8 ms·
Show HN: CheapFoodMap – A map of good meals under $10
I was recently laid off after 18 years, and gave myself 100 days to build soething useful in public. CheapFoodMap is a crowdsourced map of meal under $10, excluding franchises, local good eats only.
It's inspried by 거지맵 (Begger's Map) a Korean crowdsourced map students use to find cheap eats.
Ocverage is heaviest in Texas, since I live in Dallas, but have 1200 meals across 15 US cities. Seed data came from Google Review, 4.2 star or higher with at least 500 reviews, and verified price under $10 per menu item.
Things I would love feedback on : whether the price-freshness model makes sense, and what would make you trust the price on a site like this. How to encourage people to update prices, since inflation is making food price very frequent.
https://cheapfoodmap.com
Any and all suggestion will be super helpful. Thank you!
- laylower 3mo agoWhat tech did you use? Are you caching the locations? Are you using google data but openstreetmap?
- jaep1 3mo agoNodeJS + React + TypeScript + Tailwind on vercel, locations are cached, and we are using google maps api and data. It is expensive.. but I think its most polished and familiar with useres (better user experience)
- bellowsgulch 3mo agoCan you give us negative filters? Literally nothing but Mexican food listings in my area.
- jaep1 3mo agook! multi select and negative filter will be added by end of this week!
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- stalfosknight 3mo agoNo results in my particular metro area, but I love the idea!
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you, which metro area? We need to expand
- gghootch 3mo agoI love it, but I want EU support!
- jaep1 3mo agoYES! Would love to expand internationally! If you visit, look for good lunch on the map =)
- fl4regun 3mo agoWould love to see restaurants in Canada included
- jaep1 3mo agoO man, I would love to expand to other countries! Once we polish the website, Canada will be the first global launch for sure!
- smashinlabs 3mo ago+1. Came here to say exactly this.
- jaep1 3mo agoPoutines! Here we come!
- mft_ 3mo agoI love the idea, but a quick glance (randomly at SF) reveals entries that aren't "meals" (IMO, anyway) but rather snacks - like two spring rolls for $8, or a slice of pizza for $5.53. Also, the days of a $1 slice may have (long) gone, but $5.33 for a slice seems median at best, not "cheap". Have you thought about either some guidance, or even a filter, for meal size?
- jaep1 3mo agothats really good point. I should put more guidance on the submission. Basic rules were no franchise, actual meals only. I was filtering manually in DFW area for now, but should actually add more features and guidance in general. This is actually critical point. Thank you for pointing that out.
- mkw5053 3mo agoYeah a quick glance and none of the ones I saw around my office are meals. I'm honestly not sure a $10 meal exists in SF anymore...
- jaep1 3mo agoIt is becoming harder to find them. Just few lunch specials and hidden gems. I hope this app can help share these hidden gems. Maybe I should just delete bad data and just put few legit places only?
- jaep1 3mo agoYou're right, and it's on me — I seeded SF from published menus to bootstrap the map, and some entries are snacks, not meals. Seeded rows are labeled "Posted on [date]" vs "Price verified [date]" for ones a human actually confirmed, but the meal/snack line needs to be a rule.. This week: pruning the non-meals and adding submission guidance Thank you again for suggestion!
- andy99 3mo agoDepends what you mean by meal, the parent didn’t like pizza slices but I believe one of the thick granny slices at Outta Sight pizza is still under $10, I’d consider that a lunch. It’s a fair point that generally it’s focused on single items rather than say a main, side, and drink for $10.
- chesscoachx 3mo agoI like the idea. It would be nice a worldwide map. I mean, not only across the US.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, I am surprised to see so many recommandation for global app. We will definitely work on this soon.
- ye1le 3mo ago+1 wanted to add some for Germany (would require additional currency)
- jaep1 3mo agoLet me try to add it tonight's dev session =)
- chrysoprace 3mo agoThe first thing I did was zoom way out and drag it all the way to Australia. You can get a user's approximate location by looking up their IP against a geolocation service and center their map on there in case they deny permission. I think there might also be ways to look up purchasing power, for what the equivalent of "under $10" (i.e. a cheap meal) is relative to the local currency.
- SpecialistK 3mo agoOr at least make it clear from the get-go that it's US-only.
- Neff 3mo agoI like that I can filter by a specific area, but I wonder if people would be better served to get down to regions instead of a city. Dallas is pretty big, and I don't want to drive from Love Field all the way to Lakeside for lunch... It would be great to somehow either - Get to the map from a city list - refine the city to a neighborhood level
- jaep1 3mo agoWe have "Cities" section that support DFW area and divide it into more neighborhoods. https://cheapfoodmap.com/cities https://cheapfoodmap.com/cities will this work?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- loco5niner 3mo agoDropped a couple spots in my area. I like seeing the deals in the community section.
