Sustainable platter

Personalize to your favorite food taste
Gemini Report of selected restaurant and its fit to your preferences
Restaurant Details

Inspiration

Most food apps reward popularity, not responsibility. We wanted to build something that helps people choose restaurants based on what they care about, their personal tastes, and, more importantly, the planet. We believe and are inspired by the idea that sustainability should be part of everyday decisions, not an afterthought.

What it does

Sustainable Platter is a personalized, sustainability-first restaurant finder. Users complete a short quiz about their dietary preferences, budget, distance, and priorities before using the map. Restaurants are displayed with digital pins sized and colored by their sustainability score. This helps users quickly discover places that align with both their tastes and environmental values.

How we built it

We built a web app using Google Places API for restaurant data and a map-based UI. A personalization quiz gates access to the map and drives scoring logic. The frontend is built with React, featuring dynamic markers and detailed restaurant panels. On the backend, we created an API that fetches place details and reviews, generates short summaries using Gemini, and, if the user decides, converts them to audio using Eleven Labs for voice playback.

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges finding suitable APIs, as many free and open-source options were limited in functionality. We also struggled with working in the terminal and coordinating multiple APIs, especially when using AI models that required several services to work together in a single workflow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that we built a sustainability‑first restaurant experience that still feels personal. We integrated Gemini to generate tailored sustainability explanations and ElevenLabs to speak them aloud, so users hear a clear, personalized justification that aligns with their food preferences. This let us combine sustainability scoring with real user taste personalization in a way that’s both transparent and engaging.

What we learned

We learned how important it is to design for values, not just features. Technically, we gained experience integrating multiple APIs, handling AI reliability, and building responsive, user-friendly map interfaces. We also learned that sustainability becomes more actionable when it’s personalized.

What's next for Sustainable Platter

Although our number one priority will always be to consider and improve the sustainability aspect of our project, our next steps will be to increase accessibility of our app by expanding the language abilities of our application. We plan to make Sustainable Platter usable for users of all backgrounds and countries.