Celebrating 15 years as America's Favorite Dining App.
“A Google search will turn up plenty of restaurants in any given destination. But to narrow your culinary quest to those frequented by in-the-know foodies, you will need LocalEats.” - CNN Travel
LocalEats for iPhone and Android is a curated dining guide created for travelers and local diners who prefer local businesses, rather than chain restaurants. We’ll point you to the best steak houses, great sushi spots, and down-home burger joints all over the country.
We are not a comprehensive guide and do not list every restaurant – we prefer to list ONLY the best restaurants, chosen by our editorial and research staff (actual humans). Robots are nice. People are better.
Filter restaurants by Top 10, Category Winners, All Picks, Cuisine, Neighborhood, Feature, Savings, Price Range, Hours, Bar Information, Patio Seating, Vegetarian Friendly, and more.
Quickly see what’s “near me” via GPS and customize your own search radius. Find restaurants near a particular address, city or even landmarks. Make reservations, or save "favorites" for later.
For over 20 years we've been writing about the best locally-owned restaurants in America. Our "Where The Locals Eat" guide was first published in 1996 and featured over 10,000 restaurants. 15 books later, the LocalEats app continues this tradition.
Apple Bee's and Olive Garden are fine. However, when you visit a new city don't you prefer to discover unique, locally-owned restaurants that you can't find anywhere else? Sure you do, and so do we! LocalEats is your go-to guide.
LocalEats is now free to download. No ongoing subscriptions or even display ads. The only requirement is that you have an Apple or Android device - and the desire to "Eat like a local." So, what are you waiting for?
"Here are our top picks for three downloadable mobile food apps. … (LocalEats) Avoids national chains in favor of more authentic spots across the U.S." - Top Mobile Food Apps
"Local Eats features independently-owned restaurants and local places only. You’ll find no run-of-the-mill, national chain restaurants here." - 10 Best Apps for Traveling Like a Local (LocalEats: #1)
"…an ideal choice for travelers who hunger for a solid reference guide to the dining scene in unfamiliar cities." - 4/5 mice rating, Read More
"LocalEats is stripped down and simple and easy to use, which is what I like in an app." - 10 Great iPhone Apps for Foodies
"When you’re in a city you’ve never visited, it can be hard to get some good grub. … Enter LocalEats, a carefully curated dining guide that only spotlights independently owned restaurants across the U.S. and in selected international cities."— 4 Underrated Apps for Business Travel
"If you’re an iPhone user planning a visit to New York City, you might want to download the LocalEats application to your iPhone before you arrive. … a great choice if you travel frequently or even if you live in one of the cities that is covered." – Heather Cross, NYC Travel Expert
"…a restaurant guide to spare you searching for delicious and authentic food." - Read More
"When you’re traveling sometimes the simplest recommendations are the best. LocalEats gives you the best…" - Top 5 iPhone Apps for Traveling
"If you’re not a fan of big-name, multinational corporations sticking their fingers into your burgers, then this is the app for you." – Best Apps for Discovering New Places to Eat
"…sometimes there’s a colorful local restaurant just two miles off the highway that you would never have known about without the LocalEats app." – 26 Travel Apps That Will Change Your Life, The Perrin Report
"If the thought of eating at Applebee’s during your next business trip makes you feel uninspired, check out LocalEats." – The Best Apps for Business Travelers
"The app culls choices from dozens of cities in the United States and abroad to the essentials all based on media reviews and diners’ recommendations." – Top Travel Apps
It’s 6:30. You’ve had a hard day. Your hotel room is nothing fancy, but it’s clean and quiet and the mattress is comfortable. You need to review your notes for your meeting tomorrow, but first you want to eat—after a day during which you had no time for breakfast and only an airline sandwich for lunch, you’re famished. But how do you find a decent meal in a city you’ve never visited before?
In our first edition, we answered this question, and others like, "Where is the best place to go with kids?" and "What's the best place to take a business client?" Today, there are other restaurant guides, but most of them don’t take into account that people travel to cities smaller than New York and Los Angeles. Others are geared more toward the gourmet in search of the ultimate farm-to-table experience than the average traveler caught in Detroit overnight. And, whatever they say, those “crowd-sourcing” sites are no more useful than the Yellow Pages, with half the amateur critics awarding 5 stars and the other half one star…to the same restaurant. How is this helpful?
Over 20 years the publishing industry has changed, and so have we. In 2008 we launched LocalEats, a mobile version of our books. The LocalEats app for iOS and Android continues to be one of the top dining and travel apps available. We hope you find them useful, wherever you may roam.
LocalEats for iPhone and Android takes advantage of the newest technologies to deliver content, but our methodology remains strictly “old school”. All our Top 10 picks, category winners, and selections throughout our website and apps were chosen by our devoted editorial and research staff. And, although we’re a fan of social media, crowd sourcing for a place to eat is simply not our style. We believe that readers would rather rely on authoritative opinions – those of travel writers, restaurant critics, respected bloggers, and food editors – rather than anonymous web posts.