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you! We are trying to share best deals on there =)
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- jawns 3mo agoThis feels like GasBuddy, but for food. One of the reasons GasBuddy took off was that it wasn't just based on community reports; there was an incentive for gas stations themselves to accurately report their prices and keep them up to date. It seems like you're trying to discourage businesses from participating (e.g. by not accepting sponsored placements), and that will have implications for your growth rate. I think you should look for ways to give businesses an active role, without eroding user trust in the recommendations, of course. Think of the possibilities: - Business can add coupons to its listing, making cheap food even cheaper - Business can confirm a reported deal, adding to its credibility - Business can provide full menu and a link to order takeout I don't think any of those features would make users feel like the business is "buying" a listing it didn't earn.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, thank you for this suggestion. This might be most sustainable way to update prices, as long as I set boundaries correctly. I will research how GasBuddy set up their data pipeline this week to see if we can benchmark.
- Waterluvian 3mo agoI could be wrong but I think you’ll want to consider changing the name. The parent post is on point, but companies won’t be attracted by the “cheap food” moniker. Even “budget food” is more palatable for a restaurant to associate with.
- jaep1 3mo agoThis was our biggest concern as well. I already talked to few owners and negative connotation was making them reluctant to be on the site.. We thought about different name like "under10" "dimedrop" "Fooglemap" but none of them stuck. (We did like the name Fooglemap, but similarity to Google map will create risk of cease and decease letter if it ever becomes major.. so decided not to do it.) Still torn on name change.. We want cool / memorable name.
- esafak 3mo agoWhy wouldn't you just use Google Maps with a single-$ price filter?
- jaep1 3mo agoI guess we are trying to remove couple of steps. single $ sign mostly gives you fastfood chain restuarants. You wouldn't be able to find killer lunch special deals or local hidden gem menues. You can still find them, but it take efforts through trial and errors. I felt difficult finding killer deals, and having a website that shows these killer deals can bring value. But this is just me.. maybe this is my hopeful thinking?
- the_real_cher 3mo agoA lot of things aren't healthy like pizza and fried chicken. They should add the cost of future open heart surgery to the cheap meal.
- OsrsNeedsf2P 3mo ago거지맵 meaning beggar is a generous translation of the word
- jaep1 3mo agoyes, beggar map, I thought about using beggarmap.com but didn't sound right in English. I plan to give that domain name back to Korean founder. (I sent him an email already offering free transfer)
- tekla 3mo agoThere aren't that many interesting ways to translate 거지. I suppose you could use bum, vagrant, lowlife, but beggar is close enough.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, we had 100 different name for this project, but nothing really stuck. cheapfoodmap is as close I can get =)
- effnorwood 3mo agoDefine "good" and "meal"
- jaep1 3mo agoGood question! Good : Google Review 4.2 with 500+ reviews Meal : Proper meal that can qualify as lunch or dinner But honestly... not fulfilling all the requirement just yet >_<
- effnorwood 3mo agonow do French Laundry and glyphosate
- jaep1 3mo agoError 406 Not Acceptable: FrenchLaundry exceeds MaxBudgetLimit
- effnorwood 3mo agocurl errordodge/budget/glyphosate
- jaep1 3mo agoglyphosate throws a fatal ToxicityException. Please check your inputs :)
- ssl-3 3mo agoFYI: When looking around my favorite spots for decent, cheap food in the small towns in Ohio where I hang out, it's easy to find plenty of them with a score of at least 4.2 on Google. But it's somewhat difficult to find some that have over 500 reviews, even for places that have been there for quite a long time. I agree that barriers are necessary, but might there be a way to soften them? As it is, it looks like my choices will remain pretty limited even if the website does gain popularity, unless I'm willing to drive further out to a "real" city where places have more traffic. (And by that point: It's not cheap anymore.)
- mandeepj 3mo agoDo you filter out snacks/appetizers?
- jaep1 3mo agoI do for Dallas area, which is our launch city. I will add filter to remove all the appentizers and snacks, and only post proper "meals" adding guidance as well. This community gave me so many good advices!
- chasd00 3mo agoAt the bottom of the lists, after you've scrolled through and clicked on some restaurants, you should have a "I'll do it myself" button that uses some llm to create a $10 meal recipe using the restaurants you clicked as inspiration.
- jaep1 3mo agoLike you can create similar meal yourself? That might actually help get more engagement from users.. not sure how much it will cost me though, AI API costs a lot these days T-T
- ssl-3 3mo agoClever caching? There's only so many different ways to build a single item like a hamburger, or a chicken salad sandwich. Eventually, ~all of the necessary recipes will be created naturally just by using the thing, and these results can be cached forever and categorized with keywords. After that: Subsequent hits look to the cache for a good match rate on keywords, and present an already-existing recipe if it exists.
- jaep1 3mo agoo man you are on to something here! Noted down!
