Yelp to include user-generated food porn in menus

31 Oct 2012

Finally, a use for all those Instagrammed meals. Food porn enthusiasts will be happy to know that Yelp now plans to include users’ photos of culinary delights as part of its menus for listed restaurants and eateries.

This update, combining menus with Yelp reviews and photos uploaded by users, began rolling out to business pages in the US yesterday.

There’s no word yet on when and if the service will be introduced in other markets, but Yelp is encouraging users to note what they had from the menu in any restaurant reviews and include photos and captions as much as possible – after all, this added service will only be widely useful if enough Yelpers contribute content.

A visual feast

An ‘Explore the Menu’ link on relevant business pages will bring users to a dedicated menu page listing the dishes and their prices. The number of reviews mentioning each dish is also listed, as is the number of photos, while a ‘What’s Popular Here?’ section shows the menu items that Yelpers are raving about.

Yelp menu screenshot

Clicking through on whatever takes their fancy on the menu, users will be brought to a page for that dish, displaying the relevant images and reviews.

Yelp menu screenshot

These new menu pages will be available on the Yelp website (which, as you can see from the screenshots has been given a spooky makeover for the day that’s in it), mobile site and mobile app – the first time a Yelp update has hit all platforms at once.

Food image via Shutterstock

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com