dining
Latest
Yelp's new iOS home feed makes it easier to discover local restaurants
Yelp is introducing a vertical home feed featuring images of dishes and more, designed to help people discover local restaurants.
Google Lens may add translation and restaurant 'filters'
As clever as Google Lens can be, it's still quite limited in what it can do before it points you to another app. You might not have to lean on those other apps quite so often n the near future. In the wake of an initial discovery earlier in April, the 9to5Google team has spotted evidence that Lens could soon include a host of "filters" aimed at fulfilling specific augmented reality tasks. A "translate" filter, for instance, might auto-detect one language and offer to convert it to another instead of simply copying text and asking to launch Google Translate.
David Chang’s Netflix series ‘Ugly Delicious’ debuts February 23rd
David Chang, the chef and restaurateur behind the ever-growing Momofuku family of restaurants, has a new show in the works -- a Netflix series called Ugly Delicious. In the series, he'll travel the world eating at notable restaurants with writers, entertainers and other chefs and they'll explore topics like culture, authenticity and identity and how they relate to food. Chang told Eater that in more recent years, he had really begun to embrace the Korean food he grew up with but chose not to cook as a young chef. "As I've gotten older, I've embraced all the things that I truly love eating," he said. "I'm not embarrassed about it anymore. Now I'm just like, I don't give a fuck."
Uber uses trip data to recommend popular restaurants
As you might expect, a lot of Uber riders use the service to get to and from restaurants and bars. Thanks to its customer base, the ride-sharing company has a lot of info on which spots are popular in the cities where it operates. Uber announced this week that its putting all of those trip details to use with a new restaurant guide.
Reserve's forget-the-bill restaurant concierge arrives on Android
Reserve's concierge service is a clever idea -- you book a table at a top-flight restaurant based on when and what you're hoping to eat, and chow down knowing that your bill is already covered. It's only been available for iPhone-toting foodies, however, so today's launch of a Reserve app for Android is a big deal. So long as you're dining in Boston, Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, you can now secure that deluxe Mediterranean feast from your Moto X. There are a couple of helpful additions coming with the new app, too -- you can browse restaurants with a built-in map, and it's easier to both tack on extra restaurant choices or share the service with your friends (who get a $25 first-meal credit) if you want to get them hooked. This reservation app remains overkill if you're only looking for a quick bite, but it might be just the ticket if you're focused on upscale eating.
The Daily Grind: Do you eat while you play?
MMOs are time-consuming in a way that few other games are. The oldest games often asked people to sit and camp monsters for hours on end, the sort of thing that required a long vigil and continued attention. Those days are largely gone, but even in games supporting more bite-sized chunks of content, there's still a strong incentive for long leveling sessions and chain-running dungeons. Considering that you're likely in a game that's overflowing with food items, either from crafting or as background ambiance, it's understandable why you might want to get a bite to eat. And if you're just going to go back to playing after you're done eating, why wait? Sometimes you really can't eat at your desk (or wherever you play), and sometimes you don't want to. But as a rule, do you eat while you play your game of choice? Or do you step away from the game to have a snack? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
NTT DoCoMo menu translator app hands-on (video)
