Must-Have iPhone/iPad Foodie Apps for Cheap Eats

This week, I’ve been hunting for more foodie apps for my iPad. Foodspotting, Open Table and Zagat have been so helpful in terms of finding best dishes and restaurants in NYC. But, i think it is not enough in terms of discovering “cheap eats” around the city. I am pretty sure there are some delicious deals out there that I can use for my budget. Like Groupon for food, perhaps? Apparently, Scout Mob will uncover these deals for you from near by restaurants. How convenient is that? Don’t get thrilled yet. I have found a second app to accompany Scout Mob. If you are a huge fan of food truck, you’ll find this app very useful. I thought I could only find food trucks in LA, but apparently, it’s easy to discover one here in Manhattan with this app. It’s called Tweat.it. Both of these apps are originally an iPhone app, but these will also work on iPad.

1. Scout Mob:
“Mobile deals for the local serious.” – Scout Mob

Scout Mob clearly lives up to its statement above. For a foodie and local serious like me, I am excited to use Scout Mob to uncover nearby deals. After I finished with the installation, I straight away give this app a try. I gave a permission for the app to use my current location. Within seconds, many deals popped up. These deals are coming mostly from the local bars, wine bars or cafes at your nearby location. Currently, Scout Mob is serving 20 major cities in the United States, including New York, los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Boston. If you are looking for some good cheap eats, this app will definitely be an excellent choice. Most of the deals are 50% to 100% off. Looking at the restaurants that are participating with this app, all of them seem to have tasteful ambiance and inviting atmosphere. Also, the Scout Mob team has added little handwritten captions around every picture to display their personal thoughts. It’s pretty cute. Although I am not a fan of local cafe/bar, this app has changed my perception. I want to try some!

If you are scared of missing a deal while you are at school or at work (where you have no access to your phone), you can access Scout Mob through your computer. Just go to its website, insert your email address, and you will get a reminder every time a new deal pops up around your location. Then, you can share it with your friends through Facebook and Twitter. How convenient is that? I am loving it. Just like what I said before, it’s Groupon for food.

If you are a local business and want to participate on Scout Mob, you can see reviews from other local business who already participated. These reviews are in the form of videos. It’s pretty detailed and easy to follow. Therefore, as a new participant, you will build a certain connection with these established users. You will see the benefits that they gained and hopefully you will earn the same benefits. Overall, Scout Mob has benefited both from personal and business aspects of consumers. Both foodie and local food businesses can enjoy and participate on the features of Scout Mob.

2. Tweat.it
“The coolest way to find a mobile food vendor near you in NYC.” – Tweat.it

From the name alone, Tweat.it reminds me of Twitter. But, looking through at the features that the app provided, Tweat.it clealry behave similarly like Twitter. It provides you with tweets from food trucks around Manhattan area. These tweets will contain any information regarding the food trucks’ open hours, locations and even job openings. It is pretty handy in terms of the bipolarity of New York weather at this time. I mean it’s winter, anything can happen. These food trucks might move location or close early due to the weather conditions. As a result, Tweat.it will keep us informed.

After I installed the application, I straight away put in my current location. Within seconds, five to six food trucks popped up. I was surprised that one of them is actually my favorite waffle place. Then, I clicked on its logo and the waffle truck’s info popped up. It says:

“De Carts: De Bierbeek is on Columbus Circle by Time Warner Center until 9:58” – De Carts.

Now, I know that they will stay open until roughly 10 p.m. tonight. Pretty accurate, I presumed. I would probably try going there after class and see whether or not they are still open. I am so excited!

On the other hand, if you access Tweat.it through your computer, you will see the trucks’ live tweets on the side bar following the food map in the middle. It’s pretty easy to use. In this case, you don’t need to sign up for anything. You just need to provide your current location.

This app surely will bring the unknown food trucks to be known. Especially, with the live tweets feature, you can easily follow your favorite food trucks on Twitter. Then, you can share their tweets with your followers to spread the brand awareness of these food trucks. You can also be writing about their food reviews. So, you are not only a foodie like me, but you can easily be a food critic. With lots of social media interactions through this app, I am sure that a lot more food trucks will be participating and Tweat.it will be more popular among the New Yorkers.

Conclusion

Both Scout Mob and Tweat.it have clearly impacted the small, local food businesses in Manhattan and other major cities in the United States. By participating in these apps, these businesses have created some sort of “advertisement” within the local market that may lead to an increasing diners traffic at their restaurants. Eventually, looking at their success, many will follow their foot steps. At the end, it’s proven how you don’t need to be a big player like Groupon or Living Social to provide the best deals in town. You can be the underdog and still adapting to its concept. Although Scout Mob is currently the underdog in terms of food deals, I believe that there is a huge possibility for it to grow in near future. Similarly to Tweat.it, perhaps it may expand to another major city in the United States. Based on my past experiences living in LA, the city of angels can be the next great candidate for Tweat.it. Due to the large amount of food trucks’ participants, I believe that many LA foodies and local businesses will gain as much benefits as those who reside in NYC.