With iOS 6, your personal virtual assistant, Siri can now help you find restaurants and even book tables. You will need the OpenTable app from the App Store to complete your reservations, but Siri do a lot of the heavy lifting, including finding places and times, and showing you Yelp-powered reviews and pictures.
- How to search for different types of restaurants with Siri
- How to get reviews for restaurants with Siri
- How to get pricing, hours, and learn more about restaurants with Siri
- How to make restaurant reservations with Siri
- How to get directions to a restaurant with Siri
How to download Yelp and OpenTable
To get the most out of Siri's new restaurant assistant services, you need to download a couple of extra apps from the App Store. Yelp allows you to see more restaurant reviews, and access reviews from more places. OpenTable lets you complete reservations and book your spot at restaurants. Both are free.
- Free - Yelp - Download now
- Free - OpenTable - Download now
Once they're installed, you're ready to go.
How to search for different types of restaurants with Siri
No matter what kind of cuisine you're in the mood for, if there's a restaurant in the area that serves it, Siri can help you find it. Whether you're planning a trip and aren't sure what restaurants are in the area of your destination city or simply want to find new places to dine in your home area, just ask Siri.
- Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri "Find Asian restaurants near me." or "Find Italian restaurants in San Francisco, CA."
- Wait for Siri to bring up the restaurant widget.
- Tap on the name of any restaurant in the list to get more information on it.
Unfortunately, Siri isn't great at recognizing restaurants with other-language names. For example, if Siri is set to English, it has trouble with restaurant names that are Italian, French, Greek, etc. Which, depending on where you live, can be a lot of restaurants. This means you're usually better of simply asking Siri simply to search for restaurants nearby or in a specific area, and then tapping on the one you want.
How to get restaurant reviews with Siri
If you already have an idea where you want to go, but want to see what others have thought about it first, Siri can bring you all the reviews you need, straight from Yelp.
- Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri to "Show reviews for Oriental Pearl in Michigan City, IN." or "Find restaurant reviews for Big Bowl."
- Siri will sometimes find more than one match. Tap the name of the restaurant you want. If there's only one match, you may see a map come up with reviews above it. Tap on the Reviews part.
- You will be taken to the Yelp! app to view reviews.
How to get pricing, hours, and learn more about restaurants with Siri
Once you know where you're going, you might still want to know things like operating hours, price range, or even contact information. All you have to do is ask.
- Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.
- Tell Siri to "Show me information on Red Lobster in Michigan City, IN." or "Find information on Maxine's Restaurant."
- Wait for Siri to bring up a list of restaurants.
- Tap on the restaurant you want to learn more about.
- Wait for Siri to present you with the restaurant information card.
You can tap on the picture stack at the top left to see Yelp photos of the restaurant. Next to the picture stack is the price range in dollar signs ($ for cheap, $$$$$ for expensive). Tapping the phone number will call the restaurant (if you're on an iPhone). Tapping the website address will take you to Safari and show you the site (if it's not stuck in 2005-era Flash). Tapping the map will take you to the restaurant location in the Maps app.
How to make restaurant reservations with Siri
- Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.
- If you know the restaurant name, you can say "Make a reservation at Bentwood Tavern." or "I need reservations at Quince at 8:30."
- Siri will then ask you for the time you'd like to make a reservation if you haven't already told her.
- Siri will then show you the availability and let you change or make edits to the reservation. Once you're done, just tap the Make Reservation button.
- OpenTable will launch and ask you to confirm or modify your reservation. That's it. You're done!
How to get directions to a restaurant with Siri
If you already know the name of the restaurant you'd like to go to but aren't sure how to get there, Siri can use Maps to help you find it.
- Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.
- Ask Siri something like "Get directions to Olive Garden in Chicago, IL." or "Give me directions to the Chinese restaurant that's closest to me."
- Siri will find what you're looking for and instantly launch you into the default Maps app and route you to the restaurant of your choice.
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