Guys, if you never heard of it. A great website to use for restaurants is a place called Urban Spoon.
http://www.urbanspoon.com
They have thousands of listings for restaurants across the world (or in your area). You can look at reviews and some people upload pictures of food and you can view menus , etc. They also have an app for Blackberry/iPHONE and Android too. It is a must have for people who enjoy dining out.
Originally Posted by coast_encounter
And best of all: the smartphone app is FREE!
(Though it's ad supported; those of you who break into hives at the sight of ads in your app's UI should take note.)
IIRC, the app reads your location from the phone's GPS or location function (cell tower triangulation if you don't have the GPS on), and by default localizes itself to where you happen to be. Quite useful if you're traveling.
If you're feeling adventurous, the smartphone app has a "slot machine" function ("Shake" on my Android phone); basically you "pull the lever" (i.e., press the "SHAKE" button) and reels for area, type of cuisine, and price range ($ to $$$$) spin, randomly choosing a combination of the three factors and then spitting out a restaurant that meets those qualifications. If you're intent on a particular factor or two (say, you just want to restrict the area to "Downtown", or your price range or type of cuisine) you can choose one of the factors by scrolling the reel(s), then lock one or more of the reels before pressing the button.
It's a lot of fun. (In fairness, I should point out that reviews of the app in the Android Market have taken a hit; apparently the app was recently updated and the update apparently removed the "Search" function. I'm more of a browser than a searcher (and the app has a "Browse" function), so that doesn't bother me.)
IIRC, the website may have a similar (Java applet, I think) function. I rarely visit the website, because I use the Urbanspoon Android app just about constantly.
Cheers,
bcg