Several UCLA students working for the greater good of eating
have put something new on their plates ““ an informative Web
site catering to the Westwood and Santa Monica areas.
After approximately one month of extensive research and
programming, www.bruinfood.com is up, running and according to its
home page, “powering … dining decisions
everyday.”
The online eating guide is the culmination of three
Bruins’ efforts and the product of much procrastination,
according to Moses Hsieh, a fifth-year cybernetics student and the
site’s primary programmer.
“It’s something I’d been thinking about for a
few years, because Westwood Online never had reviews or ratings or
anything,” Hsieh said.
When Westwood Online left the Web several months ago, Hsieh and
fellow entrepreneurs second-year computer science student Ji Hoon
Kim and second-year cognitive science student Michiaki Kono decided
to make their procrastinations a reality.
These Bruinfood creators aren’t cashing in on anything
though.
“We actually pay money to the server, so people can access
it,” Hsieh said.
Money doesn’t motivate the Bruinfood creators, but memory
does. Kono, in particular, remembers wishing he knew more about
Westwood dining when he was a first-year student.
“We mainly just wanted to tell people what food was out
there, and which tasted best,” Kono said.
The creators hope that word-of-mouth serves their site well;
they’re also beginning to advertise on campus and in
residence halls.
“The idea is especially useful for freshman students in
the dorms who don’t have cars; transfers can definitely
benefit too,” Kono said.
Bruinfood features approximately 110 establishments so far. The
restaurants can be searched alphabetically and by cuisine type,
miles away and price range.
Simultaneously, site visitors can read reviews and get addresses
and hours of operation.
“Unlike some sites, we have interactive maps. We also try
to have feature restaurants, host polls, and I hope we will be able
to implement restaurant coupons soon,” Kono said.
Those who dine on or off campus have something new to refer
to.
“The UCLA Extension Center requested that we feature all
eateries on campus too, so Panda Express, LuValle, it’s all
there,” Hsieh said.
Even though students, visitors and faculty eat on campus mainly
out of convenience, reviewing what’s out there can’t
hurt, said Natalie Gilliam, a fourth-year psychology student and
customer service representative for the North Campus student
center.
“People might modify their selection of food for the
better after reading some students’ opinions,” Gilliam
said.
“The site can increase business off-campus in Westwood,
too, by encouraging customers to come to it, and by convincing
locals not to go outside of it when they’re hungry,”
Hsieh said.
“The benefits, thereby, work both ways,” Kono
added.
And overall, local restaurants have to appreciate any publicity
that could lead to potential customers, said Steven Brower, owner
of one-and-a-half-year-old Damon & Pythias, a Westwood
restaurant highly rated on Bruinfood.
This publicity could be detrimental to some businesses though,
Brower stated.
“A restaurant may worry about the snowball effect of
reviews if more than one person rates a certain restaurant low;
students may refer to the site and gather poor opinions about an
establishment,” Brower said.
“That’s why a restaurant should do what they already
do best, and then they’ll have nothing to worry about, or
they’ll quickly improve their services,” he added.
Bruinfood looks to expand their site in the coming months and
provide accurate information as restaurants come and go or alter
their offerings.
“For each specific restaurant on the site, there’s a
place to submit corrections to what we’ve done so far,”
Hsieh said.
“If a restaurant wants us to add specific information,
they can tell us that too, and there’s a link for
establishments to add themselves to our directory if they’re
not already on it,” Hsieh added.
Hsieh, Kim and Kono ““ the starving men who wanted to
consult their PC before consuming anything ““ hope to receive
valuable feedback from restaurants, students and fellow hungry
people.
“We’re doing this primarily for students and
businesses in the Westwood area. Because we’re students too,
I’d like to think this gives us a better idea of what the
Village needs and wants,” Hsieh said.
“If anything, www.bruinfood.com is a venue for us to
better serve the community,” Kono concluded.
When asked what might serve his “godly”
Web-site-surfing, dining community better, Brower said he’d
like to see more of the Damon & Pythias menu on Bruinfood.
“It would be great to see some sort of pop-up menu for
each restaurant, where students could rate specific
entrées,” Brower said.
Probably after dinner, the student creators behind Bruinfood
will gladly get right on that.