TASTORY
Food discovery built around people, not paid opinions.
01
THE PROBLEM
Food discovery has a trust problem: people can't tell genuine recommendations from paid promotion, so the reviews meant to help them no longer do. Local knowledge should count for more than paid hype.
02
THE IDEA
A people-first food discovery platform where real users share what's actually worth trying, starting in Kerala.
03
EXECUTION
I built the MVP in Flutter and Firebase. People can discover places near them, explore individual dishes, save favourites and read reviews from real users about what's worth trying. The hardest part was the design: keeping it simple enough for everyday use. One rule shapes the product: restaurants can promote newly launched dishes, but paying can never buy better reviews.
Technologies Used
04
OUTCOME
Validated on the ground before scaling. Across Kozhikode and Kochi, two of Kerala's biggest food districts, 30+ people described the same fatigue with review systems they no longer trust. Separately, 13 restaurant and cafe owners said existing platforms charge heavy commissions and hidden fees, and that they would move to a fairer alternative. The MVP is now built and in private testing.
- People surveyed in personas of 2026-09
- 30+
- Restaurant & cafe owners interviewedas of 2026-09
- 13
- Food districts covered on the groundas of 2026-09
- 2
05
LESSONS
“Building the product is only half the job. People need to know it exists.”