Zest Maps, a new restaurant discovery app, launched for iOS users in May 2026, automatically logging dining visits by tracking credit card transactions and using AI to recommend nearby food spots based on a user’s history.
The app was created by founder Mario Gomez-Hall, who describes it as a “spiritual successor to Foursquare” — the GPS-based social check-in app that gained popularity around 2010. Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley has been testing the beta version and currently tops the app’s user leaderboard with over 1,000 visits logged.
Zest’s core feature connects to a user’s bank account via Plaid — the same platform used by services like Google Wallet and Wealthfront — to detect restaurant and café visits. The app’s AI tools then build a personalized map of nearby dining recommendations, complete with photos and descriptions. Card linking is optional, and the app only analyzes food and drink transactions. Users can also control who sees their visits and delete any logged entry.
The social layer surfaces new restaurants friends are visiting, but only flags a first visit to any given spot, avoiding repeated notifications about the same location. Chain restaurants are largely filtered out in favor of independent dining experiences.
Gomez-Hall’s own profile illustrates the app’s functionality: his 966 logged visits break down across categories including café, bakery, Thai, pizza, and Japanese, with saved lists of spots he wants to try locally and while traveling. When a friend visits a saved restaurant, it surfaces on the user’s Zest Map.
Android support is not yet available. Gomez-Hall says the app is intended to complement existing platforms rather than compete directly with Google or Yelp, with a focus on food discovery and tracking within a niche user base. “A niche network is maybe even more valuable, in a lot of ways, because you have such a focused user base,” he said.
Source: WIRED