- gffrd 3mo agoCould see this being useful for people who are on the road for a living, or regularly operating in areas where they’re not familiar with the offerings. Truck drivers, salespeople, etc. That said, kneejerk after using it is: price is a challenging anchor, because food is not uniform. I’d be curious if users are more interested in “under $10, ignoring all else” or “a better deal than comparable” - though, there’s a lot of subjectivity in that. Gasbuddy works because 1 gallon of gas = 1 gallon of gas, so price is a useful anchor. $5 for sushi at one place could be a bad deal, while a great deal at another place. An $8 steak would be cheap. An $8 hot dog would be a ripoff. I’d be skeptical of restaurants luring people with a single cheap item, or about quality/portion changes. All this said, Ikea is known for designing furniture _around_ the price their target customer thinks a table should cost. Restaurants are likely (hopefully!) aware of where these price thresholds are for their customers … and your site could be an interesting way of sending them a different type of customer than they’d historically targeted. Or, allow them to refine an offering to maximize profit at the $10 price point. As others have said, engage restaurants and make them part of the equation. They’re not your adversary. In short: cool! Do lots of experiments and research!
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you so much gffrd. You know, my dream is to have some kind of movement where people rally to fight inflation and tipflation. Last few years, we seen some crazy food price increases and it seems like its gonna get worse. If enough people find value in affortable prices, and people go to those restaurants that offer good deals, either as lunch special or weekly promotion, more restaurant will try to offer these kind of deals. Win for customers, win for restuarant. Might be getting a head of myself there.. but that's the vision. (If you check "About" page, I put another dream which is to make this website turn non-profit later down the road if we make money lol)
- mminer237 3mo agoTo really stop inflation, the fed would have to ramp up interest rates, stop printing money, and Congress would have to cut spending and raise taxes. It's worth it to reward businesses who offer cheap prices, but inflation is inevitable without severe austerity measures.
- BrandoElFollito 3mo agoWhen visiting the US, I lerned that a meal that costs 10$ is actually 10$ + some random tax + a tip = 20$
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, tip use to be around 15%, but now default close to 20%. We call it tipflation. We added tip + tax calculation on the page so you know what you are getting into as well =)
- jerlam 3mo agoIt depends on the type of establishment. A full service restaurant where you are directed to a table, someone takes your order, then brings food to you, and then you pay would require a tip, because that is considered service. A counter service restaurant or cafe where you walk up to a counter, give your order, pay, then pick up your food and find your own table would not require a tip.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, it might be just me, but sometime I feel like I am strongly encourage to tip, even on a togo order these days..
- BrandoElFollito 3mo agoTrue. Still showing 10$ when it is actually 11.75$ because there is a random tax is really, really insane. I truly wonder why the US does this when the rest of the world does not.
- thrownaway561 3mo agoWhat about just linking their Google Business instead of filling out a submission and uploading photos? That actually helps the business rank more.
- jaep1 3mo agoGoogle API costs way too much to scale. (photos and location info cannot be cached per their rules, so you need to fetch it every month)
- trnsprnt-pgss 3mo agoI wish this had existed when I was a student. Please support non-US locations as well.
- jaep1 3mo agoFor sure! Coming soon!
- fibuladev 3mo agoThe leaderboard with acorns is a smart touch. gamification might actually solve your price freshness problem better than anything else. If updating a price earned acorns too, your top contributors would keep the data current for you. Nice project, and the 10% to food banks commitment on the about page is a good look.
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you! Yes, updating prices give you acorn and badge as well. I might expand more incentives to update prices, like suggestion from comments, for restaurants. Food bank commitment is built in from start. I plan to display transparent donation amount if we ever make money. (fingers crossed!)
- conqrr 3mo agoNice! I've always wanted something like this clubbed with Coupons, Offers and combos that can be a steal deal sometimes.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes! Food and saving money is two of my favorite things so this project is fun =)
- satvikpendem 3mo agoSee also, Too Good To Go, which has full meals at the end of the day and often comes under 10 dollars. I use this quite a lot as you basically get the same food, you just can't choose what you want, they just give you whatever, but it's supposed to be 3x worth the sticker price ie an 8 dollar TGTG meal must be worth 24 bucks retail.
- jaep1 3mo agoo man, this is in San Francisco? I will add that to the spot =)
- satvikpendem 3mo agoIt's a service for restaurants not one itself, it allows restaurants to give away uneaten food at the end of the day so as to reduce food waste and make some marginal income.
- jaep1 3mo agoThat's really cool idea.. I wonder if they have something like that here in Texas
- satvikpendem 3mo agoYes they're nationwide in the US as well as other countries.
- jaep1 3mo agogotta give it a shot!
