It's All About The Food!
For many travelers, finding out about the quintessential foods and where to find them is a high priority.
Food Glorious Food
For travelers who prioritize food experiences, we have provided strategies to help ensure you don't get home only to realize there was a specific dish or restaurant or food you wish you had tried while away. Here are some of our favorite methods of researching food & dining. Should you become a (free) member of this website, you also can ask for recommendations and feedback from other like-minded travelers (and see how what they say compares with what you find here).
Generally speaking, use both the general sites and destination sources together:
-
Local/ Destination intel first: Lean on friends, AI, and social media to find out about great food experiences in your destination.
-
Cross-check buzz: look at Resy Hit Lists or Time Out’s heatmaps to see what’s trending right now. Or check with other Plannit Travel website members in the food-centric community.
-
Verify availability & deals: Book your experience on one of these reservation platforms.
Blend at least two sources—one editorial/curated and one reservation-driven
Choosing How & Where to Eat Locally
Destination-Specific Sources
Official digital home of all starred, Bib Gourmand and “Selected” venues, plus newsy city deep-dives and maps. A really great resource for any traveler looking for great places to eat around the world.
Part encyclopedia, part bucket-list tracker: TasteAtlas maps 11,000+ traditional dishes and 24,000 restaurants worldwide, complete with city and regional rankings. Great for deciding what to eat (goulash in Budapest, ceviche in Lima) before you decide where.
Think of it as a friend who eats out constantly and writes candid, approachable reviews. The Infatuation’s city sections (NYC, London, LA, Miami, etc.) are broken into use-case guides like “Best Solo Dining” or “Where to Impress for Under $50,” handy when you’re juggling travel budgets and moods.
When a restaurant table isn’t enough, EatWith matches travelers with home cooks, supper-club hosts, and small-group food tours. Book a Sicilian rooftop dinner, tapas crawl, or pasta-making class—and leave with local friends as well as a full stomach.
Time Out offers city guides for metros worldwide. They are locally written and include “Best of” food lists and heatmaps for dozens of locales.
Yelp
Still powerful in the U.S. (and increasingly abroad), Yelp’s 2025 update adds AI Review Insights that distill sentiments on flavor, service, and vibe—great when you’re skimming hundreds of comments in a new city. The annual Top 100 Places to Eat list is a quick way to target local favorites.
Trip Advisor Restaurants
Tripadvisor’s massive review base feeds its yearly Travelers’ Choice awards and city rankings, letting you sort by budget, dietary needs, or “Hidden Gems.” Because it spans lodging and sights too, you can plan an entire evening—hotel door to dessert—inside one platform.
Eater City Guides & Heat Maps
Eater’s editors maintain frequently refreshed “Essential 38” and “Heatmap” lists for dozens of destinations, spotlighting what’s new (and worth it) rather than simply what’s popular. Ideal for travelers who’d rather hit the buzziest neighborhood counter than chase star ratings.
The go-to app for vegetarian, vegan, and allergy-conscious travelers. It flags fully plant-based venues and rates omnivore spots with solid veg options. Offline saving means you can still find tofu scrambles in rural rail stations without data.
A full travel suite for Muslim travelers that combines halal-certified restaurant maps, nearby mosque locators, prayer times, and user food reviews in one app—making it far easier to meet dietary and faith needs on the fly.
US-Centric
-
Resy Guides & “Hit List” – every month Resy’s editors publish city-specific Hit Lists spotlighting the buzziest new openings you can book right in the app.
-
OpenTable – With millions of verified reservations and reviews, Open Table generates fresh “Best Overall,” “Most Booked,” and thematic lists in each metro.
Europe-Centric
-
TheFork (LaFourchette) – This is more than just a booking platform with 55 000+ searchable restaurants in 12 European markets. It offers recommendations, 20 million verified reviews, and frequent discount deals.
-
SquareMeal (UK & London) – independent guide that releases Top 100 lists for London and the wider UK alongside detailed reviews and booking links. Square Meal
Asia/ Pacific-Centric
-
Tabelog (Japan) – 870 k+ venues with granular ratings and the user-voted Tabelog Awards; indispensable for hunting that perfect ramen or sushi counter.
-
Chope (Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong & beyond) – browse, book, and earn rewards at 13 000+ restaurants across Asia, with constant promo codes.
-
Rakuten Gurunavi (Japan) – English-friendly “gourmet navigator” with 50 000+ listings, reservation tools, and foodie articles covering everything from kaiten-zushi to kaiseki.
-
OpenRice -- If you’re headed to Hong Kong, Macau, or much of Southeast Asia, OpenRice is the local king. You’ll get Cantonese-language reviews, voucher deals, and cash-free “OpenRice Pay” at thousands of eateries—features global apps often miss.