Your belly’s best friends

A sure-fire way to a traveler’s heart is through his or her palate, and these two websites can serve up food to consider: Eats.com and Menupages.com.

What’s hot, what’s not: Eats.com is part-restaurant review and locater and part-social networking site, so you can share your faves and finds with your friends. But what’s useful for travelers are user recommendations, ratings and reviews in cities, towns and college campuses. I liked that listings could be sorted by location, cuisine and also such features as cheap eats (yes, In-N-Out is listed), brunch scene, kid friendly and more. I also liked the maps showing location and the “Ask Eats Editors” feature. Pose a question and one of the six editors might reply. What you won’t find a lot of: discerning opinions. Nor does it have comprehensive coverage. So if you are in Sioux Falls, S.D., seeking a good meal, you won’t find it on this site.

Sioux Falls isn’t served up at Menupages.com either. But the site takes some of the guesswork out of dining in a strange place by providing menus of thousands of restaurants in seven cities and South Florida. Maps are a click away. And you’ll see prices, so you’ll know how big a hit your wallet will take before you get there.

-- Vani Rangachar