NTT DoCoMo menu translator app hands-on (video) NTT DoCoMo begins testing automated Japanese / English translation app that actually works (video) NTT DoCoMo exhibits on-the-fly speech translation, lets both parties just talk (video) Have you ever tried to read a Japanese menu? If there aren't pictures to reference, you'll likely have a difficult time figuring out what to order -- unless you can read Japanese, of course. NTT DoCoMo hopes to improve the dining experience for those of us that can't tell our ウニ (sea urchin) from our カニ (crab), building an app that can translate any of 9,000 possible menu entries from Japanese into English. It also supports English to Japanese translation, along with Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) and Korean translations as well. The app worked fairly well, occasionally mistaking things like salmon caviar for "a rare part of the pork." OK, so perhaps there's a bit more work to be done. Either way, real-time visual language translation is definitely tricky stuff, and could be enormously helpful to travelers once devs figure out how to make it work -- and work well. Jump past the break to see the app do its thing at CEATEC.%Gallery-135633%
iPad increasingly popular among restaurateurs, diners
We've been talking about the iPad in restaurants for a while, starting back when the Lecere Corporation began testing their FIRMS point-of-sale system. The iPad seems especially effective for wine lists, and we covered the story about Bones in Atlanta seeing an 11 percent improvement in their wine sales. According to the Associated Press, an upscale Chicago steakhouse called Chicago Cut is seeing similar results. While the owners are hesitant to lay their 20 percent increase in wine sales directly at the iPad's feet, they definitely credit Apple's magical and revolutionary device with some of the credit. Au Bon Pain is also experimenting with the iPad in six of its stores, using the tablet to do away with paper ordering pads. The iPad has the ability to simplify a great deal of the order process in restaurants, communicating customer choices and orders back to the kitchen without wasting reams of paper. It's probably only a matter of time before we see even more dining businesses embrace the iPad. [via Switched]
Found Footage: Sharp says 'sushi please' on iPad
Lots of visual content, quick transactions, and hungry customers: that's what Sharp has in mind with this proof of concept sushi menu application for iPad. Rather than putting diners through the chore of tracking down their favorite rolls and sashimi in a multipage laminated paper menu, the app puts dishes front and center. The iPad app isn't for sale yet, although the DigInfo report quotes Sharp saying it may be commercialized if there's interest; it might also be ported to Sharp-built devices. If it does get rolled out, it would be included as an integrated piece of Sharp's POS system for restaurants, including billing and order management tools. We've seen systems like this tested before, but as far as we've heard, no one's actually using iPads in real-life restaurants and at least one Australian tapas joint has already gotten on the bandwagon. If you've seen a virtual menu in action, let us know in the comments. [via Guy Kawasaki]
Buffing for BlizzCon: No pigging out at the Great Feast
Buff(ing) for BlizzCon is a bi-weekly fitness series written by ShrinkGeek authors Rafe Brox and Michael McGreevy. Join the WoW.com team in getting in shape for the ultimate WoW geek event: BlizzCon 2010. There are two words that can seriously take the shine off of anyone's efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle: "I can't." The minute you start saying that, you start stacking up the frustration debuff, which almost invariably leads to some kind of indulgent meltdown that can cause a huge setback or completely derail all the good work you've done. We want to feel good about the choices we are making, and most people don't feel good when they say the words, "I can't." ... Unless, you know, they are responding to a question like, "Can you stick this razor-sharp sword into your eye?" That question, fortunately, doesn't come up much in polite conversation. One that does, however: "Would you like to go out to eat?" Ah, yes. Our old nemesis, the restaurant. I've written in the past about how it's easier to eat at a restaurant after some advance research to find the good choices on the menu -- but what if it's a spontaneous outing or the restaurant doesn't have any obviously good choices? What if you don't know where you're going before you get there, or the restaurant doesn't have its menu available online? There are a lot of factors that can make dining out a challenge when you're trying to watch your caloric intake, but that doesn't mean you have to avoid those situations altogether. There are several tricks you can stash up your sleeve to keep the "I can't" debuff at bay and enjoy your meal without taking too much damage in the process.
