Everyone has to eat, and having restaurant finder on your iPhone can be a valuable tool when choosing a dining destination. So, I’ll cut to the chase: There is absolutely no reason to spend 99 cents on iApp Ventures’ app Find A Restaurant.
The app is good in theory. Choose from one of 21 cuisines, including American, Ethiopian, Fast Food, Kosher, Pizza, Steak and Vegetarian, and based on your location, the app lists nearby restaurants.
Unfortunately, the GPS function in Find A Restaurant isn’t accurate. Restaurants are seemingly listed by proximity, except when they aren’t. Take Kosher food for example. From my apartment I’m given four options and the closest is listed last, after a place in a fairly distant suburb. When I tap “Ten more listings” the app repeats the same four restaurants again and again.
Find A Restaurant isn’t terribly comprehensive either. Its Fast Food category misses the McDonald’s two blocks from my place and the Middle East cuisine option literally only lists restaurants named Middle East.
The finder relies solely on your current location, which makes Find A Restaurant pretty useless if you wanted to make plans for a Saturday night out downtown. This app might be salvageable if it had other search functions such as sorting by zip code, but until some major modifications are made, save your dollar and stick with the free and far superior Urbanspoon.
