic positions are a live SERP read taken Sep 8, 2026. Sections with no data are omitted rather than filled.
Boston, Massachusetts · Food & Dining · 629 keywords · collected Sep 8, 2026