Zest launches text-based AI concierge that finds and books restaurants

Zest, the restaurant discovery app, has introduced a personal AI "restaurant concierge" that works through text messages, similar to other AI agents like Instinct or Poke. The move reflects a wider shift among startups toward conversational AI that handles tasks once requiring a standalone app.

For Zest, that means bringing restaurant recommendations into texts and letting users book a table right away. "The agent is the product now," said founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall. "You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends'. It doesn't need weeks of conversation to learn you because it starts from where you've actually been."

Founded in November 2024 with $1.8 million in pre-seed backing from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, Zest links to users' credit cards to track where they actually eat, then makes tailored suggestions for their city or for travel. Card data is imported through Plaid, and Zest says it focuses only on food and drink transactions when building personalized maps and lists.

Users text the concierge at (212) 470-6067. Zest can also join group chats, blend everyone's tastes, settle indecision with an in-thread vote and book a table without leaving the conversation. It can check availability and reserve through services like OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms, and answer questions about cuisine, dietary restrictions, neighborhood, how busy a place is or whether it has Wi-Fi. In TechCrunch's tests, the AI worked fairly well, matching suggestions to tastes and conditions like time of day, party size and location.

The company tested the concierge last month but held the launch until booking capabilities were ready. Over time, Zest is considering expanding beyond restaurants to recommendations for businesses and shopping. By shifting to texts, it hopes to scale beyond its initial thousands of users and generate revenue. "Booking and ordering are the first revenue lines," Gomez-Hall said, adding that Zest learns your taste faster than a general assistant because it starts from where you've actually been.