Zest Launches AI Concierge That Books Restaurants Over Text

Zest launched a text-message AI concierge on Thursday that recommends restaurants, checks availability and books tables for users — no app required. Users text (212) 470-6067 and the agent handles the rest, drawing on dining history pulled from linked credit cards.

The move bets that conversational agents, similar to Instinct or Poke, will replace standalone apps as the primary interface for everyday tasks. Zest, which launched its restaurant discovery app earlier this year, wants its recommendations to live inside the message thread — and to close the loop by booking the table on the spot through OpenTable, Resy and SevenRooms.

How does the agent learn your taste?

It starts with where you've already eaten. Zest links to users' credit cards via Plaid, the financial services company used by banks, fintechs and budgeting apps. The startup says it reads only food-and-drink transactions to build a personalized map and recommendation lists, whether the user is in their own city or traveling.

"The agent is the product now," founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall said. "You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends'. It doesn't need weeks of conversation to learn you because it starts from where you've actually been."

Founded in November 2024, Zest raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures. The company began testing the concierge last month but held the launch until it could add booking capabilities.

What can it actually do?

The concierge takes requests by cuisine, craving, occasion, dietary restriction or neighborhood. Users can ask how busy a place is, whether it offers Wi-Fi, or have Zest send the menu.

• Text (212) 470-6067 to start a conversation with the agent
• Drop Zest into a group chat, where it blends everyone's tastes
• Settle indecision with an in-thread voting feature, then book for the whole group without leaving the conversation

In TechCrunch's tests, the AI worked fairly well, matching new places to the reviewer's tastes while respecting conditions like time of day, party size and location. Finding an open table isn't new — other apps have offered it for years — but texting back and forth about options and getting available booking times in reply adds a convenience layer that reservation apps don't.

Where's the money?

Booking and ordering are the first revenue lines. Zest books tables through OpenTable or Resy today, with food ordering coming, and the startup expects transactions it can participate in. Gomez-Hall frames the edge over general assistants as data speed: Zest learns taste faster because it starts from actual dining history rather than asking questions.

"Booking and ordering are the first revenue lines. Zest books your table through OpenTable or Resy today, with food ordering coming, and there are transactions there to participate in," Gomez-Hall said. "The reason that gets interesting is that Zest learns your taste faster than a general assistant does, because it starts from where you've actually been instead of asking you questions. That's worth something well beyond dinner."

The text-first shift is also about scale. Zest hopes moving into messages helps it grow beyond its initial thousands of users and start generating revenue. Over time, the company is considering expanding beyond restaurants into recommendations for businesses, shopping and more.

For now, the test is whether taste data plus booking rights in a single thread can outcompete both reservation platforms and general-purpose AI assistants.