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- gabrielsroka 3mo agoNeat idea. I don't like giving my location, zip code should be good enough. I think if I tap List it kind of works but not really. I'm in SoCal for what it's worth.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, I should make that easier for people. You can enter zip code or city name on search box and it should take you there. (Under List in mobile)
- gabrielsroka 3mo agoYou can, but it gives me New Mexico and NorCal. I'd prefer to sort by location or filter more closely.
- jaep1 3mo agoGreat suggestion, I will add that feature to this week's to do list. Thank you boss!
- dewey 3mo agoI tried to add some spots in Berlin, but when I'm looking at the spot on the map and then click "Drop a spot" and type the restaurant name it's not finding it.
- jaep1 3mo agoCurrently it is limited to US spots only. (In US, restuarant and places auto populate for you) I see this will be userful in Europe as well, so we will get to work!!
- sshanky 3mo agoit's not working for me. probably just slammed. it'd be nice to be able to actually just click on a restaurant listing in the map rather than having to search for it. also, happy hour options might make sense -- maybe some way to filter out (or see) results that are only available during a happy hour. Users could check "happy hour item" and enter the times for the happy hour. finally, if people enter cheap items that aren't large enough to be a "meal" (like one taco for $3.50) this might become less useful.
- jaep1 3mo agoIt should work now, so many people trying this out, never had this much traffic since we started haha Upgraded server so it should work now
- anticorporate 3mo agoStill having issues here - maybe with the address lookup API?
- jaep1 3mo agoIt works on my end, still not good? (I upgraded both server + Google API allowance)
- anticorporate 3mo agoOh, I see, it's filtering by business type. A lot of the best places for cheap food around here are in a multi-purpose business, like a gas station or a tienda that have an awesome taqueria or panderia or something like that as a part of their store, often with their own separate entrance and eating area but no separate Google listing.
- chirau 3mo agogive it a minute, it will load. I am sure it is slammed right now. That's what I had to do.
- tamimio 3mo agoIt will end up like this: - $9.99 (slob food that much cheaper if you bought it from any grocery store) - $5.99 delivery - $7.99 tip - $2.99 service fee - sales tax on all that Total: ~$30.
- jaep1 3mo agoMan, this has been story for me lately, eating out.. so hopely greater group intelligence by crowdsourcing can find hidden gems that are actually good??
- ssl-3 3mo agoI may be an outlier, but: It has been years since the last time I had food delivered. It always seems better, cheaper, faster, and more definite to just go get it myself.
- chirau 3mo agoHow do you vet 'a meal'? Manually? I ask because some places will have say fries, or sides or $1 oysters or others will have $2 wings but with a minimum purchase of 6. Otherwise, great job. I like it.
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you, This is biggest take away from everyone's feedback today. I will add filters and option to define if item is a "meal" or "snack/appetizer" It is really amazing to get such a great response and feedback from this group.
- eightturn 3mo agoneat site. just added a spot for Savannah, GA. I submitted my email for a magic link, but nothing arrived (yet) fyi.
- jaep1 3mo agoI see someone just posted a spot in GA! Thank you =)
- timack 3mo agoTried to add a spot in New Zealand and couldn't select the address. Bahn Bi at Miss Saigon in BNZ Centre, Christchurch if anyone is looking!
- jaep1 3mo agoO man, I should really aim internationally
- winstonlee 3mo agoYou mean the baguette? It should be "banh mi" :)
- jaep1 3mo agoBanh Mi seems like universal good "cheap" food globally
- zuzululu 3mo agoGreat app. Not a great sign for global economy.
- jaep1 3mo agoIt's crazy how expensive things gotten last few years...
- nonameiguess 3mo agoI also live in Dallas and had a feeling Fuel City would be #1 or close to it. Apparently, there's a taco place a few miles away in Bishop Arts that is 2 cents cheaper, but I bet they don't have outdoor block parties with live DJs, longhorns on site, a swimming pool with a statue of a velociraptor, or a huge neon sign over a gas station saying "Where Dreams Come True." I'm sticking with Fuel City. There are downsides hard to account for with price alone, though. Riverfront Blvd has been under construction for 7 years and hasn't had usable sidewalks in longer than I can remember, so you have no choice but to drive there. Plenty of other places I can walk to, so in practice, that's usually what I do.
- jaep1 3mo agoGood to see you! I justed added Fuel City as part of the list. I will actually go there to try them myself and shoot a video as well. I have been eating out and filming everyday and posting it on Instagram and Tiktok as promotion, best food deals in Dallas. Check it out if you are interested =) (@cheapfoodmap)
- fitzroy 3mo agoWould love a gluten-free / dietary restriction filter, or at least a filter where gluten/wheat is not an ingredient (separate from cross-contamination). Unfortunately, cheap-ish food is harder to find with dietary restrictions. Even filtering by Asian, Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, etc., would be helpful. Also, a way to verify or link to the menu item, hours, etc., at a place would also be helpful.
