iPhone dining apps?

[TooncesCat]

Anyone know of any good Manhattan dining guide apps for the iPhone that I could recommend to friends coming in from out of town? I've checked out Zagat and Eat Manhattan, both of which look like they could be very good (the $9.99 price tag for Zagat seems a little crazy, though).

[JuliaG]

You should check out The Scoop which is a free app produced by the NY Times. It has all the content updated regularly from the NY Times dining section.

[chicgail]

There's a new app in Chicago called Foodie. I don't know if it extends to other cities as well. It offers specials from specific restaurants and you can make reservations on it. The app costs $1.99 and they charge for reservations (99 cents per reservation, or one month of unlimited reservations for $2.99, or one year of unlimited reservations for $29.99.) That compares to OpenTable (also available as an app) that's free.

[ferret]

Foodie is Chicago-only (for now). UrbanSpoon is decent. $9.99 for Zagat may be more than the OP would like to spend, but to get the full benefit of the written guide with added iPhone functionality (e.g. GPS location), it's not a bad deal.

[TooncesCat]

Thanks everyone! My visiting friends really liked Eat Manhattan, which is $2.99 and lets you search by neighborhood, genre of food, price, etc. For me, I need something for when I'm in, say Midtown East and realize I'm starving and don't know where to eat (and can't stomach a salad/wrap place) -- Eat Manhattan works really well for that. Maybe I'll go ahead and spring for Zagat, too. The GPS function looks very cool.

[kathryn]

Even the built in Maps application on the iPhone uses the GPS to find what's nearby. This is not restricted only to the Zagat guide. Menupages, Yelp, etc. all do this.

For Yelp, I especially like that you can filter by "what's open now" so you don't find yourself rolling up to a place that's closed for the day already.

[ferret]

I was justifying the price on the iPhone - as in "it's not only cheaper than the printed version, but it does more."

[Shrinkrap]

I love Urban Spoon.I think it's free. Disclaimer; My brother and sister have iphones and travel quite a bit; I don't.

[kathryn]

You mean for reviews and recommendations, or basic info like what's nearby/hours/addresses?

I use Menupages' app and the Yelp app for the latter but don't really trust ANY of the reviews on there. Or Zagat sometimes! Also: you can't even access a lot of the Zagat info for free anywhere. They charge to use their web site, they charge for the book, etc.