PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

PCMag UK

Hungry? Google Will Soon Show Restaurant Wait Times

Google is calculating wait times by analyzing data from its location history program.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

Is that restaurant on the corner going to make you wait 90 minutes for a table? Ask Google.

Coming soon, Google Search and Google Maps will show estimated wait times for nearly a million sit-down restaurants across the world, the company announced today.

Google Restaurant Wait TimesWait times are calculated based on "anonymized historical data" pulled from Google users who have opted into Google's (somewhat creepy) smartphone location history program. It essentially tracks your location to give you useful tips and info based on where you are.

Google already uses this data to show you when a restaurant will get busy through the "Popular Times" section on each restaurant listing. To calculate wait times, Google analyzes patterns of customer visits over the last several weeks.

To see wait times, search a restaurant on Google, and scroll down to the Popular Times section of the page, which will show the estimated wait time at that moment. Tap the hour bars on the page to see wait times at other times of the day, too. In addition, Google will tell you how long people typically spend at the restaurant.

The company also appears to be rolling out wait time listings for grocery stores, which shows how long it will take for customers to check out, according to a company support page.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

Read the latest from Michael Kan

Read full bio