Google said it was open, so why was it closed?

Google shows the hours it was last given, which may not match tonight. If the owner skipped a holiday, closed early on a slow night or changed the schedule without updating the listing, Google can say open while the lights are off.

Google builds each listing from several sources: what the owner enters in their Business Profile, the restaurant's own website, licensed data from other companies and edits from people who use Maps. Any of those can be out of date.

Holidays are the classic miss. Owners can set special hours for holidays and short closures, and Google tells them to confirm holiday hours even when nothing changes. A place that never does can look open on a day it's dark.

Other common reasons:

• The owner changed the hours on the door but not on Google.
• The listing shows the building's hours, not the kitchen's. Google lets owners add separate hours for things like takeout, delivery and drive-thru, but they only appear if the owner sets them.

If you find a place closed during its listed hours, you can suggest an edit in Google Maps to fix the hours or report it closed. Google says it reviews every edit, and a photo of the posted hours helps.

Late at night, calling ahead is still the surest check. On Late Night Food Spots, each listing shows the date its hours were last verified, and you can tap "It was closed" to tell us when they're wrong.