This means that local independent restaurants in just about every state and every major city are now available for Diningverse patrons to explore and leave recommendations.

We were able to get all these great restaurants and their menus on Diningverse as a result of working with our good friends at OpenMenu™ that absolutely rock. The restaurant info and menus were all imported from the OpenMenu format (OMF) that allows us and anyone else on the Internet to exchange up-to-date restaurant data.

At the moment, we have just completed a batch import and we are getting ready to add additional great local restaurants to Diningverse as they are added to OpenMenu™. Also, shortly all the OMF menus will be regularly updated. In turn, every restaurant that is maintaining their Diningverse restaurant website and menu will be added to OpenMenu™ repository.

Stay tuned for more incredible features we are working on that will take full advantage of OMF.

Or, maybe they do know, but couldn’t find a better or more convenient way to post their menus. Anything available out there is either hard to use or they have to compromise on what and how they can include in the menu.

That’s why we set out to design and develop the best Menu Editor yet.

Hold on, that’s quite a bold claim. Yes it is, so let me back that claim up.

We have been working with dozens of independent restaurant owners that use Diningverse and we derived the new functionality and ease of use from feedback based on their experience. They told us what they liked and what they hated. What they liked, we made even better and easier to use. What they hated, we either eliminated or reworked from scratch.

The structure of the new menus is closely based on the OpenMenu™ format and there is a very good reason for that. Very soon, Diningverse is going to become one of the initial OpenMenu™ registrars (more about that later), so we have been working closely with our good friend Chris Hanscom from OpenMenu™ to make sure that our new Menu Editor is in line with OpenMenu™ format.

Diningverse will make every menu available in OpenMenu™ format and submit to OpenMenu™ to log the menus and distribute the information to a network of restaurant based websites, mobile applications and web applications. When Diningverse restaurants update their menus, everyone, everywhere, gets the update.

A little taste of what it is all about

You start with one, two or however many menus you want. You can add descriptions, set the time when the menus are available for patrons and order the menus.

Then, you add sections to a menu. Craft a nice description for your sections and add section options. You know, when you have a Salads section and you want to let your patrons know what kinds of dressings they can ask for.

Now comes the best part. You need to add the actual menu items. The sandwiches, omeletes, soups and such. It should be easy and quick to do so… and it is!

Now you’ve got your menu items added. But wait, there is all kind of details about each and every menu item. There is the description, multiple sizes with different prices, various options and variations and even calories. No problem!

Alright, the menus are setup. Menu items added and tweaked to perfection. So how are the menus going to actually look like on your website?

Everything is nicely positioned and meticulously styled. The website visitors will experience a kind of inner peace and pleasure while exploring your offerings. And isn’t that what you want?

Now that you checked out the screenshots, time to see it in action…

It’s no surprise that this excellent restaurant is by far the most recommended in Erie. When you read the recommendations on the restaurant’s Diningverse website, you’ll see a common thread. The food is great and the service is prompt and friendly. Here is a quote from Michael J. Houston’s recent recommendation: “Most kids beg their parents for McDonalds, ours constantly beg us to go to Latino’s. During the four years we have lived in Erie, we have dined at Latino’s several times and have never been disappointed.” And that’s just the beginning. You need to read the entire recommendation to really appreciate the passion Latino’s patrons have for this restaurant.

There is, however, one another important element to reaching 50 recommendations at Diningverse. The restaurant owner and staff simply need to ask for the recommendation! What can be simpler? Most of you know that there is no better advertising than ‘Word of Mouth’ or in the recent years  the ‘Word of Mouse’. Diningverse provides recommendation cards for all restaurants that setup their website on Diningverse. All that need’s to be done is hand out the the recommendation cards to happy patrons and ask for the recommendation.

This is something that Julio Reyes, the owner and manager of Latino’s, understands very well. Just asking for a recommendation can make a tremendous difference. And in the case of Latino’s Restaurant, the result is a staggering 50 recommendations and #1 restaurant in Erie, PA, with Lorie’s  Wildridge Restaurant in second place with 20 recommendations (trailing by 20 recommendations). It’s safe to say that Julio has the #1 spot in Erie locked up for a nice while.

So, congratulations are in order to Julio and his family (which also makes most of the staff). Keep up the great service and continue bringing smiles on your patron’s faces.

10,000 restaurants now on Diningverse

We are excited to see Diningverse grow this fast thanks to all our great patrons. The Diningverse team has some really great new features prepared and will be adding shortly.