Forget the Spork, Try Urbanspoon

Yea yea, so there are plenty of websites out there that offer reviews, rankings and information on Houston restaurants. But the problem for Houstonist is that we have to go to more than one to get the information we want. We've finally discovered a website that we actually like. Check out Urbanspoon, a new website covering Houston area restaurants. Like the –ists, Urbanspoon covers many cities around the world. As one of the best food towns in the country, it makes sense for Urbanspoon to set roots in Houston. Though the restaurant review website may have been done and done and done again, Urbanspoon provides a few things that the others don’t. We love Urbanspoon for the information and ease of use, saving our poor little finger from overclickingitis. Click on a restaurant and you’ll see menus, published and blogged reviews, reader comments, an easy voting system, a map and a list of nearby restaurants. It sounds like a big cluttered mess but it’s quite visually pleasing and easy to navigate. The voting system is straight-forward – you either like it or you don’t. What's so hard about that?

There are two features in particular that tickle our taste and tech buds. One is their map of all the Houston restaurants lit up at night. It makes us a little woozy because there are so many little white dots that we've never been to before. The other is the “Dinner and a Movie” feature where you can click on a movie theatre and Urbanspoon brings up all the restaurants in the vicinity. Genius! Dinner and a movie just got easier.

And as all things internet related, you can make it your own by signing in to keep track of your favorites and your friends' favorites. Keep in mind, as you peruse the sight for your weekend grubbing, that Urbanspoon is relatively new to Houston so it will take some time and some readers to help boost comments on Houston's zillions of restaurants. And yes, that means we now have yet another reason to go out and eat.