UMAME! is an AI-powered restaurant discovery app developed by Gurunavi, one of Japan’s leading restaurant search platforms and parent company to Live Japan. Gurunavi has an inventory of over 420,000 restaurants nationwide, covering everything from casual local eateries to well-known dining spots.

Built on this massive database, UMAME! is designed to help users find restaurants based on how they feel and what they want, rather than forcing them to guess the right keywords.

Instead of searching only by cuisine or price, you can describe your mood, situation, or dining goal, and the app suggests places that fit.

UMAME!’s approach to restaurant discovery has also caught the attention of Google. In a December 2025 blog post, Google highlighted UMAME! as an example of how AI can better understand user context, not just single search queries.

One of UMAME!’s most interesting features is its AI agent–style experience.

Rather than starting from scratch every time, the app can learn from your past searches and preferences, then offer suggestions that feel more personal and timely.

For example:
・Back in the same area for lunch? It can suggest nearby spots that match your previous choices.
・Planning a birthday or special dinner? It can surface restaurants suited to the occasion.
・Have an important business meal? It can point you toward quieter restaurants with private rooms.

The goal is to make choosing where to eat feel easier and more confident.

Unlike traditional restaurant apps that rely on fixed filters, UMAME! is built around conversation and intent. Instead of forcing you to decide on cuisine or budget upfront, it responds to how you describe what you want.

The app uses AI to learn from your preferences and past behavior, then asks follow-up questions through a dialog-style interface to refine its suggestions.

Helpful prompts make it easier to narrow down options, and searches can be done by text or voice.

Once something looks right, UMAME! takes you directly to Gurunavi’s restaurant listings and reservation options if they are available.

This makes it especially useful when you know the kind of dining experience you want, but not the name of the restaurant.

Japan’s food scene is one of the main reasons people visit, but it can also feel overwhelming, especially for first-time travelers. Many excellent restaurants are small, local, and hard to judge from the outside, and language barriers only add to the challenge. Is a restaurant open to walk-ins, or are reservations required? Sometimes it is tough to tell.

Asking friends for recommendations or posting a question on Threads or other social media can be surprisingly helpful, especially when you want something good nearby. But those options are not always immediate or practical when you are already out and hungry and you want to just rest your feet.

By letting users explain what they want in simple terms and drawing from one of Japan’s largest restaurant databases, Umame! helps bridge that gap. It works a bit like a friendly, well-informed friend who knows the local dining scene and can point you in the right direction, right when you need it.

UMAME! is currently available in Japanese on both iOS and Android, with ongoing updates and feature improvements planned, with an English release coming in March 2026. After the English version is released, the Gurunavi team will tune things behind the scenes to help provide even better results to visitors’ needs.

If eating Japanese food is the thing you’re most excited about on your trip, UMAME! offers a smarter way to find a place worth sitting down for. Keep an eye on this page for updates, or visit the official website at https://umame.gnavi.co.jp/!