Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

jmspae.se

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 374 posts

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#211

Post by [deleted] »

ReptileMan wrote: post #85
seanthemon wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My rule of thumb: if it has the name of the country, i expect the food to be at best sub-par i.e "Great Indian" (gave me wild food poisoning). Second rule of thumb: if the milkshakes are good, the food will be good - almost never fails me.

For kebab some comedian gave the best advice - look at the knuckles of the kebab maker - if they are very hairy it will be good. Then look at the neckline of his shirt - if there are hairs coming out of it - the kebab will be great.

[deleted]

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#212

Post by AlienRobot »

lostdog wrote: post #17
macrael wrote: post #14

LOL we may need to update the title of this post, half the top level comments right now are assuming the study confirmed the hypothesis. > With a mighty Pearson's correlation of 0.091, the data indicates that this could > be true! If you ignore the fact that the correlation is so weak that calling it 'statistically > insignificant' would be quite generous.

The more generally interesting a topic is the more likely a HN user is to read the article. A study.

I only read articles with headlines that describe informative content, not with headlines that sound funny or thought-provoking.

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#213

Post by hot_gril »

slt2021 wrote: post #145
ReptileMan wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For kebab some comedian gave the best advice - look at the knuckles of the kebab maker - if they are very hairy it will be good. Then look at the neckline of his shirt - if there are hairs coming out of it - the kebab will be great.

this reminds me my experience: when I went to Salt Lake City and wanted to try Turkish food and picked nearest Turkish restaurant with the the highest reviews from google maps. Interior was authentic and nice, but the food turned out to be AWFUL, kebab was burnt to ashes, everything food wise was horrible. When I complained, the cook came back and apologized, and I saw the cook was White American. Not saying all Amer…

My family members from Iran and Syria have said that people there cook beef extra because it's usually not very fresh, unless they're rich. So overcooked beef may be the more authentic way, depending on how you look at it. Lamb is more common anyway.

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#214

Post by tredre3 »

pocketarc wrote: post #91
vzaliva wrote: post #82

This is a good example where a summary produced by much-hated AI (GPT 4o) is quite useful (to people who do not want to read all details in he article): "In his study, James Pae examined the hypothesis: "The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab." Focusing on Paris, he analysed kebab shops' proximity to train and metro stations alongside their Google review ratings. His findings revealed a negligible corre…

I don't think a lot of people have a problem with AI summaries (a lot of people are using AI for exactly that). I think the 'hate' mostly comes from the fact that people tend to copy/paste whatever AI says without adding anything to the conversation. It's the same as me running a query on Google and copy/pasting a list of 10 results. It doesn't really add anything to a conversation - anyone can go to Google and look…

Asking a question to a coworker and having him copy paste from chatgpt has to be the worst thing about being a programmer in 2025.

If I'm asking you something it's because I want to discuss it, not because I couldn't be bothered to google it myself. Do people really not realize that?

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#216

Post by jandrese »

asah wrote: post #52
btilly wrote: post #42

Many years ago I came up with a rule of thumb. Restaurants have three basic strategies, be a known quantity (chain), have a good location, or be actually good. I've found some gems by looking for the third category. Given that "near the train" is a good location, that would support this theory.

They are not mutually exclusive. Counter examples: - Katz's deli in NYC is incredibly famous, in a great location, and actually has kickass pastrami. The trade-off are relatively high prices and lines down the block - restaurants with exclusive relationships. - restaurants that make money another way, e.g. gambling. - family owned restaurants with legacy rent deals. - restaurants that cater to niche audiences e.g. sm…

One other:

- restaurants that are going to fail but have not done so quite yet

That covers a lot of restaurants. It's a business sector with a lot of churn. Many mediocre establishments hold on for a few years before they close.

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#217

Post by cloudbonsai »

macrael wrote: post #14

LOL we may need to update the title of this post, half the top level comments right now are assuming the study confirmed the hypothesis. > With a mighty Pearson's correlation of 0.091, the data indicates that this could > be true! If you ignore the fact that the correlation is so weak that calling it 'statistically > insignificant' would be quite generous.

> be true! If you ignore the fact that the correlation is so weak that calling it 'statistically insignificant' would be quite generous.

I actually came to a different conclusion than the author. Here is the way I'm thinking about the presented statistics:

1. There is 17 Kebab shops (out of 400 samples) with a google review lower than 3 stars. Let's call them "bad kebabs".

2. All those "bad kebabs" actually located within 500m from the nearest station. No kebab located in further than >500m is bad.

3. So if you've ever gotten a bad donor kebab, we can safely assume that you have purchased it from a kebab shop near a train station.

Maybe there are so many kebab eaters near a train station that a mediocre kebab offering becomes profitable?

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#219

Post by carlosjobim »

MichaelDickens wrote: post #150
btilly wrote: post #42

Many years ago I came up with a rule of thumb. Restaurants have three basic strategies, be a known quantity (chain), have a good location, or be actually good. I've found some gems by looking for the third category. Given that "near the train" is a good location, that would support this theory.

Based on the empirical evidence from OP, this seems correct. But there's a theoretical argument for why "good location" and "actually good" should be positively correlated: 1. Good locations are more expensive. 2. People are willing to pay more for better food. 3. Therefore (all else equal), better restaurants earn more revenue. 4. Therefore, better restaurants have a higher willingness-to-pay on rent. 5. Therefore,…

Your logic works in a world with only restaurants. In reality, every other type of business has better margins than restaurants and also competes for the best real estate. So the good restaurant in a good location is soon having their rent hiked and closing down, or has to follow the beaten path: Decrease quality and increase prices.

Sure, there's always exceptions, especially in older cities where the restaurant was established in a great spot a long time ago and is owned by a family. But generally, restaurants have far too low profit margins to remain for long in a top location. And I think all of us know this from experience.

Re: “The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”

#220

Post by hackit2 »

paulorlando wrote: post #87

When I moved to the West Village in NYC, the first night I went to a kebab place right by my building. The owner was talkative and friendly and gave me a free cup of ayran. I went back regularly, but the place was almost always empty. Meanwhile, visiting friends would always want to go to a different kebab place just down the block. For the first year I stayed loyal to that friendly kebab shop owner, until one day I…

And the kebab circle of life is complete. People are ruthless when it comes to food prices/quality.
Post reply on HN