Taste preferences setup
How you get here: automatically, the first time you sign in with an incomplete profile. The root navigator routes you here and will not let you past it until it is done or skipped. Requires an account? Yes — guests never see it.
What this is
A three-step wizard that gives your recommendations a starting point. Without it the app has no idea what to show you, which is exactly the "Nothing here yet — complete your taste profile to get personalized picks" empty state you'll otherwise meet on Discover.
A Step n of 3 label and page dots sit at the top. Skip for now is always available in the corner.
Step 1 — "What do you love to eat?"
Pick at least one. We use this to personalise your feed from day one.
A grid of 25 cuisine tiles, animating in as a stagger:
American · BBQ · Bakery · Breakfast · Burgers · Cafe · Caribbean · Chinese · Desserts · Ethiopian · French · Greek · Indian · Italian · Japanese · Korean · Mediterranean · Mexican · Middle Eastern · Pizza · Seafood · Steakhouse · Sushi · Thai · Vietnamese
Multi-select — selected tiles turn orange. This is the only required step: trying to continue with nothing selected raises "Pick at least one cuisine — choose what you enjoy eating to personalise your feed."
Step 2 — "Any dietary preferences?"
Optional. We filter restaurants and dishes accordingly.
A checklist. The first row is the escape hatch:
- No restrictions, I eat everything — clears everything else
- Vegan · Vegetarian · Halal · Kosher · Gluten-Free · Dairy-Free · Nut-Free · Keto · Paleo
These genuinely filter what you're shown, not just how it's sorted.
Step 3 — "Where are you based?"
Used to show nearby restaurants and dishes, for example on the map and in local recommendations. You can always update this later.
A decorative map sits at the top, then:
- Use my location — requests GPS permission. On success it becomes a green "Location detected" row.
- If you deny: "Location access was denied. Enter your city below to still see nearby restaurants."
- or confirm your city — a free-text
city (optional)field, e.g.Toronto. This is the fallback that keeps the app useful without GPS.
A footnote states the boundary plainly:
Your location is used to show nearby restaurants and dishes, and to support location-based ordering checks like table QR flows. It is not shared with third parties for advertising.
The final button reads Finish instead of Continue.
Skipping
Skip for now is honoured at any step — you land in the app with an empty personalised feed and can fill this in later from Settings. Nothing is lost permanently.
If saving fails you get "Could not save preferences — please try again." and stay put rather than being dropped into the app with nothing stored.
Why it matters
Cuisine choices give your feed a starting point before you've used the app at all; dietary tags filter; location scopes everything to what you can actually get to. Skipping all three means Discover has nothing to rank until you start tapping around.
Note: Plaum currently operates in Ottawa only. Outside the service area the app tells you so directly — "You're outside our service area — Plaum currently only operates in Ottawa."