- jaep1 3mo agoWe added direct link to Google maps since many would be preferred way to get full detail about the restaurants. (You can either click google review or dedicated Google Maps button) We will add more filters this week!
- throwup238 3mo agoOne thing I’d recommend is somehow separating a la carte versus full meal type items if theres a way to separate them on the data side. You should see this in Texas where you might have a taco place with a $4 taco or Vietnamese with a $9 banh mi, the latter being substantially more food. Also the map viewport does’t restore when click back from a restaurant/menu item page and it throws me back to Texas.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, that is a genuine error. I will add that fix on next release for sure!
- Zopieux 3mo ago(US only)
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, I should have specified this sorry
- stbede 3mo ago$10 isn't $10 everywhere. There are still places in the country where $10 feels expensive. You may want to add a filter for even cheaper meals. On the other end, increasingly, even fast food combos are more than $10. It would be helpful to highlight franchise meals that are actually affordable. Just don't let people add dollar menus or non-combos. Posts should somehow only admit whole meals. If someone says their local taco truck sells a single street taco for $6.99, that's means a meal is more like $20.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes on all three points. Added the $ filter, first action item this week is to add a filter to encourage only "real meal" not a single item like taco to be added as "meal" Maybe I should have named it cheapmealmap.com (I own this name as well.)
- dotancohen 3mo agoI just tried to add a place in Rahat, Israel, but the site seems US only. Go ahead and open it up internationally. I only know two places with under-$10 USD meals, but I love them both.
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you for checking it out! Yes, we just launched and mostly in USA, especially Dallas area. After today's suggestions, definitely modivated to go international!
- elevation 3mo agoSam's Club Cafe sells $1 hot dogs and $2.50 pizza slices with a drink, and it doesn't not require a membership to visit. Larger families (4+ kids) shop at Warehouse clubs because they need items in bulk, but they are also often cost sensitive because they have a higher multiplier. You might see a family of 8 eating for under $20. Talk to that family, and they will tell you all the other places in town that they can afford to take their family to. They will also know other families who would be interested in your site.
- jaep1 3mo agoAwesome suggestion. Marketing was biggest huddle during this launch. I have been asking on facebook groups, since head of families are there, might be a good out reach?
- elevation 3mo agoFacebook groups are good if you can get access. Be careful when cold calling on facebook, you can get permanently banned, but if you can sustain your access, you can also find other cost sensitive people in local "buy nothing" groups. For homeschool groups specifically, many areas will have a homeschool cooperative or resource group with a website and contact info for a real human. They're mainly there to help onboard parents who are new to homeschooling, but if you have a polite elevator pitch, they're guaranteed to at least know someone who is very frugal.
- alexjplant 3mo agoMy favorite college food hack was the 1/4 lb Big Bite at 7 Eleven. The one near my house sold them for $1 and had an extensive bar of vegetables in addition to the machine that secreted warm nacho cheese and chili (!!!) out of a bag. My usual setup was onions, tomatoes, sauerkraut, mustard, and a pinch of the cheese and some cilantro if they had any hanging around. If I had to feed a family on the cheap I'd make lentil or barley stew. Saute a mirepoix and brown whatever protein is on sale, deglaze with whatever wine is appropriate, brown some tomato paste, then chuck the rest of the veggies and starches in with some spice mix and cook for 30-40 minutes. Once you've dialed in whatever time is appropriate for your ingredients it's the best meal prep hack there is. Gym bros slathering chicken breast and white rice in mystery sauce need not apply.
- AdieuToLogic 3mo agoThis is a great idea I fully commend. An additional option for meals under $10 is cooking them oneself too. I know this might appear to be obvious, but is still a viable option IMHO. A used copy of the "Joy of Cooking" book and some creative shopping can go a long way.
- jaep1 3mo agoThis is great idea. Auto populate recipe and link to fill in shopping list on Amazon Fresh.
- AdieuToLogic 3mo agoOr just find an appetizing dish in the book, jot down the ingredients, and visit a local market. This strategy also enables alternate use-case discovery by interacting with subject-matter experts.
- jaep1 3mo agoso many options!
- mcfdoesdev 3mo agoLove this. Great idea. It would be cool to drop a bounding box.
- jaep1 3mo agoNOTED! thank you for pointing it out!
