TikTok expands into restaurant guides with ‘Must Eat’ feature

TikTok restaurant listings are now directly bookable through OpenTable without leaving the app.

TikTok has launched a new feature called "Must Eat," designed to serve as a community-driven restaurant guide. Introduced on Wednesday, the feature aggregates restaurant recommendations from over 40 million posts and comments across the platform. "Must Eat" allows users to discover and browse restaurants by city, with filtering options for cuisine, price, rating, and location. The recommendations are categorized into "Everyday Eats" for casual spots and "Elevated Dining" for special occasions. Select restaurants can also be booked directly through TikTok via OpenTable. Initially, the feature is available in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, accessible through the search bar, Local feed, and restaurant pages.

TikTok's expansion into curated restaurant guides with "Must Eat" directly challenges established players like Yelp and Google Maps. By leveraging its existing user-generated content and viral video format, TikTok aims to capture the local discovery market, moving beyond passive search results to active recommendation-driven engagement. This move capitalizes on the platform's strength in trend-setting and community influence within the food space.

The integration with OpenTable for direct bookings signifies TikTok's deepening push into commerce and services, transforming its platform from pure entertainment to a functional utility for users. This creates a more seamless user journey from discovery to reservation, potentially increasing engagement and offering a new monetization avenue for TikTok while providing restaurants with direct access to a highly engaged user base.