Mysql VIEWS vs. PHP query

Question

I am working on a web application which involves create list of Restaurants in various lists like \"Joe\'s must visit places\". Now for each Restaurant and list, I have display

Answer 1

If that tables you are trying to make view from are not subject to a frequent change, definitely you gain performance, as you are only doing simple select from already prepared data. But be aware of the fact, that view is not something that is made "once and forever" - every change of a content of one of the tables will make database engine do "view refreshing", so another query (query you are making view from) must be called to taki into account changes that were made. To sum up:

Infrequent changes? Performance. Frequent / constant changes (community adding, commenting, rating your restaurants) - better go with SQL queries.