A meal of chicken and chips helped give Dylan Steiner the idea for Bites. After being surprised by a restaurant bill, the 20-year-old University of Cape Town student found the same meal further down the street for nearly half the price.
That experience grew into an app designed to make the cost of eating out easier to compare. Speaking to CapeTalk, Steiner said he began by visiting around 500 restaurants and developing a tool that could read menu photographs and add the items to the app. Restaurants and diners can now contribute information themselves.
Bites lets people search for the food they want, from burgers and pizza to coffee, then compare nearby options by price, distance and other filters. Searching for a restaurant brings up its tracked menu, while dated price entries help users see how recent the information is.
The community contributes to that picture. A menu or receipt photograph can be used to extract dishes and prices, with users asked to confirm the details before saving them. Restaurant owners can also claim their pages, update menu information and share new dishes.
There’s a discovery side to it, too. The Snacking feed brings together food photographs and posts from diners and restaurants, while a food diary and monthly budget tools help users keep track of their own meals and spending. The developer’s current listing also describes group plans, where friends can suggest restaurants and vote on where to go.
For Steiner, the ambition goes beyond finding one cheap lunch. He wants Bites to become something people check before heading out, giving them a clearer idea of what a meal costs and helping them discover somewhere new along the way.
Reporting: CapeTalk interview, via EWN.
