where to eat in Bloem?

the city of roses. the city of “ag, I don’t mind, you choose”. Karen will choose.

justpick in Bloem Karen explains, reluctantly

Bloemfontein is compact enough that everything is close and familiar enough that everyone has an opinion about it. justpick cuts the debate short: say where you are in Mangaung, choose go out or stay in, and swipe.

Students on a Chilled budget and families on a Lekker one get different lists, because the budget filter works on the price level Google has for each place. Where Google has no price level, the card says so instead of guessing.

pick for me in Bloem

free. no sign-up. type your suburb on the next screen. Karen does the rest.

areas to type in real places. Karen checked.

justpick doesn’t keep its own list of Bloem restaurants. Karen refuses to play favourites. It searches around whatever area you give it, so the more specific you are, the better the deck. A few you could start with, if you’re capable of starting:

Tip for Bloem: if a place looks good but has no price shown, it is not free. Google just hasn’t been told. Tap the card for the details.

it takes ten minutes to get anywhere in Bloem. the deciding takes forty. fix that.

how it works here five steps. you can manage five.

  1. Say where you are. Type a suburb or street in Bloem, or tap “use my location” and let your phone snitch to Karen. Your location is only used for this search and isn’t stored. She’s nosy, not creepy.
  2. Go Out or Stay In. Go Out shows restaurants you can sit down in, on real chairs, in real shoes. Stay In looks at delivery and hands you over to Mr D Food or Uber Eats to order. Pyjamas optional.
  3. Set a budget. Chilled is under R150 a person, Lekker is R150 to R300 a person, Full Send is R300+ a person. Karen doesn’t judge. (She judges.)
  4. Pick cravings and dealbreakers. One cuisine or several, plus anything you flat-out refuse to eat. Karen respects a hard no.
  5. Swipe. Right to keep, left to skip. Each card shows the photo, Google rating, distance and whether it’s open. Tap for directions. Stop at the first one that makes your stomach growl.

Try this in Bloem: Westdene, Chilled, Burgers and Mexican. Then swipe until something makes you hungry, or until Karen loses patience. Whichever comes first. (It’s Karen.)

cuisines and dealbreakers she has a comment for every one

Thirteen cuisines to choose from. That’s thirteen more than you managed on your own:

And the dealbreakers, which take places out of the deck instead of adding them. Every group has one person who lives in this section:

Can’t face any of it? WTF Mode picks go out or stay in, the budget and the cuisine for you, then serves up restaurants. You just eat. Honestly, Karen’s favourite button.

Karen, unprompted nobody asked. she’s saying it anyway.

The Bokke call a lineout in seconds. You’ve been on “ag, anything” for twenty minutes. Karen is calling this one.

Think sorting hat, but for dinner, and much less patient. Karen puts you somewhere, you go, nobody sings about it.

what Karen won’t pretend she has standards. a few.

Restaurants, photos, ratings and opening hours come live from Google Places when you search. justpick doesn’t rank Bloem’s “best” restaurants, doesn’t take payment to show a place, and doesn’t run ads. Karen can’t be bought, and she’s offended you wondered. If a place is missing or out of date, it is missing or out of date on Google too. Take it up with them. Politely.

you’ve read enough. go eat.

let’s pick already

Karen is waiting. she’s not patient. she was never patient.

other cities she gets around. the whole country is her playground.