While user review-centric sites can often help you decide on something to eat on any given night, sometimes it helps to consult a professional. Unless you happen to catch a local featurette on Food Network or follow applicable Chefs on Twitter, it’s tough to really find out what said professionals think. Naturally, I gave Chefs Feed a spin.
In short, Chefs Feed is a free app that basically functions as both Yelp and Twitter in one, featuring top chefs across the country (like Mario Batali) and in your local area. If you happen to lineup with any given Chef’s picks, you can “follow” them just like Twitter and grab timely updates, as well as the status on their restaurants. You can also link up with others by way of the social feature, so it’s not just limited to what Chef’s opinions.
The focus on professionals serves two purposes. One, it pares down the insurmountable reviews down to a few opinions at a time, which helps ease the feeling of reading 100 reviews and going back and forth between going or staying home. Two, it highlights the top shelf locations, so it’s easier to find something high quality if you want to have a special date night.
Like most location food apps these days, Chefs Feed frustratingly requires you to sign up before you can use its services. Another shortcoming is that I noticed there weren’t too many Chefs in my local area, and I expected a much higher adoption rate overall from the professional community. But the further I searched into a major city into the area, I came up with more results—so your mileage may vary.
Despite its limitations, I hope Chefs Feed continues its success in the food community, and more people keep adding to its database. Although it’s not really a catch-all for casual dining any day of the week, I’m definitely going to keep looking to it for the occasional fine night on the town.
Chefs Feed is an iOS app that can be downloaded for free in the App Store.