- mplanchard 3mo agobrb gotta add literally every pizza place in NYC But seriously, this is great, and has already given me some new spots to try for lunch. Hopefully it takes off! I’d imagine it’ll be easiest to get a good engagement loop going in the big cities, so maybe worth focusing on them at the outset? ~80 places in NYC is a good start, but it’s the tip of the iceberg. Edit: oh yeah I know we all love the web, but this would be nice as an app
- jaep1 3mo agoYes! I just have it as PWA icon, android is coming soon, Apple app will take bit longer to make. Thank you so much for adding favorite spots!! Vote for your good spots if you see something you like =)
- madhacker 3mo agoeat2live dot info
- jaep1 3mo agoman, hope this was .com
- madhacker 3mo agoI’d like to see something similar to Spain’s menú del día. Also, please indicate whether guilt-inducing tipping is required. In Dallas, you can eat affordably at any 99 Ranch supermarket hot deli—think Panda Express, but with larger portions and lower cost. You can also get low-cost dim sum items at 99 Ranch. Many Dallas food halls, such as Legacy Hall, are fairly overpriced, so I’d avoid them. The cost at mall food courts varies. Some fast-casual restaurants offer a free kid’s meal one day a week or with the purchase of an adult entrée. But usually, an Asian supermarket’s hot deli offers the best value, especially if it’s located in the heart of an Asian neighborhood. Avoid any asian food located in downtown as that tend towards high prices. website name: eat2live, dailyeats, affordableeats, weeat, eatdaily,
- mncharity 3mo agoUX report: On desktop chromium, clicked on a "14 restaurants nearby" restaurant item, and... nothing changed on the map. Little idea where it is. Got address from popup and... map wasn't showing that street name. Zoom in, pan around, repeat. Struggle. Apparently cluster markers (like "(2)") don't visually indicate selection at all. And the unclustered restaurant marker selection indication was subtle enough for me to miss, at least when getting started. Especially given the draws-the-eye distraction of the popup, so the indication transition itself wasn't noticed. Also on the "restaurants nearby" list, every card said "New York, NY". Unhelpful ink. I wished it was showing the address line, at least when all the city lines were the same. A relieved word of thanks for not using the frustrating Google Maps "Search this area" yes-really-please button. I saw someplace interesting, then realized, "oh yeah, I tried to go there, but they don't open until <after my window>". Also, "that looks interesting... I wonder when they're open?", then checked GMaps via button, which didn't have hours but did have popular times (it's a truck). Fwiw. Has given me a couple of places to try - thanks!
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, this is really helpful user experience issue that I did NOT know about! Thank you thank you thank you!
- 8bitsrule 3mo ago> The map couldn't load. This usually means an ad blocker or privacy extension is blocking Google Maps... > Try disabling blockers for cheapfoodmap.com, Try disabling your goofy expections that I'll spend a minute to learn if your page is worth it.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow Thank you, but I don't have any ads running on my page, that's really weird... Let me know if you see any issues!
- gnopgnip 3mo agoI tried to add Corti bros in Sacramento but it’s not considered a restaurant. It’s a grocery store with a sandwich shop and deli inside. 8.50 for a big sandwich. https://orderonlinemenu.com/CortiBrothers https://orderonlinemenu.com/CortiBrothers
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, I will change logic so grocery stores are allowed. Some of the best deals seems to be at grocery shops
- mitchbob 3mo ago> It's inspired by 거지맵 (Beggar's Map) a Korean crowdsourced map students use to find cheap eats. This sounds great; really hoping it takes off. I'm curious: would Beggar's Map work pretty much as-is in other countries, or if not, why not? I'd suggest making whatever price cutoff you decide on the price for a meal, not a dish. One dish, like a great bowl of tofu stew, can be a meal in itself, but let submitters decide. Students in college towns are an obvious audience, and I can imagine plenty of low-cost ways to reach out to them and get them to seed the site. Be sure to include Berkeley in your outreach!
- jaep1 3mo agoThakn you! Beggar map > even their url is korean only and does not have English URL. (beggarmap.com is owned.. by me actually, I offered it to transfer to Korean website owner for free, sent him an email) Yes! College kids are my first audience. Reason behind having mascot like chipmunk was to target younger audiences. I will make sure to our reach Berkeley area!!! O yes, I am definitely adding filter and option to trigger meal vs single item/appentizer
- ghkdqhrbals 3mo agoWow! I like it even if Im living in South Korea.
- jaep1 3mo ago안녕하세요^^ 감사합니다^^
- momena 3mo agoI like how cute the design is! What tech stack did you use and how did you design the website? Signed, Backend dev struggling to have good designs for a mobile app I’m making
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you! Next.JS + TypeScript + Tailwind on Vercel. 1. Tailwind with a deliberately tiny palette. One accent color, system-ish fonts, defaults for almost everything else. 2. A mascot covers a multitude of sins. Chip the chipmunk shows up everywhere — badges, avatars, empty states, link preview cards. 3. I iterate UI with Claude Code in a tight loop: describe what feels off, look at the render, adjust, repeat. My job is judging the result, not pixel-pushing. 4. Steal layouts shamelessly from apps you already like. For utility apps, original layout is a liability — users want familiar.
- qiangweibai1013 3mo ago[flagged]
- shadab_khan_127 3mo agoany plans on expanding it internationally?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- kennethallen 3mo agoAustralia support, please! AUD15 limit?
