Zest AI agent

Deciding where to eat with friends usually involves juggling multiple apps, scrolling through endless menus, and mediating endless back-and-forth in a group thread. Restaurant discovery startup Zest wants to eliminate that friction entirely by moving the entire experience directly into your SMS inbox.

Unlike general conversational chatbots that require users to answer lengthy questionnaires to figure out what they like, Zest takes a data-first approach. Backed by pre-seed funding from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 and Steve Jang’s Kindred Ventures, the service connects to user payment histories via Plaid to build personal taste profiles from past dining and bar transactions.

Because it starts with verified dining habits, queries like "somewhere lively for four on Friday" return spot-on suggestions right away.

Ending Group Chat Stalemate

The concierge’s biggest draw is how it functions in group settings:

• Blended Group Taste: Add the agent to a group thread, and it pools each person's culinary preferences and dietary restrictions to surface options that suit everyone.

• In-Thread Voting: It can trigger live polls inside the chat to resolve indecision quickly.

• Direct Booking: Once a spot is picked, the agent queries live inventory across reservation networks—including OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms—and books the table without requiring anyone to open another app.

Why SMS?

For founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall, meeting diners in their native messaging app represents the future of consumer AI interfaces: “The agent is the product now.”

Skipping dedicated downloads avoids app fatigue. By embedding the tool into group texts where social plans naturally begin, every dinner plan doubles as organic distribution—putting the AI directly in front of new users who might never have installed a standalone dining guide