HOPPIT’S AMBIENCE SEARCH ENGINE FOR RESTAURANTS COMES TO THE IPHONE

Even in our age of Yelp and Google Places, finding the right restaurant can often be hard. In April, Hoppit launched its “ambiance search engine for restaurants” to make it easier to find a nice spot that fits not just your culinary preferences but also your mood. Today, after a bit of a delay, the company is launching its redesigned website and its iPhone app. Just like its website, the mobile app allows users to filter restaurants by mood, so you can easily find thathipster-friendly, romantic restaurant for yourdate. Another feature that makes the app stand out is that it also offers access to over 40,000 high-quality photos of restaurant interiors.

Sadly, the iPhone app currently only works in nine U.S. cities – New York, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Seattle, Austin, Dallas and Boston. The web version also offers recommendations in Portland and Chicago.

So far, Hoppit has used its “state-of-the-art natural language processing technology and related algorithms [that] take into account a consumer’s unique situation regarding atmosphere and accompanying guests” to analyze over 500,000 restaurants.

You simply tell the app what kind of restaurant you are looking for (classy, hipster, romantic etc.), who you are with (your colleagues, a date, friends or your 2-year-old toddler), what cuisine you are interested in and how much you want to spend. Hoppit then finds the restaurants that best match these descriptions. You can also filter restaurants by other factors, including noise level, neighborhood and whether local deals services like Groupon and Gilt City current offer a deal there.