- wayknow 3mo ago[flagged]
- L-patpat 3mo agoWould you mind sharing where you got this food data? I wanted to create maps labeling free parking areas, yet I can’t get access to the required geospatial data.
- jaep1 3mo agoI used Google API / Yelp API to get top food reviewed places (4.2 star and 500+ reviews) and let used Claude API to review individual listing and menus twice. Google API has free API offered when you first start ($300) so you can try it out!
- L-patpat 3mo agoThanks for your reply! I’ve already tried it out. The interface looks great, and the features are really practical.
- pipkopapko 3mo agoI would be interested in adding some slovenian spots for the love of the game if you are looking for a europe branching :)
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you =) will do!
- murphyslab 3mo agoNoticing all of the Costco hot dog listings on the map reminds me: There's also an incentive for businesses to pose as users and misreport prices of competitors. My local Costco gas station constantly has a set of users misreporting the price of fuel, reporting the price as several cents higher than in actuality, seemingly in order to prevent consumers from refueling there. Something to watch out for.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, thank you. Yes, we do have data validation and limit amount of update new users can do, but I should definitely think ahead to set some healthy boudaries.
- sifarhub_com 3mo agoI checked and will stat from positive that it looks cool although it feels confusing seeing so much things on map. can it be like remove all other things than road . just keep road so only visible thing would be path and the food address. also I tried with email login but magic link never sent to email. also it would be great if you integrate with food delivery people and also show there rates od delivery . because they keep it hidden and than at the end of bill or invoice as customer I get annoyed to see much charges by them.
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you! You are the second person who said email would not come.. can you share what email service you used so I can check it myself as well? (I tried twice using my alias emails, and it worked both times) Food delivery option and fees will be added to dev que!
- sifarhub_com 3mo agobuquzu@denipl.net
- byronxie 3mo ago[dead]
- kmfrk 3mo agoThis would also work amazingly with https://beliapp.com https://beliapp.com which is a tool for - only - sharing restaurant reviews with your contacts to serve as a personal graph of trust. Or you could also implement your own on-site equivalent of it, if people are sharing their reviews anyway. It's also excellent for vlogger content, if you want to get the word out, although influencers aren't historically known for tenacious attribution and credit in their content. :)
- hypercube33 3mo agoAm I the only one who knows people who always eagerly suggest places to eat when you visit but they have an absolute track record of suggesting expensive crappy restaurants? We almost always never go anywhere they suggest and instead go where they say they don't like and enjoy it immensely. These are the type to take you out when you visit and they also regret going anywhere they recommend.
- jaep1 3mo agoWow, I didn't know about this app and you are right. This is perfectly in line with what we are trying to do. We do have same share feature, but should add that more clearly. Love their design on mobile device, few things I can learn from them. Thank you for sharing!
- andrewchmrbrew 3mo ago[dead]
- krystalgamer 3mo agocool concept, seems like also a good way to avoid touristy places :) how do you verify the prices btw? even yesterday I'd check a place that had their own website with menu and when I arrived there the prices were ~10-15% higher. noped out of there real quick.
- jaep1 3mo agoI have used Google API / Yelp AP and filtered them rigorously.. Most of them I personally found and updated by researching. AND prices is always increasing.. like almost every month. That's the season we are living in, constant inflation T-T So that is my biggest task, how to keep the prices fresh. So many good suggestions made from this forum which is super helpful =)
- canto 3mo agoOne taco and one slice of pizza. I mean, technically correct but...
- jaep1 3mo agoyes, we need some standard for even comparison purposes.
- timnetworks 3mo agoThat's very very nifty. The midwest is devoid of users, or cheap food, or both? 1. I can't add a thing, says address incorrect. Confirmed via google maps entry. 2. Drag and drop image upload expected by the dashed outlines but doesn't exist. 3. It should be possible to choose/save a location from a map after a search instead of entering it from blank fields. (see #1)
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you so much for trying it out. I will add drag and drop on desktop browser and choose sticky zone on map. For issue #1, did you try to search by restaurant name? If it is not resturant name or address.. it will not popualte.
- reddguard 3mo ago“$9.50” with a bowl of ramen emoji. I click it and it’s coffee. Is the $9.50 for coffee? What is $9.50 Edit: I’m in SF near Union Square maybe that’s why. Looks a lot better in Dallas with photos of the menus
- jaep1 3mo agoThat was wrong detail set as vietnamese, because this coffee shop sells vietnamese sandwitches. Fixed it to "Sandwitch"!
- wenc 3mo agoMeal is a bit hard to define. Here are some cases: You can get food for under $10 at many casual NYC restaurants -- if you just order an appetizer. Also a snack is not a meal. For instance, I noticed a Salted Egg Yolk Bun in NYC for $1.50. But that's not really a meal (unless you get 4 of them). https://cheapfoodmap.com/spot/golden-steamer-new-york-ny https://cheapfoodmap.com/spot/golden-steamer-new-york-ny The average check price in NYC Chinatown can easily be under $10 if you get the right combination of appetizers/snacks. Furthermore there are places where you can get food by the pound. Technically you can get a prepared meal at Whole Foods ($12.99/lb salad bar) if you get it just under 0.76 lbs. If you're light eater, then every Whole Foods in the country qualifies as cheap eats. Then the map will be saturated.
