How can I use Yelp to find a lunch spot?

This is a job for Yelp! Well, I'd say that this is a job for Google Maps to identify a good midpoint region, then Yelp to narrow it down and identify the best restaurant in that area.

I'm in a similar situation, except the city in question is Los Angeles, California. I'm visiting a friend in Irvine, and the colleague I'm trying to meet up with is in Calabasas. Distance between the two, according to Google Maps, is 73 miles, 90 minutes driving time, plus or minus the completely unpredictable LA traffic.

The first step I did was to bring up Google Maps with a view of LA, then zoom out so that I could see both the cities in question.

It looked like this:

Midpoint looks like Torrance on the map, but I zoomed in a bit closer and determined that Lawndale, CA was a good midpoint city, just a bit closer for my colleague than for me, but still, within about 10 minutes drive of the exact geographic center.

Time to switch to Yelp. To get started is simple: I enter "lunch" as the search term -- logically! -- and the city and state name as the location:

The results aren't quite ready to use yet, because Yelp's a bit lax with its matches. Instead, I tweak the search to be highest rated specifically in Lawndale, by using the filters at the top of the first results page:

Now the search is a lot more useful and matches only places in the city desired, sorted from highest rated to lowest. Since it's a city I'm unfamiliar with -- I've never been in Lawndale -- I'll have to rely on the Yelp community to find something good!

The results of the search:

The top one looks promising, with 231 reviews and an average of four stars out of five, it's hard to do better than that! Clicking on the restaurant name reveals more information:

Yep, Al Noor looks good. We have a name, an address, a phone number, and lots of user reviews to read, and it's approximately midpoint between us in Los Angeles.

Now, apply the same strategy to find your ideal lunch spot in Seattle. Don't worry, you'll have a ton of great options, it's a very good place to grab a bite!

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