One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date.

It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course.

Think of the possibilities:

- Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper

- Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility

- Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout

I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.

it'd be nice to be able to actually just click on a restaurant listing in the map rather than having to search for it.

also, happy hour options might make sense -- maybe some way to filter out (or see) results that are only available during a happy hour. Users could check "happy hour item" and enter the times for the happy hour.

finally, if people enter cheap items that aren't large enough to be a "meal" (like one taco for $3.50) this might become less useful.

I don't like giving my location, zip code should be good enough. I think if I tap List it kind of works but not really. I'm in SoCal for what it's worth.

That said, kneejerk after using it is: price is a challenging anchor, because food is not uniform. I’d be curious if users are more interested in “under $10, ignoring all else” or “a better deal than comparable” - though, there’s a lot of subjectivity in that.

Gasbuddy works because 1 gallon of gas = 1 gallon of gas, so price is a useful anchor.

$5 for sushi at one place could be a bad deal, while a great deal at another place.

An $8 steak would be cheap. An $8 hot dog would be a ripoff.

I’d be skeptical of restaurants luring people with a single cheap item, or about quality/portion changes.

All this said, Ikea is known for designing furniture _around_ the price their target customer thinks a table should cost. Restaurants are likely (hopefully!) aware of where these price thresholds are for their customers … and your site could be an interesting way of sending them a different type of customer than they’d historically targeted. Or, allow them to refine an offering to maximize profit at the $10 price point.

As others have said, engage restaurants and make them part of the equation. They’re not your adversary.

In short: cool! Do lots of experiments and research!

Have you thought about either some guidance, or even a filter, for meal size?

- $9.99 (slob food that much cheaper if you bought it from any grocery store)

- $5.99 delivery

- $7.99 tip

- $2.99 service fee

- sales tax on all that

Total: ~$30.

It would be great to somehow either

- Get to the map from a city list

- refine the city to a neighborhood level

They should add the cost of future open heart surgery to the cheap meal.