- jaep1 3mo agoYes, this is #1 homework this week to solve. How do we define equal standard for all food types?
- Studui81Labs 3mo ago[flagged]
- stasomatic 3mo agoI don't understand the $10 part. Today's $10 is 2027's $12. You mentioned inflation. It should be value for value, or pegged to a state's minimum wage or something, but then you lose the $10 marketing angle. Sucks about getting laid off (been there, still there), but I don't see this as an ongoing concern if you are targeting consumers. If I am hungry, $10 is not my criteria. It could be $5, it could be $10.59 depending on fast I can get that protein in. Do I drive, does it get delivered, or do I just go downstairs to a taco stand. OTOH, as others suggested, you could have businesses and franchises fight for foot traffic with coupons/promos.
- jaep1 2mo agoThank you! You are right on the money =) I guess my intention are some shock value and differentiator that makes us stand out against all other crowdsource services. I thought under $10 meal these days would be considered very affortable in most states. We do have parameter to change it up to $14 and we might increase that ceiling later. I am really considering restaurant sponsors. As long as money goes into the community support mission, it will actually work better this way. (sustainable growth)
- stasomatic 2mo agoThat’s the thing, the $10 is not my threshold, it’s the value of what I get for the $10. I don’t need to eat it all today. I’d rather spend $5 but I don’t want to waste $5 on filler. I could go by a local 7/11 and put myself in a comma for a tenner.
- NetMageSCW 3mo agoI see taxes and tips, but not whether a drink is included or if you have to drink water to keep it under $10. (Only one place with a drink can give you a small lunch around $10 here, because no tip.)
- jaep1 3mo agoYap, most are just with water unless specifiied. (like 2 pizza + drink = $6.99
- ejo4041 3mo agoGreat idea here, you got my click right away when I read the title. I added a good spot in Tyson's Corner, VA - Falafel Inc. $5 for a sandwich I also clicked around some more and noticed that there are some chains on there but only one is tagged per chain. Maybe some automation around finding the other locations of chains at data entry time. Some examples - Taco Bamba is a staple here and can be cheap, multiple locations all over the place. Andy's pizza is another one, although as another user pointed out, $5 is not a screaming deal for a slice, but it is under $10. When I typed in Falafel Inc, I saw the other locations there already, so maybe as simple as a multiselect or select all. I like the google auth integration without forcing the use of my identity for the username. Probably worth adding a google logo as I read right past that initially as an option for auth. I also love some of the other ideas for expansion and offering advertising options for restaurants that want it. That could be a good way to support your efforts. Maybe you could even incentivize users to tell the restaurants about this in some way. Minor issue - When I liked my own drop, it took a few seconds to update in the UI. As for price freshness model, I'm not exactly clear on how well that will work until there is more data there. If I could click and check out the menu real quick, that's enough for me to commit to trying it out. Looks like you are going with the upvote/downvote model, which I think could work. It might also be possible to hook into some of the online ordering apis to get the live data (ie. Slice - https://slice.com/ https://slice.com/ and others)
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you for your thoughful and thorough suggestions. Really appreciate it, to be honest last 24 hours has been just overwhelmingly blissful with thankfulness. I was working on this for 3 month after layoff and this is first real traction I got on this website, so it means a lot. Thank you for adding the spot, and I hope if more people start using the app, people will update prices naturally and also encourage restaurant owners to update by themselve as well. I looked into API update method, but a lot of API pricing are based on delivery app prices.. which are higher than their regular menu price, so decided not to use them for now. Maybe there is another API we can utilize down the road?
- kaydub 3mo agoI like it. I built a chrome plugin for rating the best dish at a restaurant, this definitely reminds me of that. Added a couple spots in Seattle (where it's exceptionally hard to get any food below $10) No suggestions, just happy to see something that's NOT an AI tool. Even happier that I'll get some use out of this. Maybe add somewhere on the site/app where I can input suggestions if I were to have any later?
- jaep1 3mo agoThank you! Yes, I have link for feedback in community tab! I respond within a day =)
- tesr 3mo ago[flagged]
- ziagham 3mo agoI really liked the user experience and how easy it was to use.
- jaep1 2mo agoThank you! =)
- vincenthwt 2mo agoI have a similar idea, just on a smaller scale. Rather than searching for cheap Malaysian street food via Google Maps reviews, I built MakanIndex.com to track the 'disappointment rate'."
- smnplk 2mo agoThis sucks for Europe. Cant add shit. I guess this is only for muricanos.