On Thursday, restaurant discovery app Zest debuted a personal AI restaurant concierge operating entirely within text messages. The startup launched this new feature to let users handle dining recommendations and table reservations directly through text instead of opening a standalone mobile application.
"The agent is the product now," stated Zest 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."
Established in November 2024 with $1.8 million in pre-seed funding from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, Zest connects to user credit cards to monitor dining habits. Financial services company Plaid imports this data, and Zest filters strictly for food and drink transactions to build customized maps and lists for local dining or travel.
The new messaging tool addresses restaurant selection by bringing recommendations into a text thread and using artificial intelligence to verify availability and secure bookings via OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms. Users text the Zest concierge at (212) 470-606-7. The system functions inside group chats by combining multiple user preferences, resolving indecision with a voting feature, and booking tables without exiting the chat.
Customers can request suggestions using criteria such as cuisine, specific cravings, occasions, dietary restrictions, or neighborhoods. They can also inquire about crowd levels, Wi-Fi availability, and view menus. Following last month's initial testing, the company delayed the public release until reservation capabilities were ready and plans to eventually expand recommendations into retail and other businesses.
"Booking and ordering are the first revenue lines. Zest books your table through OpenTable or Resy today, with food ordering coming, and there are transactions there to participate in," Gomez-Hall noted. "The reason that gets interesting is that 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."
