Ask Bob is a travel companion who gives you honest, in-the-know local picks in any city — the hidden gems a real local would send you to, not the tourist traps. Ask what's good near you and Bob answers warmly, in seconds. He'll also write you a beautiful offline city guide to keep.
No invite, no waitlist, no network to build. Bob works from the very first minute, wherever you are in the world.
Bob is your friendly local — the well-travelled friend who always knows the right place. He's an app, not a person: his answers are written by a computer, working from real, current place data and the standards we set for what's worth your time. He has a point of view, and he'd rather send you to one perfect spot than ten forgettable ones.
Any city, instantly. There's nothing to download city by city and no waiting — ask Bob wherever you happen to be in the world and he finds the good places around you.
That's the whole point of him. Bob draws on real, current places and holds a genuine quality bar. He's never pay-to-play — nobody can buy their way into his answers — and when he has to widen the search to find something good, he tells you honestly rather than padding the list to look busy.
Yes — Bob is a subscription, so you'll sign in with Apple (one tap; we ask Apple for your email and nothing else). That's what keeps your subscription, the guides you own and your saved places attached to you when you change phone.
However suits the moment:
See and text are on every tier. Hear is part of Premium.
No — Bob finds the place, tells you why it's worth it, and gets you there. Every pick has Directions, which opens it in your maps app. Where a place takes bookings through its own booking page, Bob passes you a link to it, and you book with them — but plenty of the best places don't take bookings at all, so it's never the thing Bob promises. Turning up early still works.
Tap what you're after — food, sights, or a place to stay — and Bob picks. Or tap Surprise me and let him riff: a locals-only place to eat, a coffee crawl, a rainy-day plan. Bob curates the theme; you just show up.
Yes. Tap a cuisine — ramen, tapas, pizza, seafood and more — and Bob finds the good version within a short walk. It's the fastest way from "I fancy…" to a table.
Aim your camera at a dish, a building or a landmark and Bob tells you what it is — then tap for the story behind it. Handy for a menu in another language, or that monument you can't quite place.
Ask Bob for a city or the area around you and he writes you a beautifully designed PDF guide of his best picks. Guides you own are yours to keep, re-download free forever, and open with no signal — perfect for a plane, a metro, or a patchy connection abroad.
Heart any place and it's saved. Find your favourites again in a tap — the start of your own map of the city.
Twelve, counting British and American English separately. Alongside both flavours of English, Bob speaks French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hindi — so he feels like a local in the words you actually think in.
Never uninvited. There are no ads, no feed to scroll and no notifications by default. Bob can give you a quiet tap when you're near somewhere great, but that proximity nudge stays firmly off until you switch it on.
To ask Bob live you'll want a connection — he's fetching real, current places around you. But any city guide you've already downloaded opens completely offline, so your picks are with you even when your signal isn't.
No to both. Bob is a subscription, and everything he does is in it from the first minute — there’s no free tier to outgrow and no trial that turns into a bill you didn’t expect. We’d rather charge honestly than hook you and hope you forget to cancel.
Same for Tableside: same house, same rule, its own separate subscription.
All of it — there is nothing behind a second door:
Bob shows the price right inside the app — open the crown tab or the app store listing, where you'll always see the correct amount for your country. Prices vary by region and the store sets the local figure, so that's the one honest place to show it. There's no pressure, and you can cancel anytime.
Subscribe inside the app, from the crown tab. To manage or cancel, it's the usual place for subscriptions: on iPhone, Settings → your name → Subscriptions; on Android, Google Play → Subscriptions. Cancel anytime and you keep it until the period you've paid for ends. Bob and Tableside are billed separately, so cancelling one doesn't touch the other.
Tableside is the app you open when you sit down. Scan the restaurant’s QR menu or photograph a paper one and you get the whole menu in your language, the dishes worth ordering picked out for your taste, the venue’s wine list ranked against your palate, and your order written out in the local language to show or read aloud to the waiter.
It’s the same Bob, at the table instead of on the street. See what Tableside does →
No. They’re partner apps, not a bundle — each one stands on its own and either can be your first. Bob finds the place; Tableside works out what to order once you’re in it.
Having both is better, though: Tableside can start from what Bob already knows about your taste, so its first recommendation is a good deal sharper than a stranger’s.
No — translation is the part we build because the app would be absurd without it, not the part that makes it worth having. What makes Tableside different is that it remembers what you’ve eaten and enjoyed, so the dishes it puts at the top of the menu are chosen for you and come with a plain reason why.
The more meals you log, the better it gets. That’s the whole product.
Both. Knowing what you like isn’t a holiday feature — the same recommendations work in your own city and your own language, with the translation step simply out of the way.
No, and it never will. A menu line doesn’t know what’s in the stock, the sauce or the fryer, so an app that reads one and declares a dish “gluten-free” is guessing with your health. We won’t do that in any language, at any price, behind any disclaimer.
What Tableside does instead is write your question out in the venue’s language, ready to hand to the waiter — for example “¿Este plato contiene frutos secos? Tengo alergia.” You ask the one person who can actually answer, and we make asking easy.
They’re separate subscriptions — each app is priced on its own, on the same ladder, and neither is a bundle you’re locked into.
But paying for one opens the other’s door: an Ask Bob subscriber is recognised in Tableside and offered a month on us, and it works the same way in the other direction. You claim it when you want it, and the month starts then rather than quietly running out while you’re not looking.
Yes — a creator’s code is one code for the whole house. Whichever of the two apps you use it in, it’s the same code and the same creator gets the credit.
If you’re a creator, that’s the point of the: one link, one code, two apps to send people to.
It’s in testing now and launching soon on iPhone and Android. Pick your phone on the download page and you’ll be first to the table the moment it’s live.
As little as possible. No ads, no analytics, no tracking, and we never sell your data. Bob doesn't need your name or email to get started — your account is an anonymous ID. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
Only so he can find great places near you, and to build the guide you asked for. Location is used when you're using a location feature — never to track you across other apps — and you can turn it off any time in your phone's settings.
When you point-and-identify, that single photo is sent securely to answer that one "what is this?" question. It isn't used to build a profile of you.
Delete your account from within the app and it wipes your data on our servers along with the guides stored on your device. You can also email us to request it.
iPhone and Android — Bob is launching soon on both. Head to the get the app page and you'll be pointed to the right store for the phone you're holding.
Email info@askbob.guide and a real person will reply — the same address for support, privacy questions, or just to tell Bob he did well.
Email info@askbob.guide and a real person will get back to you.