One of the best parts of travel is discovering new foods. Whether you’re going to the fanciest restaurants in Dubai, eating with hosts in Delhi, or hunting down food trucks in Seattle, cuisine is one of the most important, and easiest to experience, aspects of local culture.
There are a lot of apps a lot of apps geared toward making travel easier or more interesting, and there are some specifically geared toward helping you find a good meal. Technology has changed many aspects of out lives, and the popularity of the “sharing economy,” using apps like Uber or Airbnb, is bound to have an impact on how people dine.
Technology is already at play in many restaurants. Hosts use tablets to seat customers, restaurants use Square as a point-of-sale system rather than cash registers, and some use interactive websites for placing orders or reservations. People use their phones to pay for bills and navigate to restaurants, so why not use dining apps to find out about new places to eat, too? You can do a web search or check out your phone’s app store to find the options that best suit you.
But you don’t need to rely on smartphones and dining apps to help you find great local cuisine. Provided you know the language, you can likely find online reviews or forums that can point you to some places even the best app is likely to miss.
If you’re traveling somewhere with traditions and cuisine far different from what you’re used to, you can probably find websites dedicated to expatriates and travelers who would be more than happy to help you find some great options.
The convenience of a phone app in finding your way around cannot be overstated, but if the sharing economy has taught us anything, it’s that there is a wealth of interesting, out-of-the-way eateries around the world that are worth looking into.