Agents · 2026-10-30

Zest: AI helper in text messages finds restaurants and books tables

The Zest restaurant app now works through regular text messages: its AI picks places, helps groups vote, and books a table.

✨ What's new

The restaurant discovery app Zest has launched an AI helper you can chat with directly in text messages. Before, you had to open a separate app. Now you just write to it in a chat.

The helper suggests places based on cuisine, mood, occasion, dietary restrictions, or neighborhood. You can also ask whether a place is busy or has Wi-Fi, and ask it to send the menu.

📌 How it works

To start, text the number (212) 470-6067. The helper can also be added to a group chat. It then takes everyone's tastes into account, suggests options, can run a vote right in the chat, and books a table for the whole group.

Bookings go through OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms, which Zest is connected to. According to the article, Zest finds places to book through these services.

🔹 How it learns your tastes

To make suggestions, Zest connects to the user's credit card. Through the service Plaid, the app sees purchases, but only uses transactions in food and drink categories. It builds a map and lists of places that may appeal to the user.

This personalization requires access to spending data. Before connecting a card, it is worth checking what permissions the app asks for.

🔸 What the test showed

TechCrunch tested the helper. It said the AI worked fairly well at suggesting new places that matched its conditions, such as time of day, party size, location, and other factors. Finding open tables is something other apps have offered for years, but texting back and forth about options and getting booking times is convenient.

The article does not say which cities or countries the service already works in.

Sources: 🔗 TechCrunch — AI