Method: /search_for_restaurants

Search for restaurants by a variety of search criteria.

Invocation

Request Parameters

Parameter Description Type Extra
what The string against which restaurants are matched. (e.g., bar) String optional
where A string describing a location around which the search results will be restricted. (e.g., san francisco, ca or 94131). You can also specify a location using a longitude/latitude coordinate pair using the notation -74.0:BY:40.9

If this field is left blank, the location is automatically determined by mapping the client IP address to latitude/longitude coordinates. Since IP-mapping is not guaranteed to be accurate, it is a good idea to always specify a location.		 String optional
radius The number of miles around the location (specified in the where field) to search. If this field is left blank, a default radius is supplied. The default raidus varies according to the location specified in the where field. Float optional
limit The maximum number of matching restaurants to return. The default is 10 and maximum is 10. Zvents partners can exceed the maximum. Integer optional
offset The number of restaurants to skip from the beginning of the search results. If a search matches 1000 restaurants, returning 25 restaurants starting at offset 100 will return restaurants numbers 100-125 that match the search.. Integer optional
cuisine Restrict your search to restaurants that serve a specific cuisine. You must provide a cuisine id. Integer optional

Example Request

Response Parameters

The response lists restaurants matching the search terms.

Parameter Description Type Mandatory
id The unique ID for the venue. Integer Y
name The name of the venue. String Y
description A description of the venue. String
creator_id The ID of the user that created the venue. Integer Y
link The URL of the venue page on zvents.com String Y
url The external URL of the venue. String
phone The phone number of the venue String
address The address of the venue String Y
city The city of the venue String Y
state The state of the venue String Y
country The country of the venue String Y
zipcode The zipcode of the venue String
timezone The timezone of the venue String Y
latitude The latitude of the venue Float Y
longitude The longitude of the venue Float Y
hours Hours of operation for the venue. String N
tags A list of tags associated with this venue. String List
venue types A list of types for this venue. String List
images If this venue has images, this field provides a list of URLs for those images. String List
search_info A list of parameters describing the search that was just performed. This information is valuable for examining the default parameters of a search, some of which are fixed and some are contextual. The following values are supplied:
  • what: The string against which items were matched. This is the same value passed into the input parameter of the same name.
  • when: The time constraint for this search. This is the same value passed into the input parameter of the same name. Only applies to even searches.
  • where: The geographic constraint for this search. This is the same value passed into the input parameter of the same name.
  • radius: The radius of the search.
  • st: The type of search performed: event or venue.
  • sst: The start time of the search expressed in seconds since 1970/01/01 00:00:00
  • set: The end time of the search expressed in seconds since 1970/01/01 00:00:00
  • srss: The number of items returned in this search. This is the same value passed into the input parameter of the same name provided that the input parameter did not exceed the maximum value.
 Hash

Example Response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rsp status="ok">
  <stream_count>2</stream_count>
  <venue id="5813">
    <name>Mission Bar</name>
    <description></description>
    <phone>(415) 647-2300</phone>
    <link>http://www.zvents.com/venues/show/5813</link>
    <url></url>
    <creator_id>2</creator_id>
    <address>2695 Mission St.</address>
    <city>San Francisco</city>
    <zipcode>94110</zipcode>
    <state>California</state>
    <country>United States</country>
    <latitude>37.7539</latitude>
    <longitude>-122.419</longitude>
  </venue>
  <venue id="5795">
    <name>Bar 821</name>
    <description></description>
    <phone>(415) 596-3986</phone>
    <link>http://www.zvents.com/venues/show/5795</link>
    <url></url>
    <creator_id>2</creator_id>
    <address>821 Divisadero St.</address>
    <city>San Francisco</city>
    <zipcode>94117</zipcode>
    <state>California</state>
    <country>United States</country>
    <latitude>37.777</latitude>
    <longitude>-122.438</longitude>
  </venue>
  <search_info>
    <sst/>
    <set/>
    <srss>10</srss>
    <what>bar</what>
    <when/>
    <where>san francisco, ca</where>
    <radius>5.0</radius>
    <st>venue</st>
  </search_info>
</rsp>

Output Fields

Note: The REST API does not return all possible fields for each item by default. Since some response fields are not used by most API users, these fields are suppressed from the response by default in order to reduce latency for the common calls. Additional fields can be enabled in the response using the fields parameters documented in the 'Optimizing API calls for performance' section.

Output Formats

REST responses can be returned in a number of different formats include XML, JSON and CSV. Read the documentation on output formats.

Performance Considerations

For performance reasons, newly created items (events, venues, etc.) will not appear in search results from the REST API for up to an hour after the item was created. It is possible to eliminate this delay when using a commercial API key. Contact support for details.

Possible Errors

This method may return one of the following errors.

Read the documentation on error formats.