Soft launch · Early access spots filling weekly Menus, decoded.

Know what's actually on your plate — before you order.

Gustia scans any restaurant menu and shows you allergens, hidden ingredients, dietary flags, and dishes you'll genuinely love — so you order with confidence, not guesswork.

Download Gustia free See how it works

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Works with any printed or digital menu 12 allergens tracked Free to start

60% of diners say menus lack enough ingredient detail

1 in 10 people have a food allergy Built on real diner interviews Covers 12+ standard allergens

The dining-out problem

Ordering shouldn't feel like guesswork — or a quiet panic.

Restaurant menus are confusing, incomplete, and sometimes unsafe. The information you need is usually buried, missing, or only visible to the server. We think that's worth fixing.

A gourmet burger with hidden-ingredient labels — egg, sesame, cheese, onion — floating around it

Hidden ingredients you only find out about after

The grapefruit garnish. The butter in the pan sauce. The tahini hiding in the "house dressing." Most menus list dish names, not what's actually in them — and the surprise lands on your plate.

Safety-First Scanner - takes care about your food sensitivities

A couple studying a long restaurant menu, unsure what to order

Eight-page menus, jargon, and decision paralysis

You open the menu, freeze, and end up ordering the safest-sounding thing — again. "Pan-seared herb-crusted what?" Plain-English dish explanations shouldn't require a Google search under the table.

Speaks Your Language — Avoid Menu Overwhelm

A diner reading a menu by phone light in a dimly lit restaurant

No way to read the menu before you arrive

The menu you find online is two years old. The one at the table is dim, hard to read, or a QR-code rabbit hole. There's no good way to prepare on your own terms — so you arrive uncertain, every time.

Menu Confidence Provider - For Stress-Free Dinner

How Gustia decodes any menu

Four ways Gustia shows you what's actually in your food.

Point your camera at any menu — physical, foreign, or unfamiliar — and Gustia surfaces the ingredients, allergens, dietary flags, and dishes that fit your profile. No more Googling under the table.

A fresh salad beside two phones showing the Gustia app

Allergen & ingredient transparency

Gustia surfaces every ingredient — base, sauces, dressings, garnishes, prep method — and flags hidden allergens upfront. Not "may contain dairy." Specifically: "contains butter in the pan sauce."

allergen detection hidden ingredients cross-contamination flags ingredient transparency preparation method

A confit de canard dish broken down into its ingredients and preparation steps

Plain-English dish explanations

"Crusted spiken" or "confit de canard" — Gustia tells you what the dish actually is, how it's cooked, what it tastes like, and which dishes are popular here. Turn any menu into a short, clear shortlist.

dish explanation menu scanner plain English menu what to order dish pronunciation

Your dietary profile, every menu

Set your dietary filters and food preferences once — vegan, gluten-free, low-FODMAP, dairy-free, allergens, dislikes. Gustia remembers what you ordered and recommends dishes you'll actually love, across every restaurant.

dietary filters dietary profile personalized recommendations portion sizes dining history your taste profile

A diner previewing a restaurant menu on the Gustia app before arriving

Preview any menu, read it clearly

Review tonight's menu at home, before you arrive — in readable, adjustable, high-contrast text. The menu you see is the menu they're actually serving. No squinting, no flashlight, no QR codes at the table.

menu before arriving pre-arrival review menu accessibility readable menu menu font size high contrast menu

See Gustia in action

A 60-second look at how Gustia decodes a menu.

From scan to plain-English breakdown — here's what it looks like at the table, and a tour through the screens you'll use most.

Gustia dish detail screen for Calzones, with pronunciation and dietary tags

Gustia home screen showing nearby restaurants and recent menus

Gustia menu scanner screen, ready to capture a restaurant menu

Honest answers

Questions diners actually ask — answered plainly.

We acknowledge what Gustia can't do alongside what it can. That's the deal — trust through transparency, not overselling.

A plated dessert with nuts, dairy, egg and gluten allergen icons flagged beside it

How accurate is Gustia's allergen and ingredient information?

When you scan a physical menu at the venue, Gustia works from what the restaurant is actually serving — not a menu uploaded three years ago. We surface ingredient detail, sauces, dressings, garnishes, and common preparation notes. When data is potentially incomplete or outdated, we flag it clearly. Gustia is a tool to help you decide, not a medical guarantee.

Can I set my dietary restrictions once and have them flagged on every menu?

Yes. Set your dietary profile once — allergens, intolerances, dietary preferences (vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-FODMAP, halal, kosher), and ingredients you avoid — and Gustia applies those filters every time you scan a menu. You don't re-enter your restrictions for every restaurant.

Does Gustia explain unfamiliar dish names in plain English?

That's a core feature. "Confit de canard," "gochujang," "pici al'aglione" — Gustia tells you what the dish actually is, how it's cooked, what it tastes like, what comes with it, and how it fits your dietary profile. The plain-English breakdown is the point — translation is just one part of it.

Can I preview a restaurant's menu before I arrive?

Yes — and this is one of Gustia's most-used features. Search any restaurant, review the menu at home with the text size and contrast that works for you, decide what you're ordering, and arrive ready. We flag when a menu may not reflect recent changes, because a menu from two years ago isn't useful to anyone.

Does Gustia show portion sizes, prices, and what comes with the dish?

Where available, Gustia surfaces portion descriptions, what's included vs. extra, and any preparation detail that affects what lands on the table. "Comes with two sides" or "small plate" doesn't stay buried in fine print. Your dining history also builds over time — every dish you rate stays visible across restaurants.

Is Gustia free? Where does it work?

Gustia is free to download and free to use for the core menu scanner, allergen flags, and dietary profile. We're soft-launching in Asheville, NC with 120+ restaurants decoded — Android first, iOS to follow. The scanner works on any physical menu anywhere, even on a screenshot of a restaurant's online menu.

From the Gustia journal

Read up before you head out.

Practical guides to allergens, ingredients, menu jargon, and accessibility — written for diners, not food critics. New stories ship every couple of weeks.

Infographic — 7 hidden ingredients that aren't always listed on the menu

Allergen safety May 12 · 6 min read

7 hidden ingredients that aren't always on the menu

The grapefruit garnish. The fish sauce in the dressing. The butter in the pan sauce. Here's how seven common ingredients hide in plain sight — and what to ask before you order.

Read article →

Infographic — 12 menu terms decoded, from confit to demi-glace

Menu literacy May 8 · 8 min read

Confit, gochujang, beurre blanc — 12 menu terms decoded

A plain-English glossary of the menu jargon that trips up most diners. No food-writing flourishes — just what each thing actually is, how it's made, and what it tastes like.

Read article →

A couple talking over dinner at a candlelit restaurant table

Dining tips May 4 · 5 min read

Why previewing the menu before you arrive changes dinner

There's a quiet ritual to reviewing the menu at home — choosing your dish, putting the phone down at the table, being fully present. Here's how to make it work.

Read article →

Accessibility Apr 28 · 4 min read

Reading menus in dim restaurants — small fixes that help everyone

Low light, small print, glossy paper — restaurant menus have always favored a specific kind of vision. Here are the workarounds that make dining out work for more diners.

Read article →

Infographic — what "comes with" a main dish really includes

Value & portions Apr 22 · 5 min read

What "comes with" really means on a menu

When the menu says "served with seasonal vegetables," how much is that, really? A guide to reading between the lines on portions, sides, and what's actually included in the price.

Read article →

Dine with confidence.