By Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor, Podcast Host Published Feb 03, 2016 at 11:03 AM

It’s getting late. You’re starving. But how do you decide where you want to eat?

A new app called hankr could have the solution. And it all boils down to great food photos which accurately depict dishes at area restaurants.

Does this dish look good to you?

Photo: hankr, llc

How about this?

Photo: hankr, llc

Or maybe you're hankr-ing for some of this?

Photo: hankr, llc

They say that photographs are worth 1,000 words. And, in the case of hankr, that’s 1,000 words you don’t need to wade through on a restaurant menu trying to figure out what you’d like to eat. In fact, you can virtually decide where you want to go – and what you’d like to eat – before you’ve even stepped foot outside of your house.

Here’s how it works

Open the hankr app. Set the timeframe at the bottom of the screen to choose the day and time you’d like to eat (Today: Now, or maybe Friday: Morning). Scroll through their delicious line-up of photos until you happen upon something that looks good. Or choose from categories like "Steaks and Chops," "Italian," "Sweet" or "Comforting" to view all the dishes that fit your mood.

Find something you’d like to eat? Click on the photo to get information on where you can find that specific dish in Milwaukee. You can view other dishes at the restaurant, see the full menu, check out their hours of operation and even make a reservation or call ahead to place your order for carry-out.

Photo: hankr, llc

Not quite ready for breakfast/lunch/dinner yet?

The app also allows you to save photos of dishes you’d like to put on your edible bucket list.

You can also share dishes with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or by text or email (and, unlike other apps, the shares don’t come with a bunch of gratuitous branding).

The hankr app capitalizes on the notion that everyone has a limited amount of time and resources to spend, particularly when it comes to dining out. So, hankr aims to make it quick and easy to decide exactly what you’d like to eat at a given time and then locate the spot where you can do just that.

Created by Knihter (rethink spelled backwards ... get it?), a private digital incubator with a focus on using advanced technology to bring efficiency to end-user decision-making and problem solving, the hankr app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.

Currently, restaurants and dishes are being added to the app almost daily. And user experience enhancements are on the docket, including the addition of more food "moods" and tagging for items including vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes. Hankr is also actively soliciting user feedback, which will drive future improvements.
                      Photo: hankr, llc

Want to try it out for yourself?

Download hankr from Google Play or iTunes, or get more information at hankr.info.

Lori Fredrich Senior Food Writer, Dining Editor, Podcast Host

Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with each and every dish. She’s had the privilege of chronicling these tales via numerous media, including OnMilwaukee and in her book “Milwaukee Food.” Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. 

When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or recording the FoodCrush podcast, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.