Finding a good restaurant with your iPhone

Imagine its your birthday, anniversary or you are celebrating a very special occasion! And for this special occasion you would like to go out to a yummy restaurant or a fancy bar with your friends. What would your first step be? 

Well, last night, I was organizing a night out with friends to celebrate my birthday. To search for a great restaurant I had two options:

• either go to a restaurant I already knew,

• or get a (good) suggestion

The first option didn't work out. I had no precise idea, I had left my restaurant cards at home and anyway, I wanted to discover some new place.

So, how could I get a good suggestion ?

What was important to me was to screen restaurants according to their quality, style, price, location. More importantly, I needed to trust the suggestion.

I could have opened a guide (i.e. Zagat, Michelin) or called a friend who shares my taste, or browsed a couple of web sites (i.e. Yelp, OpenTable, Qype, etc). Instead, I figured I would try using my iPhone, and I downloaded a few applications, such as:

• some apps which provide editorial content (Zagat, Michelin, I in the City)
• some which collect and monitor user-generated content (AroundMe, Qype, DisMoiOu)

Well, it didn't quiet work out and I eventually ended up calling a friend for a good suggestion (I went to MamaShelter) !

But before I tell you why I got frustrated, I'd like to ask you: do you use your iPhone or telephone to search for a restaurant ? Do you know a good iPhone app to search for a good restaurant ?

Comments

[esther]

I use Lafourchette.com, but on my PC. No iPhone app yet. The main advantage on this web site is the access to great discounts and the easy reservation process.

[mguillain]

I tested itaste (www.itaste.com). They have an iPhone application which is not yet perfect, but the idea is to find a restaurant according to the taste of your friends.

[Evans88]

Aroundme is ok for an ATM or a pharmacy or a gas station, because you want to find the nearest place. But for a restaurant or a bar, it is not very useful: there are no comments, no ranking, no categories...

[john]

Yelp is impressive ! I like it.

But for each restaurant, you have to summarize at least 50 comments of 50 lines each, so at least 2 hours of work !

[jim brady]

Have you thought of Earthcomber? It lets you pick a cuisine type, and then displays all matching locations starting from where you're standing. It pulls in from all kinds of sources, so it's like getting multiple apps going
you don't have type in a thing, and it uses your gps.
Aside from itital startup, it,s normally 6 secons or less to get the results. *nd they're all reformatted to the mobile screen, easy to flp through fast

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000092038681]

In the UK we have woZZon (www.woZZon.com) which shows restaurants around you plus entertainment and events such as theatre, nightclubs and cinema times. Not that many user reviews yet, but the new version of the app is coming out soon with the ability to rate and review restaurants from your iPhone.

[Bilal]

Well, for the moment I don't any apps on the iPhone to find any restaurant, bar or café. I often seek info from people around me. But I think its a great idea to have a proper application on the iPhone that lets you find cool bars or clubs any place any time. Because I live in Paris I sometimes use PARISCOPE (Lol). ;-)

[creatine]

Hello
Its really impressive that you can find a good restaurant with your iphone.I had no idea about this application.Thank you very much for sharing this with us

[Streetcondition]

High Exist,physical ride bad link network press rely public that touch noise actual replace wait opposition burn theory concern vehicle component gather site available terms debt address technical bone flow ask mark wear appeal gentleman soil living hand end significant immediately vision something king immediately working security prisoner transport tax red step task married quickly express file name basic bag straight youth note fish hardly sexual today fail success typical combine prevent long potential dog bind soldier record send thin effort egg estimate video insist range both bottle official cross majority victory hot relatively