Eight cool ways to dine with Siri

Steve Sande and I have been collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that just recently hit the Kindle store. It's a how-to that helps you get the most done with your Siri intelligent assistant. We're sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Today, we're looking at Siri's ability to help you pick a place to eat, meet up with friends, and calculate your total at the end. Without further ado, here are eight ways Siri can help you dine.

1. Find restaurants. Tell Siri, "I'm in the mood for Ethiopian food," or ask "What is the best Ethiopian food in Denver?" If you ask more generally, as in the first statement, Siri looks for business near you, sorted by distance: "I found 15 Ethiopian restaurants. 10 of them are fairly close to you." If you search the city as a whole, Siri sorts by Yelp rating: "I've found 15 Ethiopian restaurants. I've sorted them by rating."
2. Get directions. Once you've decided on a restaurant, tell Siri, "How do I get to 'Queen of Sheba.'" Siri replies, "Here are directions to Queen of Sheba," transferring you to the Google Maps application, with suggested routes laid out.
3. Meet up with friends. Ask Siri, "Where is Steve Sande?" Siri uses Find My Friends to see where Steve is -- hopefully on the way to meet up with you and not too far away. Remember, you must log into your Find My Friends account to use this query. Your authenticated session will last for a good long time once you do so.
4. Understand the menu. Curious about something on the menu? Want to learn more before you order? Say, "Search for Ethiopian Injeera on the Web." Siri doesn't handle foreign phrases as well as you might hope, but Google does very good "Did you mean?" analysis, and can help you move from Siri's interpretation to a solid web search about oddball food items.
5. Calculate sales tax. Once you've eaten, say, "How much is $18.95 plus Denver sales tax?" Siri uses the local city rate to add it to your tab.
6. Add a tip. A simple Siri request returns a list of tip amounts including 10%, 15%, 18%, 20% and 25% of a given total. Say, "What is tip on $20.41?" You can also say "What is an 18% tip on $86.74 for four people?" in case you want to split the bill.
7. Find a dessert place nearby. Say, "Where can we go for dessert?" Siri searches through Yelp reviews to find mentions of desserts and lists them (along with their reviews) sorted by proximity. "I've found a number of restaurants whose reviews mention desserts fairly close to you."
8. Get home safely. Once you're done with your evening, tell Siri, "Take me home." Siri provides directions to your home address. If you say, "I'm drunk," Siri will find you taxi cab listings to help you travel in a safe and responsible manner.