Review: MenuMania

Available Now!

Well folks, released on September 10th, MenuMania.co.nz has now been accepted into the appstore. We had a chance to play with it over the weekend and here’s what we think….

Upon entering the app you are taken to the search screen where you can enter your search term (i.e. cuisine, restaurant name or dish name). You also set the locality of the search and you can choose to use “Near Me” which uses your current location from the built-in GPS or you can specify where you would like to search by switching the “Near Me” off and entering a location.

Select location

or use 'Near Me'

The results are displayed in a list with the name, address review rating and number of reviews and they are listed in the order of closest first.

Which one shall I choose?

If you tap on one of the results you are given more information about your selection (‘Listings’ page). There is quite a bit of info given (assuming the info has been submitted to the site) including price range, opening hours, parking details, payment methods, wheelchair access, outdoor dining, byo and more.

mmmm burritos

From here you can view photos, read reviews check the location on a map or share with a friend via email.

Looking good

If you choose to look at the location on the map it shows you a basic map but you can press the “Maps” button and you will be taken to the Maps App where it will drop a pin on the locations so you can do the usual maps stuff like get directions.

More details in maps app

Generally the app works really well and ‘does what it says on the tin’ but there is a lot of scope for improvement and additional features.

There are some formatting issues with text whereby it resizes the text to fit the box instead of it increasing the size of the box to fit the text.

formatting issues

When you close the app it takes you back to the search page upon re-opening it, I think I would prefer it to take me back to my results.

I would like to be able to drop a pin in maps for all restaurants from my selection so I can see which ones are near me or where they are.

As the site relies  on user information it would be good to see an update allowing users to upload information from the app, reviews, photos etc. This is an obvious inclusion using the built in GPS and camera.

Overall I really like the simplicity and clean layout of the app. It’s free to download so well worth a try. Can it compete with the likes of Yellow or Zenbu? Well, this is more of a specialised app for dining out , with a few updates and added features then yes I think it can.

If you spot any bugs or have ideas/requests for features that are not listed – please email: iphone@menumania.co.nz