Today Urbanspoon, the leading mobile restaurant discovery application and reservation management system, launched Urbanspoon Guides, a new feature that allows diners to create personal lists of dining favorites, from the “Best Burger Joints” in LA to “Restaurants You Can Paddle To” in Seattle. The new Guides offer easily digestible content that helps diners quickly navigate restaurants in various cities while on the go. Whether on mobile or web, users can get quickly view the best restaurants through other users’ unique perspectives, without having to wade through pages and pages of user reviews.

“Users are continuing to move away from long-form reviews in favor of short-form feedback, and our new Guides enable people to create a snapshot of their favorite spots to grab a cheap bite, late night snack, or get gourmet fare,” Kara Nortman, Senior Vice President, Consumer Businesses at CityGrid Media says. “When restaurants are part of a particular guide, it very quickly tells users something about that restaurant, whether it is a celebrity chef’s favorite or has the best donuts in town. ”


In conjunction with the launch, some of the country’s top chefs—including Michael Mina, Bradley Ogden, Geoffrey Zakarian, Richard Blais, Kathy Casey, Thierry Rautureau and others – have created their own Guides to let Urbanspoon users know where they like to eat on their nights off. In addition, the Urbanspoon community in cities across the US is already busy creating Guides including its favored “Hidden Treasures” in Boston and the LA “Shabu Shabu Revolution,” with over 1,500 Guides immediately available at launch.

“Despite spending much of my time in the kitchen, I love trying new restaurants as often as possible,” Michael Mina, award-winning chef and restaurateur says. “My favorite restaurants exemplify cooking with bold, balanced flavor. It is always a joy for me to experience new techniques, flavor profiles and talents, and I am excited to be able to more easily share my discoveries with others.”