This is my first submission, so go easy on me. I'm launching Hotspot Robot (www.hotspotrobot.com) which provides a new way to find the best restaurants/bars near you. Right now, we're launching in NYC, Philly, DC, LA and San Fran.

Here is a 60 second video intro which hopefully makes it clear how Hotspot Robot is different than alternatives like Yelp: http://www.vimeo.com/18023901

For those of you who can't watch the video, basically Hotspot Robot works by aggregating professional content - specifically "best of" & "top 10" lists - from trusted sources (e.g. Zagat, the New York Times, Food Network etc) and shows you which restaurants nearby are on the most "best of" lists. Therefore, it focuses on showing you the favorites of the pros, as opposed to having you wade through both the good and bad reviews from random Yelp users, some of whom are legit, but many of whom are biased or clueless reviewers.

The goal of the site is to do a better job answering these types of questions:

* "I need to meet my friends over in another part of town. I'd like to recommend a really great place. Which place(s) are the most highly regarded in that particular area/neighborhood?"

* "I'd like to settle the debate about where in the whole city is the best pizza (or burger or steak or brunch etc). Which place in all of NYC (or SF etc.) is on the most "best pizza" lists?" NOTE: see why Yelp kinda sucks at this: http://blog.hotspotrobot.com/why-yelp-kinda-sucks and how we think we answer this question better: http://blog.hotspotrobot.com/best-pizza-in-ny-according-to-the-experts

* "My wife told me we're trying a new restaurant called Marea in NYC. What's it known for? Is it on any 'best of' lists and if so, what are those lists?"

As of right now, we have the highest coverage in NYC but hopefully the site is still useful in the other markets I mentioned. I'd love for any HN participants in these markets to give it a shot and let me know if they think the service is useful (or if you're not in these markets but still wanted try it out, I'd love your thoughts as well!)

Again, any feedback you could provide would be super helpful.

Thanks a bunch! Ryan