iPhone App Reviews Blog

Finding a good restaurant when you’re out and about can be a pain in the rear end particularly if you’re in a city and you aren’t sure where to go. Urbanspoon lets you use your iPhone 3G to find restaurants near you.

One of the neat things about Urbanspoon is that you don’t just push a button on your screen to do something (although you can do it that way if you want). Instead you actually shake your iPhone 3G and then let the restaurant wheel spin and land on a restaurant automatically. It’s sort of like using a restaurant finding slot machine. Although it seems silly, it’s actually a cool use of the technology in the iPhone 3G and it makes using Urbanspoon kind of fun.

You can opt to search or browse restaurants and you can filter your results by neighborhood, price or kind of food. Urbanspoon uses your iPhone’s GPS to locate eating establishments and find the ones nearest to you. You can opt to invite friends onto Urbanspoon and then compare restaurant choices with them. You can also see ratings and reviews from newspapers, fellow customers and even bloggers.

The interface is clean and easy to use. The tabs at the bottom of the screen make it simple to use Urbanspoon. I like the Near Me choice the best as I’m always interested in finding good restaurants in my immediate vicinity when I’m in the city.

The drawback to Urbanspoon of course is that…well…it’s urban. If you are way out in the suburbs or in a rural area then Urbanspoon is not going to be as useful to you if you are looking for something close. But if you don’t mind driving a bit then Urbanspoon is still a helpful tool.

I suggest keeping it on your iPhone 3G regardless of whether you’re in the city or not. You might not need it all the time but it will be there for you when you find yourself in a more urban area. In my case I like having restaurant listings for Boston close at hand for the times when I head down that way. It’s convenient knowing that I can find a place to eat in a few seconds with Urbanspoon.

Application: Urbanspoon
Download Link: iTunes Store
Price: Free
The Good: Shake your iPhone 3G to pull up a restaurant near you.
The Bad: Not very useful for people in suburban or rural areas.
Overall: A good app if you’re an urban dweller or if you can drive into a city.
Score: 3 out of 5

(No Ratings Yet)

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