University of Cape Town student launches Bites food app

Dylon Steiner, a first-year business science student at the University of Cape Town, has developed Bites, a mobile application designed to help consumers compare restaurant and takeaway prices. The app was inspired by Steiner’s discovery of significant price discrepancies for similar meals at neighboring establishments.

Bites allows users to search for specific food types, view photographs, read reviews, and filter results by categories such as value for money or location. Key features include a budget-specific tool, such as “what can I get for R100,” and a comparison tool to evaluate the cost difference between dining in versus using delivery services.

To build the initial database, Steiner personally visited approximately 700 restaurants in Cape Town to photograph menus and record prices. The platform includes mechanisms for accuracy, allowing restaurants to update their own listings and enabling users to submit photos to correct discrepancies. While currently limited to Cape Town, there are plans to expand the service to Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban next year.