When I’m feeling indecisive about where to dine out in Chicago (read: always), it’s nice to have some help making a selection. Enter Ness Dining Guide, the app for iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you figure out where you’d enjoy a meal out based on your personal tastes.
To get started with Ness you’ll be asked to rate 10 places, primarily pulled from your neighborhood. Don’t rate places you haven’t visited, because Ness will use this information to determine how much you’ll enjoy other listings in its database. By rating more restaurants, Ness learns your preferences and becomes more personalized, ensuring that your result accuracy increases.
The most striking part of Ness Dining Guide is its gorgeous UI, which is sure to make you hungry anytime you open the app. You can swipe through the default categories that cover most types of food or you can perform your own search. I really like that Ness is conscious of the time of day you search, and will automatically filter out places that are closed if it’s late at night. You can also opt to hide places you’ve already rated or chain restaurants if you like to keep it local. Like any good dining app, you can also narrow your search radius and price.
When Ness displays its results, it will offer up a percentage of how much it thinks you’ll enjoy dining at an establishment based on your previous ratings. Of course, there’s no guarantee you’ll have good service, but I felt like the app’s guesses were in sync when it came to places I’ve previously dined but not yet rated.
One thing worth noting: Ness’ database is not the most current, and some of its suggestions are no longer in business. There didn’t seem to be a way to notify the app of this, so it’d be worth double-checking if a restaurant is still open if you’re in unfamiliar territory.
