How to Find Out If a Restaurant Is Busy Before You Get There

No one enjoys waiting for a table in a restaurant. Unless you're a self-identifying "foodie Instagrammer" who thinks nothing of standing in line for two hours to eat photograph, hashtag, then eat an overly hyped cheeseburger, it's a situation that can only lead to bouts of extreme hanger. Or giving up altogether and just getting a McDonald's.

But what if we told you that Google may have found a way to tell us how busy a restaurant is before we even get there?

As Food & Wine reports, the latest update to the Google Maps smartphone app allows users to see how crowded a bar or restaurant is at the very moment of searching. In other words, whether it's worth going to that trendy no-reservations taco place right now or having another drink before you leave.

Google Maps already shows popular times alongside searches for eating and drinking establishments, but this is predictive and based on "typical peak popularity for the business for the week."

For the new update, Google Maps puts real-time smartphone location data into a crowd estimate algorithm to provide an accurate figure of the number of people currently in the restaurant. In a blog post about the new feature back in November, Google said it hoped it would allow users to "plan your itinerary to the minute."

And, presumably, your taco cravings.