For years, whenever I traveled around NYC (or the rest of the world), I depended on Yelp to pull up quick hit-lists of places to eat, drink, grab coffee, etc. But in the more recent past, the taste level and discourse of Yelp reviewers seems to have swung down to YouTube-commenter levels. (Relatedly illustrative piece of techno-art: this mashup of the most recent comments from YouTube alongside the most recent comments from Metafilter’s faithfully erudite community.)

Over the same time, however, I started seeing Google search results for bars’ and restaurants’ Foursquare pages. While Foursquare initially launched as a way for people to ‘check in’ at venues (and thereby see if friends might be checked in somewhere nearby), over a decade of use, the app developed an impressive database of reviews and venue-specific tips. About two years ago, Foursquare spun out the check-in functionality to an entirely separate app, Swarm. Foursquare, in turn, became simply a search-engine for places. Based on the quality of the search results I’d been stumbling across, I re-downloaded Foursquare on my phone, and it’s now become my first-pass go-to when trying to pull up a list of spots nearby, whether to find a new restaurant, or to jog my memory about bars I’d visited drunkenly years back and since forgot.

In parallel to Yelp-ing, I’d also long depended on Zagat for more focused restaurant reviews. But once the company was acquired by Google, the whole thing seemed to sort of fall apart. So, instead, I switched over to LocalEats, whose listings of restaurants beloved by local professional reviewers would invariably align with the stuff I already liked in areas I knew well. Because LocalEats skewed towards well-established spots, I also regularly checked in on Eater, to keep up with the cool and new.

A few months ago, however, I discovered the Infatuation. As they put it:

You know the trusted friends you turn to when you need a restaurant suggestion? That’s us. We aren’t “professional” food critics, meaning you won’t hear any pretentious foodie hobnob from us. We also aren’t restaurant industry insiders, nor do we accept invites, comped meals, or solicited reservations. Ever. What we are is a website and mobile app [started] by two guys who wanted to help their friends find not only great restaurants, but the right restaurant to suit their needs on a particular evening. That’s still what The Infatuation is built on today.

With a great new app, The Infatuation has become the second half of my one-two punch (alongside Foursquare) when trying to figure out where to head off to eat.

I highly recommend downloading both apps – The Infatuation and Foursquare – and using them to do the same.