Zest, a Restaurant Discovery App Using Linked Credit Card Data, Launches Publicly After Beta

Zest, a restaurant discovery app, launched to the public after operating in beta since its founding in November 2024. The app links users' credit cards through Plaid to import food and drink transactions, excluding fast-casual and fast food, and builds a personal dining map from the data. 8 million in pre-seed funding from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures.

In the weeks after launch, Zest recorded over 100,000 visits. Users can follow friends or creator-curated profiles to see restaurant suggestions in their city or while traveling. The app also draws on more than 80 million reviews from sources including the Michelin guide and Reddit to refine its suggestions.

Mario Gomez-Hall, co-founder of Zest and former Head of Design at Saturn, which exited to Snap, said the transaction-based approach surfaces places people actually visit repeatedly. “Our approach with Zest, by doing it via verified dining spend, we actually think that we surface more places that are actually interesting.

Instead of it being about social posturing and sharing that you went to this Michelin star restaurant or that.

It’s actually more about your regulars and the spots that are the ‘hole in the wall’ — the burrito spot that you love and is dependable. And we surface that because we see the frequency and the spend,” Gomez-Hall said. Gomez-Hall previously founded Cymbal, a music-focused startup, and is based in the San Francisco Bay area after graduating from Tufts University.

Alex Moller serves as Zest’s technical co-founder. This month, Zest will add a feature allowing users to write freeform notes about a place, such as reservation tips or recommended dishes. The company is also preparing a “Fresh Picks” feature modeled on Spotify’s Discovery Weekly that will suggest new restaurants similar to those a user has visited.