What are the restaurant maps available online?
Traditionally, when people were looking for a new restaurant, they would pick up a copy of Zagat or some other fine dining guide. But in just a few short years, online maps have come a long way and now also offer local information on businesses, shops, and restaurants. Sites like Google Maps allow users to create their own maps of favorite establishments that they can save or share with friends and family. There are hundreds of food maps online, though some notable ideas have made it to the top.
On the west coast, what could be better than eating an authentic Mexican taco out of a truck? With heaping portions, tons of options, and mom’s homemade guacamole, you can’t go wrong. You can’t get that level of deliciousness from a restaurant, Californians say. However, it can be tricky to locate these trucks, especially if you are from out of town. This is how Yumtacos was born.
Creator Joshua Lurie-Terrell of Sacramento, California, said he had been keeping a list of the best taco trucks for quite some time. “As soon as my friends found out I had this list, people were calling me all the time,” he admits. From there, transferring the data to a Google map was no problem. Once the site was live, people could add their own taco truck sightings. Yum Tacos focuses primarily on California, though authentic Mexican taco trucks have been traced from as far away as Baltimore, Maryland.
Another site, Chinesefoodmap, is based on mapping Chinese restaurant locations for Chinese immigrants. Web users will also have access to reviews, menus, driving directions and other local information. Creator Brian Hui first created this site in Chinese only and focused on Chinese food joints in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the site has grown nationally to metropolitan areas like Houston, Seattle, and Atlanta, and an English version inevitably appeared as well.
Users of Google Maps have created several restaurant “mashups” based on the Google template. One of the most prominent sites is Menurequest, which has over 5,000 links in New York, San Diego, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Napa Valley, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Users can visit the restaurant’s website, read reviews, get driving directions, and make reservations online through this amazing map. These are just some of the food maps available to culinary curators. Maybe your own town has a site designed just for hungry locals like you.
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