I find food to be a huge part of travel. I love trying local foods, visiting old restaurants and checking out places featured on the travel/ food/ restaurant shows. Most of these shows air on Food Network and Travel Channel.

TV Food Maps is an incredible resource that helps you find places featured on those travel- food shows. You can check them out online or use the even more useful mobile apps. Apps are available for Android, iPhone and iPad.
The apps are really great because you can use the handy "nearby" feature. If you are looking for a place to eat (that has been on a show), you don't need to do your research in advance. The app will give you a list of places nearby using your mobile phone's location services.

The site was founded by two brothers from Long Island, NY. According to one of the founders:

We both work in software and do a lot of traveling and the site came from our own desire to have an easy way to keep track of the restaurants on TV and make it easy to find what is nearby.

By using TV Food Maps you can find restaurants featured on over 25 shows. Some of the shows they track are Bizarre Foods, Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, Man vs. Food and No Reservations.

Prior to finding the site, I used to look up shows,one by one to see if any restaurants featured were in areas we would be visiting. This took quite a bit of effort. There was also no way to really track all of the shows and it would take way too much time.

Another great feature is that you can also create an account and keep track of where you've been (eaten) and where you want to go. TV Food Maps also offers the option to have e-mails sent to let you know when new shows are added to their site.

Check out the TV Food Maps website HERE and make sure to download their mobile app to find awesome and unique eats that have been featured on TV wherever you go!

Agreed! I downloaded this for iPad and it is great. I haven't travelled since, but once I hit the road again next week I already have a great tool to lead me to places which are sure to destroy my new years resolution.

This sounds fantastic! I always research places to eat well ahead of my trips to new places. I guess I finally got fed up stopping at some random restaurant and leaving less than thrilled with the food. My parents now laugh at me when I travel with them because I always have everything all mapped out based on where we are headed for each day of the trip... breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and a treat lol.

The app works really well. I've used it on many trips. As long as you have cell service, it will find places near to you. Brilliant!
Same here! Eating is such an important part of travel so why not have a game plan. This app takes away so much of the work I used to do to figure out where the different food shows visited.

I've written about a bunch of the places I've visited that have been on TV. I'm pretty sure I posted about them to FT.

I've used Chowhound for similar queries in international destinations.

For instance, has anyone seen the movie Tampopo? A couple of folks helped me out (and may help you out too): http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/865927.

Try the newish Food Network on the go app..it can even search your current location and tell you what is near buy...it searches multiple shows and while it does leave out some places, it is a great resource

I don't mean to be a naysayer but I checked several places we visit frequently, and not one of the restaurants we like was listed for either location . I'm not sure what that means, other than that it is not likely to be very useful for us anywhere else.

Thanks for the tip. I am downloading it as I type. I am guessing that the Food Network app only shows restaurants featured on their channel, while TV FOod Maps shows results for over 25 shows.
Jerry- the app will only return results for restaurants featured on food- television shows. Were the restaurants you went to ever featured on a show?

I guess not. It's true that, while I enjoy watching many of the shows on the Network, the restaurants they feature are not ones we would likely choose for a dinner out on a vacation. Not a criticism - just a matter of personal taste.

Makes sense- everybody has their own likes/ dislikes. I love trying local & regional food and "comfort" food so many of the places featured fit that description.