While still in alpha, the SF-based restaurant and dish finder Clooch is a helpful new local food guide whose pro and con breakout provides quick visual understanding. Husband and wife team Gene and Yelena Drabkin started the site when they thought that user review sites were too clogged with “who cares” information (according to Gene, “the amount of user reviews [and] review sites is growing exponentially while the amount of time people have to process the information stays the same if not decreases.”) Their response? Clooch aggregates restaurant reviews from Yelp, OpenTable and Citysearch while identifying relevant review snippets–and publishing only those portions deemed meaningful to diners. For fans of certain dishes, say tom yum soup or eggplant parmesan (may be ready to nosh over here), the popularity and user opinion criteria make for a quicker way to choose where to eat than browsing reviews. Nationwide rollout to follow.
