There's no dearth of iPhone apps that can find an eatery close to your current location and present your fellow citizens' appraisals of said establishments. A few were ready when the App store first launched, notably Yelp and Local Picks by TripAdvisor. The big rating and review service that was missing was Zagat, but it's missing no more. Still, after taking a look at what this massive player has to offer, I can't help but wonder whether its iPhone application is worth $9.99 (direct). That's exorbitant for the iPhone, especially when virtually all the competition is free. And Zagat to Go lacks interactivity and the coolness we've come to expect from iPhone apps. You can't rate restaurants from the iPhone, nor does the app have any cool extras like the decision-making feature, offered by Urbanspoon (also free) that lets you shake your phone to determine a random choice of where to eat.

Pressing the globe icon in the upper right-hand corner of Zagat's home screen brings up the option to use your current location or enter one manually to find a place to chow down. You can set the app's search radius from 1 to 50 miles. After this, you browse nearby joints by cuisine, features (like buffets or "bathrooms to visit"), or Top Lists (Burger, Italian, and so on). One odd omission: There's no way to search by price (you can sort your search results by price later, but this is poorly implemented). When you choose one of the categories, restaurants are listed with ratings for food, décor, and service on the idiosyncratic 30-point Zagat scale. Yelp's 5-star scale, by comparison, is quite a bit easier to grasp. Average meal price is shown at the end of each listing.

Once you find a restaurant that piques your interest, tapping its entry brings up a page showing location, phone number, photos (if available), Web site, hours open, and selected quotes from the service's volunteer reviewers. Yelp lets you see all of the comments, and who made them. The Click to Reserve button merely takes you to OpenTable's mobile site; if you already know where you want to dine, you might as well simply start there. One nice touch: Clicking the phone number on the Zagat listing dials the restaurant immediately. The iPhone is a phone, too, after all! But this doesn't set the app apart, since Yelp, too, lets you call directly from the listing.

Though New York is its home ground, Zagat found only one restaurant in the up-and-coming Sunnyside neighborhood in Queens, an upscale bistro called Quaint. It didn't find the superior Bliss (which Yelp rated higher), nor Dave's Bagels, an anchor of the community, for which Yelp also had the goods. So if you're in the mood for a nosh and a schmear, Yelp is a better bet than Zagat, which tends to focus on high-end dining. Yelp also can display a map of your result's addresses, tabbing through each place found—something strangely lacking in the more expensive app.

A final disappointment for me was that you couldn't submit a rating and review for a restaurant from your iPhone. This capability would seem to make a lot of sense, since you'll certainly have your phone with you when you're out on the town. But neither Yelp nor Zagat offers this. Presumably they'd rather have the more long-winded reviews that are really possible only from a keyboard.

Zagat justifies the exorbitant price in terms of iPhone apps by saying that you'd pay more for an actual Zagat guide. It is much cheaper than a membership at Zagat.com, which runs $25 a year. Maybe foodies who who've come to rely on Zagat over the years won't hesitate to pay the $10 any more than they would balk at paying a lot for a good meal. I have to admit, I'm more a fan of ethnic or local dives that have amazing food at reasonable places. If you're a cheapskate like me, or just want a wider spectrum of choices, stick with the free Yelp iPhone app to figure out where to find the best eats.