Artificial Intelligence1 min read

Zest’s new AI agent finds restaurants and books reservations over text

By · Via TechCrunch · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The SMS concierge lets individuals and group chats request curated dining spots based on dietary restrictions, neighborhood, cuisine, or specific menus. It integrates directly with OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms to check table availability and confirm reservations natively inside the text conversation. For group outings, the tool combines tastes from multiple participants and generates an in-thread voting feature to reach a consensus. Founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall plans to monetize transactions through these bookings and future food-ordering capabilities.

Key points

  • Connecting transaction history through Plaid allows the AI to tailor dining suggestions t…: Connecting transaction history through Plaid allows the AI to tailor dining suggestions to real-world spending patterns.
  • Group chat functionality streamlines dining decisions by merging preferences and supplyin…: Group chat functionality streamlines dining decisions by merging preferences and supplying an integrated voting tool.
  • Future expansion plans include adding food-ordering features and extending recommendation…: Future expansion plans include adding food-ordering features and extending recommendation capabilities to retail shopping and other businesses.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Zest, the restaurant discovery app that launched earlier this year, is already thinking about a future where mobile apps are no longer the primary interface. On Thursday, the startup introduced a new feature: a personal AI-powered “restaurant concierge” that lives in your text messages, similar to other popular AI agents like Instinct or Poke.

The launch reflects a broader shift in how startups are thinking about AI, as conversational AI agents take on tasks that had previously required users to launch standalone mobile apps. For Zest, that means bringing its restaurant recommendations into texts, then allowing users to immediately take the next step of booking a table.

“The agent is the product now,” explains Zest founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall. “You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends’. It doesn’t need weeks of conversation to learn you because it starts from where you’ve actually been,” he said.

Originally founded in November 2024, with $1.8 million in pre-seed backing from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, the app’s unique feature is that…

Artificial Intelligence