The physicist Richard Feynman had a secret trick for never eating a bad meal on holiday. It was not a hunch or a local tip. It was a mathematical formula. And scientists have now uncovered it.
Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, apparently applied probability theory to restaurant selection. Researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom recently analyzed his notes and correspondence. They found that Feynman used a version of the “optimal stopping” problem to decide where to eat.
How the formula works in practice
The method is simple. When visiting a new town, a traveler should pick a fixed number of restaurants to skip at the start. After that, the traveler should choose the next restaurant that is better than all the ones skipped. This is known as the “look then leap” strategy.
Feynman’s version included a specific threshold. He calculated that a tourist should skip the first 37 percent of available restaurants. Then, choose the first one that beats everything seen so far. This gives the highest chance of picking the best option without endless searching.
Where the idea came from and why it matters locally
Feynman developed this approach during his travels in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote about it in letters to friends and colleagues. The Oxford team found the references while cataloging his personal papers. The formula was buried in informal notes, not in any published paper.
Local people in Oxford, where the research was conducted, found the story charming. It connects a towering figure of 20th century physics to a very human problem: where to get a good dinner. The university’s mathematics department noted that the formula is mathematically sound and can be applied to many decisions beyond food.
What the formula means for travelers
The 37 percent rule is not a guarantee. It is a probabilistic strategy. It works best when the number of options is known in advance, like a street with ten restaurants. The traveler skips the first three or four, then picks the next one that tops them all.
Feynman’s insight was that people often stop too early or search too long. The formula balances exploration and commitment. It does not require local knowledge or reviews. It only requires patience and a willingness to walk past a few doors.
The discovery does not promise a perfect meal every time. But it offers a rational method for a task that usually relies on guesswork. Feynman, who died in 1988, never published the idea himself. Now it belongs to anyone who wants to eat well while traveling.
