Menuism is a restaurant/menu social network that lets users rate restaurants and dishes at restaurants. The site was started by two UC Berkeley alums as a project of their new company called “Two Bit Operation.” You can read their entertaining blog detailing their progress thus far here.
Features
Menuism provides you with user reviews for specific restaurants and dishes. The site implements tags to allow for searching by type of food, or by a specific dish. These personal recommendations are sorted into an easy to read format and the results are pinned on a Google Map. For a good demonstration of the usefulness of Menuism, take a look at a more popular city like Chicago.
Menuism has implemented a good number of social features including adding new friends and giving points to other users for detailed and helpful reviews. Members can even upload photos of dishes and the restaurant to help us choose a restaurant. The reviews that I have skimmed through on the site all seemed to be thoughtful and at least of moderate length. It is nice to see that people are grabbing on to this idea and aren’t just spamming short sentence reviews. The site also has a good number of very active users that have given detailed reviews of numerous dishes at many different restaurants.
Opinion
This site is perfect for food critics and food lovers alike. Active users will find this site much more enjoyable than those just passing through, but there is definitely some really useful information for the casual visitor who just needs a quick restaurant idea. This is a great way to exchange information about a restaurant you love (or hate) without having to stand outside the restaurant with a poster. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the site could include health inspection results as well?
