Subscribe
Sign in
The Infatuation 2.0 — A restaurant finding app built for the web
30
Replies
Thanks @ndevane, great analogy. @schmooey is definitely our Zayne.
Yes, we definitely have a lot of different things on different platforms, all with the intent of offering the best possible restaurant discovery resource across many different mediums.
Instagram is a hugely important to our business. We use it not only to connect with people and build community (our #EEEEEATS hashtag has nearly 2,000,000 uses), but also to distribute our reviews, guides, and restaurant recommendations to a large audience. There's already a lot of discovery happening on the platform, and we want our brand to be the leader in that space. We have over 20 accounts, from city specific (@ infatuation_sf) to food type specific (@ burger, @ pizza, @ icecream, @ pasta to name just a few).
As you also mentioned, we launched Text Rex (http://textrex.co/) last May, a human-driven service that offers real time restaurant recommendations via SMS. The logic in creating Text Rex is that we have so much excellent, high quality content (hundreds of reviews and guides in each city) that we thought we could effectively offer up that content to users via messaging, basically creating on demand search. Text Rex has become huge in NYC over the last few months and we're excited to roll it out to other cities in the next few months.
Ultimately, what it all adds up to is that we believe very strongly that a high quality, trustworthy brand, built on high quality, trustworthy opinions is critical to cutting through the noise and offering a useful product in the restaurant discovery space. Building this new web product gives us an excellent core from which to distribute our content across mobile screens of all types.
@schmooey @houseofstang great work with this redesign. It's beautiful. It is amazing to me how far The Infatuation has come. LOVE IT.
How do you prioritize what reviews are included and what are not? And how do you find the most interesting places in each city?
@corleyh @schmooey Thanks Corley! We get a lot of feedback and input from our users about restaurants we should be checking out, and that's the most valuable intel for us. We also spend a lot of time in social media (mostly Instagram), looking through our #EEEEEATS hashtag on and keeping track of what places pop up frequently.
I've been a fan of you guys for a while now! Any plans to expand to Boston anytime soon?
Thanks @juantabone. Yes! Boston is coming very soon! We get more traffic/app sessions from Boston than any other US city we aren't currently creating content in.
@houseofstang that's awesome! As a native New Yorker that just moved to Boston, I gotta say I'm a bigger fan of the food scene here considering how much smaller Boston is than NYC
@juantabone good to know! Keep us in the loop on places we should check out. Love Neptune Oyster.
Hey @tommydangerouss. The hope is that we can help cut through the noise and lead you to the good stuff, both with curated opinions, and the fact that there aren't reviews in the product for every single thing that serves food.
Wow, this has come a LONG way since 1.0 (I'm a mobile app user). Great job! The opinionated curated angle has always been interesting to me to cut through the noise. iOS app refresh coming soon?
@karanbhangui hey Karan, thanks! Trying to evolve and get better. Yes, we have an iOS refresh in the works now.
The infatuation is the only place I go for trusted restaurant recommendations - and I am very serious albeit self proclaimed foodaholic. I love the tone of the reviews, and Text Rex gives that personal touch that is so necessary when finding a great spot for whatever occasion. I love the redesigned site and the new Instagram strategy. Very clever team! Congrats @schmooey @houseofstang!
Hey Product Hunters, nice to see you again.
For those of you who know The Infatuation, we're excited to show you our newly designed website and restaurant finder. For those of you who are meeting us for the first time, let's start with telling you a bit about the core of what we do. The Infatuation is a platform and resource dedicated to offering curated, trustworthy restaurant reviews and guides. We don't crowdsource opinions - we present our own, from a small, vetted group of people who dine anonymously and accept no favor from restaurants. Think Michelin Guide, but for a new generation. One where the internet is a thing.
As for the update you see before you, we worked with a great company called @mobelux to build out our product. We really wanted to integrate maps into our web platform, and we did so by creating a "restaurant finder," which uses Mapbox and Foursquare APIs, along with javascript React/Redux to present a dynamic way to help you find the right restaurant for your needs.
You choose your starting point, whether that’s you current location, a particular neighborhood, or even a landmark, and see the best restaurants nearby. Looking for date night or day drinking? Just select a “Perfect For” tag and/or a cuisine type and instantly become the most restaurant knowledgable person in your group of friends.
We'll be adding more cities very soon, and will also be integrating our on demand SMS recommendations platform, Text Rex, in our next iteration. Please hit us with any questions or comments.
@houseofstang @mobelux Site looks great - used it last night for a quick bit in Gramercy...thanks @philtoronto for pointing me towards you guys :)
@houseofstang i've been a long time @infatuation user (probably over 4 years - is that possible?). Always loved the product and a big fan. Congrats on everything you're doing with and excited to see where it goes of you and team.
@houseofstang @mobelux What I really like about this is the curation from experts... furthermore, the context provided by the theme ---"perfect for" makes deciding easy... what you find with Yelp(r) and other sites is lack of context and often TMI... this is a really cool site... the text rex feature is my favorite by far- very innovative and the branding is fun.
@domydeal thanks Greg! We started writing reviews in 2009, so that is certainly possible. You are the O-est of Gs and we love you for it.
@samir_doshi @mobelux Appreciate that Samir. We definitely believe that any great product has to start with great content. And we're excited about Text Rex and the future.
Great to see the re-design and even though I'm a big believer in re-design, for your site it would not have mattered. I basically survive in New York because of you! Its on my phone's home screen, but my secret is Text Rex. LOVE IT!
I love Text Rex. He is great for asking for recommendations on the move or with a group.
I also harass him on a semi-regular basis on the subject of more cafes for laptopping. Any chance that might join your list of "Perfect For" categories?
Looks awesome! Especially fond of the guides. Who hasn't struggled to find late night eats in SF?
I'd love to see some content for San Jose/Silicon Valley. Not envious or anything; just saying that San Jose has over one million people, yet SF is called The City and gets all the cool restaurant reviews. Where's the love for the Capital of Silicon Valley?
@houseofstang good to see you on PH! Love the app and the new website. I dont eat out without a quick check on infatuation - also thanks for the restaurant recommendations in New Orleans through J Goldcrown - cochon was incredible!
Homemade