And it’s not that gluten-free fish and chips don’t exist, either. They do! It’s all those other fish and chips restaurants clogging up your search results that make it time-consuming; we had to wade through pages of restaurants and read dozens of reviews before we found one that had a gluten-free option. The reality is that more than 30 million Americans have a food allergy, and many more have food sensitivities or food groups they avoid for health or ethical reasons. So while it’s definitely nice to have activities suggested to you based on your interests and hobbies, the real game-changer in this new feature is being able to filter your results based on your dietary restrictions. Personalized highlights within your search results will tell you if a restaurant has some (or many!) options that work with your dietary restrictions. Allowing people to “bypass sifting through menu photos and reviews to confirm if a restaurant has options for those who are gluten-free, halal, keto, kosher, pescatarian, vegan, or vegetarian,” according to Yelp. Let’s say you’re trying the keto diet. You can now adjust your settings so that places with plenty of keto-friendly options will appear and you won’t be tempted by photo after photo of high-carb meals; it also means that vegetarians won’t have to sort through dozens of BBQ places to find an establishment with a BBQ jackfruit sandwich. And yes, it means easy access to all the gluten-free fish-and-chips establishments in New York City for Lauren and me. According to the company’s news release, personalizing your account will only take a few minutes and is available for iOS users starting today. Just make sure you download the latest version of the app.
