PORTLAND, OR, United States – What happens when you decide you’re ready for a night out, whether with someone special or a group of friends, but you’re not quite sure where to go and what to order?

The Nokia Lumia 710 is an excellent tool to have at your disposal, especially if you want to eat out. Let’s dig in to a few options as to how you can plan your evening on your Nokia Lumia.

Foodspotting

Here’s the situation: you’re not quite sure where you want to go eat, but you know what kind of dish or the type of food you’re looking for. Alternatively, you’re in a new city and you have a craving for Greek food. How do you see what yummy restaurants  are around you, and quell your craving for an amazing falafel?

Foodspotting is a popular app for folks who want to find (and see) the food and available dishes in a certain city or location, regardless of what specific restaurant it’s available at.

Think of Foodspotting as a really cool way to discover amazing new dishes that you never knew about at restaurants you may already frequent.

Using Foodspotting, I like the application’s sorting and filtering options, with default views that show me what’s nearest, the latest pictures uploaded and ‘best’ that shows the highest rated foods with pictures around me.

Local Scout

While many phone users go to the Marketplace for separate apps to find what great restaurants or experiences are available to them on their phone, on Windows Phone, don’t forget that in addition to Nokia Maps‘ local insights, there’s the search button with built-in Bing search capabilities that give us Local Scout.

Local Scout is accessed by clicking the search button on your Nokia Lumia (I’m using the Lumia 710) and then click at bottom on the icon that looks like building outlines.

From there, you’re presented with options for Eat+Drink, See+Do and Shop.

I use Local Scout to find food around me when I’m in a new part of town but also experiences that I can share with my wife when we’re out on the town. For example, in Portland this weekend is the Yard, Garden and Patio Show – happening real close to my work. As you can see Local Scout presents time-limited events in addition to everyday attractions.

Yelp

A wayfinding application that can’t go without mention in Yelp. Also, as good news for Lumia 710 owners in the US, Windows Phone has a fantastic Yelp application available for users.

Yelp is a service that sets itself apart with the wide array of data it has available. Yelp has been around for years, meaning users have contributed reviews and ratings for all types of businesses all over. With Yelp, you can check out restaurants, doctors and even dentists – basically any address can be indexed and reviewed on Yelp.

Yelp’s Windows Phone app keeps the Metro UI look and feel and provides an easy way to find the business you seek by type. Also, you can see ‘hot and new’ businesses based on Yelps user generated reviews and your location.

Have you ever found your way using just your Lumia device?  Which app or service helped you out?  Sounds off below!

image credit: Dylan Passmore