The New Phone App That Hardcore Foodies Need To Know About

Back before the internet, in order to enjoy restaurant food, one would have to go to a restaurant. To discover restaurants, one would have to read reviews in print publications or rely on word-of-mouth. By 1979, Tim and Nina Zagat had the epiphany that people might want some help with that, and the Zagat Guide to restaurants was born. If you're not familiar, the Zagat Guide began as a printed guide to local restaurants that rounded up and tallied the reviews of actual restaurant-goers to come up with a score — not unlike the way Rotten Tomatoes works for movies. 

Over time, it became apparent not only that people liked knowing what others thought of restaurants before trying them, but that people were hungry to have their voices heard. And so Yelp was born, giving everyone with an internet connection the power to become a published restaurant reviewer. Today, with the advent of TikTok and the pandemic-inspired shift toward takeout and delivery, we're at a new crossroads.

"The way we currently search for and order food — through clunky filters, text-based lists, and homogenized menus — is dated," according to Diana Might. She's the CEO of a new food-discovery app, Mustard, which aspires to combine Yelp's personal touch, TikTok's rapid-fire video content, and GrubHub's order-via-app convenience (via FoodBeast). Here is why Mustard is the new app that foodies need to know about.

Mustard promises to be the app that foodies everywhere need to download because it fills an ever-widening gap in the current food-ordering schema, according to Diana Might, Mustard's CEO. When we say "gap," we're referring to the absence of a means to turn the internet's vast supply of food and restaurant information — which is coming to us increasingly in the form of video content — into immediate action (via FoodBeast). And by "action," we mean the ability to go beyond liking and commenting on food and restaurant content that seems appealing to actually making buying choices based on that content without the need for additional apps and websites.

Although Might calls Mustard "Spotify for food," it seems it also has something in common with home design and decorating app Houzz, which allows users to both post and view content as well as purchase items without navigating out of the app. "Mustard merges our love of finding and drooling over delicious food via social media, and the functionality to actually order (or book a table to eat) that food," Might explained. "It's an all-around win for food lovers, creators and restaurants."  

Mustard is currently up and running in Los Angeles with at least 8,000 restaurants already covered in its database. Stay tuned for when Mustard becomes available in your region.