Have you ever had this experience: you’re in a new suburb with a lot of good restaurants but you don’t really know where to go. Maybe you dont know what to order because the restaurants serve a cuisine you’re unfamiliar with. Or maybe you were looking for a specific dish but you had no idea how to find it or even where to look.
Have You Eaten is a tool for exactly that. It’s an interactive map of Sydney eateries that allows you to search for restaurants, bakeries, delis, sweet shops and cafes by cuisine. Not just Italian, Thai and Chinese but very specific cuisines - Sichuan, Sierra Leonean, Northern Thai, Ecuadorian, Neapolitan and more than 100 other styles. And in the future we’ll be adding search functions for specific dishes, location and vegetarian-friendliness.
The map doesn’t show all the venues in Sydney, we’ve chosen all the eateries based on hundreds of conversations we’ve had with chefs, community groups, greengrocers, and language associations - asking them all ‘where do you like to eat, and what restaurants, bakeries and delis are meaningful in your community?’.
We hope the map can be both a reflection of the diversity in Sydney and also a reflection of how different communities in Sydney engage in their own city. And, of course, a fun tool for you to find things you’ve never eaten before, or just a really good version of something you love.
Note: The map is currently an early prototype, and were working hard to provide you with all the features weve promised. Wed love to hear from you about anything that isnt quite working, could be better, or what you think would be cool to introduce in the future.
Who we are:
Nick Jordan: Im a freelance food journalist. Ive spent most of my career writing about Sydneys many cultural and linguistic communities, and all the places they go to meet and eat. In 2015 I started a Broadsheet column called Local Knowledge about exactly that. Ive also written the ABC, SBS, Counter Magazine, The Guardian and a bunch of other places. I love to dance.
Louis Lepper: Im a software developer at Atlassian. Outside of work I love food (obviously), and have spent a lot of time hunting for rare fruit in particular. Once I travelled to Borneo specifically for fruit! My favourite is cempedak. These days youre more likely to find me searching around Cabramattas markets. I also love dancing, which is how I met Nick.