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Find the Dishes you Want with FoodieBytes
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:30 AM on December 12, 2007
US-centric: Restaurant search site FoodieBytes takes a more detailed approach to helping users find a place to eat. Rather than type in a general cuisine and neighborhood, FoodieBytes asks for specific dishes you like, or restrictions like gluten-free or vegetarian you may want, and finds the restauarants that offer them. The site has menus indexed in five cities right now—Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—and offers custom Google Maps of search results. For travelers or new city residents with a hankering for something specific, FoodieBytes seems like a worthwhile search.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Deprong Mori
Posted 2:21 PM 11/12/07
The restaurants I'm thinking about (higher-end, independently-run places) don't simply rotate items in and out. They feature seasonal ingredients (particularly produce) so you don't have cherries and corn on the menu during December, Dungeness crab in July, fresh tomatoes in April, or asparagus in October.
Heartier fare (like osso buco, stews) would be offered during the wintertime, but not during the summertime. Stuff like that.
Many of the local newspapers have annual reader polls, so you can find what others think about "Best Dim Sum" or "Best Burrito".
Deprong Mori
manoj72
Posted 1:37 PM 11/12/07
From FoodieBytes:
@CHAMETNER: Thank you, Austin is high on our list, definitely next year. It takes a while for us to collect and input menus, sorry for the delay. I would say you just bumped Austin up in the list with your comment.
@Deprong Mori: We are trying hard to keep menus up to date, but I agree it is a nearly impossible task. Also our focus is casual/family dining and pizza places, because our goal is to provide a fast/easy way for people to find what they want on a day-to-day basis. Internally we say our problem statement is everyday eating, i.e, it is 5:30 in the evening, what do I eat.
manoj72
chametner
Posted 1:21 PM 11/12/07
@Deprong Mori: Good point. That could be a problem, but don't most restaurants that change their menus rotate the same dishes. I think it could be useful to find and rate the best of a certain dish in a city.
I wish FoodieBytes would add Austin to the mix.
chametner
Deprong Mori
Posted 12:49 PM 11/12/07
One potential issue I see with this is that most of the better restaurants in the greater SF Bay Area area change their menus on a regular basis (many weekly, some daily). The places that have unchanging menus tend to be low-end, family-dining places, or corporate chains.
So if you use FoodieBytes, you're probably limiting your selection to a subset of your available dining options, mostly by cutting out the nicer places.
Deprong Mori
Deprong Mori
Posted 3:43 PM 11/12/07
Okay, now I understand this website's mission based on manoj72's comments, specifically the fact that it is focused on casual/family dining. It really can't scale for high-end dining or destination restaurants.
It's one thing to index the Olive Garden, Outback or Chevy's menus. It's something else to try to keep up with the restaurant that has different oysters at their raw bar every night, depending on what's available from the fishmonger.
Deprong Mori
manoj72
Posted 10:36 PM 11/12/07
@koagem
We are working on user pages where you can store your favorites and things to try. Sorry it is not done yet, will be there in 2-3 weeks. Really good to know that the site is helping you out.
manoj72