Every time you go out for a meal, at least one person at the table is panicking over what to order, right? It’s a reasonable reaction: who wants to make the wrong call, and salivate over everyone’s order but their own?

Well, fret no more at a menu’s vast expanse: HelpMeOrder app is here to help. The app (be sure to search it as all one word) lets users enter their favourite dishes at local restaurants, and the app tallies these votes to rank a restaurant’s menu choices. Simply enter a restaurant name, and you’ll see its menu items ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, based on popular, informed, local opinion.

Most food apps help you find a restaurant, but you’re on your own when you’re there. This one lets you see the thoughts of those who’ve come before you in a clear, concise ranking system, versus the slog of comments and trolls you have to sort through when using other food-based apps.

The app also uses your current location for a kilometer count to nearby restaurants, and any deals on the go, which is really handy when travelling: not only can the app guide you to the closest restaurants, it can show you the local favourites on every menu.

A nice feature of the app is, if you click “Dishes,” it lists the top ones in town, across all restaurants in the city. And users can only vote for 1 dish per restaurant – their favourite one – so every vote counts. THere’s also a Friend’s Tab to show you what your pals or fellow foodies thought.

Of course, it’s wonderfully interactive nature is also its initial, temporary flaw up front: not every restaurant has entries yet, because the app requires users using it. Adelaide, for instance, has no entries at the time of this article, but spots like Tim Horton’s & Extreme Pita are being populated.

If you were to ask it the top three dishes in St. John’s right now, you wouldn’t hear tell of places like Mallard Cottage or Raymonds, nor Seto who were just named to Enroute’s Best New Canadian Restaurants list. Instead you’d be told: The Stephanie (Piatto’s Pizzaria), Rib Steak (The Keg), and the wing sampler (Wing’n It) are the best dishes in town. (The Stephanie really is a thing of beauty: highly recommended)

Piatto’s actually has 2 dishes in the top 10 as of the time this article was penned. But only two non-chain restaurants made it into the top 10: The Fish & Chips at Chafe’s Landing, and the “Thai One On” Pad Thai at The Sprout. So, foodies, do your city’s chefs some justice and get cracking on this free new app. Remember to search it all as one word, HelpMeOrder, or just visit the website: http://www.helpmeorder.com.

Once this app has been around for a bit, and is populated by food lovers in every city, it’ll be a fun and useful thing with a leg up on most other food-finding apps. Its only real flaw is the presumption popular opinion aligns with your own. Along with that presumption comes false assumptions like a vegan will want to try the high-ranked steak dish, sure, but, for the average indecisive Joe, it’s good to know what’s good. And this app is helpful in more ways than one in helping hungry people find popular, nearby dishes.