More info on the app:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/blog/27/Ur...he-iPhone.html
It does use gps and it appears you can filter on price range and style. From the pics it looks like the geographic range might be large, though I don't live in NYC to really know. The novelty, I guess, is the random selection and rating/reviews. Clearly you can call and get directions after you have selected a place. Not saying that it's better than live search, but I don't think it's worse for this particular application either.
As much resistance as there is to these kind of apps on WM, I would like something like this, especially if had a "pick from favorites" kind of thing. That and a TD Ameritrade app (of which there are two for iPhone). grrrr