Short answer: Zest, the restaurant discovery app, launched an AI restaurant concierge on 29 October 2026 that lives in your text messages. You text (212) 470-6067 and it suggests places based on where you and your friends actually eat, answers questions, sends menus and books your table through OpenTable, Resy or SevenRooms. It also works in group chats, with a built-in vote.

By Agent Playbox Editorial · Published · Updated

Zest AI concierge: book restaurants with one text

Key facts

What did Zest launch on 29 October 2026?

Zest, the restaurant discovery app that launched publicly earlier this year, introduced a personal AI “restaurant concierge” on Thursday, 29 October 2026 that lives in your text messages (TechCrunch). TechCrunch places it in the same family as popular texting agents such as Instinct and Poke, with one big difference: Zest is focused entirely on one everyday question, where should we eat tonight?

“The agent is the product now,” founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall told TechCrunch. “You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends’.” Zest had been testing the concierge since September but held the launch until it could also book tables, so the whole job, from idea to reservation, now happens in one thread (TechCrunch).

How does the Zest AI concierge work?

Just send a text

You text the concierge at (212) 470-6067 and ask for ideas by cuisine, craving, occasion, dietary needs or neighbourhood. You can also ask follow-up questions, such as how busy a place tends to be or whether it has Wi-Fi, and have Zest send you the menu before you decide (TechCrunch). Zest’s own site shows prompts like date night, birthday dinner, Sunday brunch, quick takeout and group drinks, all “in one text” (Zest).

Picks based on where you really go

What makes Zest different is where its taste profile comes from. In the Zest app you can link a card through Plaid, and every restaurant, café and bar you visit is added to your personal map. Zest says access is read-only, only food and drink transactions come through, and it never shows what you spent; you can also skip the card and add places by hand (Zest). Recommendations are further informed by more than 80 million reviews gathered from across the web, from guides like Michelin to everyday tips (TechCrunch). Because it starts from real visits, Gomez-Hall says Zest “doesn’t need weeks of conversation to learn you” (TechCrunch).

Booking in the same thread

Once you like an option, Zest can check availability and make the reservation for you through connected services OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms (TechCrunch). In TechCrunch’s tests the agent worked fairly well, suggesting new places matched to the tester’s taste that also fit the time of day, party size and location, and replying with available booking times (TechCrunch).

How does Zest work in group chats?

Group dinners are where the concierge really shines. You can drop Zest into a group chat, where it blends everyone’s tastes to find places the whole group will love, settles indecision with an in-thread vote and then books a table for everyone without anyone leaving the conversation (TechCrunch). That fits the app’s original promise of “no more ‘where should we eat’ in the group chat” (Zest).

If you like this way of planning, our restaurant and appointment booking use case and the social secretary and dinner planner templates show how to get similar help from general-purpose agents.

How much does Zest cost and where does it work?

Zest has not published a price for the text concierge. Gomez-Hall said booking and ordering are the company’s first revenue lines: tables are booked through OpenTable or Resy today, with food ordering coming next (TechCrunch). The concierge number is a New York (212) number; which countries and cities it covers is not stated, so treat availability outside the US as unknown.

The Zest map app is available on iPhone and Android (Zest). Zest’s site lists more than 250,000 verified visits on the app (Zest), and the company hopes texting will help it grow beyond its initial thousands of users (TechCrunch).

Who is behind Zest?

Zest was founded in November 2024 and has USD 1.8 million in pre-seed funding from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures (TechCrunch). Co-founder Mario Gomez-Hall was previously head of design at the social calendaring app Saturn, and technical co-founder Alex Moller brings experience from Apple and other tech companies (TechCrunch).

WIRED called the app a “spiritual successor to Foursquare” when it rolled out, noting that Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley was among its beta testers (WIRED).

How does Zest compare with Poke and Instinct?

Poke and Instinct are general personal agents you text for almost anything, from email to errands (Poke; Fortune). Zest takes the opposite approach: a specialist that does one job, restaurants, and does it from your verified dining history rather than from a long chat about your preferences.

That makes the three a natural mix rather than rivals: a general agent for your day, a specialist for dinner plans. See Zest vs Poke and Zest vs Instinct for side-by-side facts, or browse more personal AI agents in our directory.

What should you watch next?

Zest says food ordering is on the way and that it is considering moving beyond restaurants to recommend businesses, shopping and more (TechCrunch). “Zest learns your taste faster than a general assistant does, because it starts from where you’ve actually been instead of asking you questions. That’s worth something well beyond dinner,” Gomez-Hall said (TechCrunch).

Things to watch: pricing for the concierge, which cities it covers, and how fast ordering arrives. We will keep the Zest profile up to date, and you can follow other texting agents such as Sundae in our news section.

Timeline: how did we get here?

Agent snapshot: what do we know so far?

Facts below come from the agent profiles in our directory, each linked to its source.

Zest at a glance

Full Zest profile

Poke at a glance

Full Poke profile

Instinct at a glance

Full Instinct profile

Related comparisons and guides

Agents in this story

Zest

personal agent

An AI restaurant concierge you text like a friend: it recommends places from where you and your friends actually eat, answers questions and sends menus, checks availability and books your table, and can join a group chat to blend everyone's tastes and run a vote.

Poke

personal agent

Proactive assistant on iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram with many integrations

Instinct

personal agent

Personal assistant you text or call; it uses a phone and computer the way people do to handle everyday tasks.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Zest AI concierge?

It is a personal AI restaurant concierge from the Zest app that you text. It recommends restaurants based on your real dining history and your friends', answers questions and books tables. It launched on 29 October 2026.

How do I use Zest?

Text (212) 470-6067 with what you are craving, the occasion or the neighbourhood. You can also add Zest to a group chat to pick a place together.

Which booking services does Zest use?

Zest checks availability and books through OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms.

How much does Zest cost?

Zest has not published a price for the concierge. The company says booking and food ordering are its first revenue lines.

Does Zest see my spending?

Zest says card access through Plaid is read-only, only food and drink visits come through and it never shows what you spent. Linking a card is optional.

Sources

Updated