August 28, 2019
For people with dietary restrictions, whether by choice or medically-mandated, going out to eat at restaurants can be a trying, if not, anxiety-inducing experience.
Questions abound: Will they have food I can eat? Is it worth spending money on something that might not even hit the spot?
Yelp launched a new feature on Tuesday that aims to make going to restaurants virtually stress-free for folks with dietary preferences and restrictions, according to the company’s announcement.
The updated app will allow users to quickly input their personal preferences for restaurants including dietary preferences, food and drink categories, favorite things to do, disability accessibility and parent or pet-owner status. Yelp will do all of the “heavy lifting” by retaining those preferences for an entirely personalized experience on the homescreen.
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From here, Yelp will only recommend locations and services that are most relevant to you — meaning that you and a friend could open the app and have very different suggestions showing up.
Personalized highlights within your search will point out if there are some menu options at any given restaurant that fit with your dietary restrictions. That will save users from “sifting through menu photos and reviews to confirm if a restaurant has options for those who are gluten-free, halal, keto, kosher, pescatarian, vegan or vegetarian," Yelp's announcement explained.
While this new feature is helpful to those who have been lifelong vegans or kosher, it is equally as beneficial to those new to a diet who aren’t as in-the-know about how and where to eat while following their diet.
For example, one trying out the ultra-popular keto diet would be able to search for keto-friendly options without sorting through photos and descriptions of tempting carbs.
Yelp’s new feature is now available for iOS and Android app users so long as the newest version of the app is downloaded. Learn more about it here.