First Look: VegOut, for your vegetarian dining needs
"I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens." --Isaac Bashevis Singer I've been a vegetarian for over a decade now, and I'm very familiar with the predicament of being in a new city and not having the foggiest idea where to look for a restaurant which caters to my particular lifestyle choices. When I heard about VegOut, I was immediately hopeful that my iPhone would, once again, provide a solution to a real-life problem. I was not disappointed. VegOut is powered by happycow.net, an community aggregator for reviews and locations of vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants. VegOut provides location awareness, touch navigation and a great-looking front end for this very useful service. It provides ratings, contact info, maps and can filter by your specific vegan/vegetarian preferences. If you're going out with a group of omnivores, or trying to please a vegan in the group but still keep the rest of the carnivores well-fed, VegOut can help. In addition to "current location" search, it can also search any location you specify. Reviews of a restaurant can be loaded from happycow.net in VegOut's internal browser, and you can easily jump from there to Mobile Safari to add your own reviews, email the page, etc.. I'm discovering new restaurants across the country, and all of my current favorite restaurants have shown up. My newest culinary crush (Soul Vegetarian East in Chicago) came up with a 5-star rating, and I found some reviews of dishes I can't wait to go back and try. VegOut is available in the App Store (iTunes link) for $4.99US. Champ Bennett, author of VegOut, has announced a 24-hour sale for TUAW readers, dropping the price to $3.99US. You can follow @VegOutApp on Twitter for updates. I don't know how many TUAW readers have sworn off the meat for one reason or another, but this is one handy application for the traveling vegetarian.
Little apps I like for the iPhone
The iPhone can certainly make life easier on a number of levels, and that has greatly increased with the advent of the App Store. There are thousands of selections for every taste, even bad taste. In 2007 Steve Jobs told us web based apps would do the trick, but he finally relented and we all benefited from the tremendous success and variety of the App Store.So, without further ado, here are some little apps you may have missed that have made my i-life better. Backgrounds [App Store link] A nice little app that points you to large collections of wallpaper for your iPhone or iPod touch. You can select a category such as Movies or Nature, and browse away till you find something you like. When you are happy, download the image and it will show up in your camera roll. Do the usual tap, and select it as wallpaper and you are ready to go. The pictures are generally of very high quality, and are sourced from Flickr. The developers claim about 50,000 images are there for the downloading. The app is free, although some unobtrusive ads do show up on the margins of the images. There are a lot of other ways to find iPhone wallpaper, but this is quick, easy and free. I like it. Open Table [App Store link] Using your GPS (if your iPhone has one), or simply by giving your location, find the nearest restaurants that have, you guessed it, open tables. Then click on the time you want, and you have a reservation. It doesn't get any easier than that. It works in many U.S. cities, and in London, Toronto and Vancouver B.C. I gave it a go here in Southern Arizona, and found many restaurants with tables available You can set up an account at the Open Table website, but it is not required. Without an account you can select the restaurant, the time you want, and give your name, email, and phone number. Then click on 'confirm' and you are good to go. If you do sign up for a free account with Open Table, you can collect 'Dining Reward Points' when you book a meal at a member restaurant. Collect enough points and you can get some hefty discounts off your next dinner. Open Table also works on the iPod touch. Things that should be added are search by type of cuisine, and I think there should be a direct link to restaurant websites. Open Table is free. Distant Suns [App Store link] I love to star gaze, and here in Arizona we get about 300 clear nights a year. There are several nice star map programs for the iPhone, but I am very partial to Distant Suns written by Mike Smithwick. This program goes way back to a PC version in 1985, and there have been Mac ports for OS9 and now there is an OS X version. The iPhone/ iPod touch version is scaled down from the big computer versions, but has excellent graphics, location awareness, and does the math to tell you what is visible at the moment and what is not. It is an impressive way to explore the universe above you. Distant Suns is $5.99 and well worth it.
World of Warcraft themed restaurant wows Beijing
Unlike the April Fool's joke from Blizzard in 2006, this time there really is a World of Warcraft-themed restaurant open for business in Beijing. The venue boasts a Dark Portal entrance, full wall prints of WoW scenes, an enormous screen that shows action from the game, a tree in the center reminiscent of Raynewood Retreat, and what appears to be the ability to log in from your table.From the sounds of things you may not be able to order Delicious Chocolate Cake (after all, the cake is a lie), but maybe Gadgetzan Gado-gado or Murloc Mince Pie are on the menu. So if you're in the Beijing area and looking for a great place to host your next guild meeting, check it out and let us know how the food is.
