When you have a little cash to drop on a sit-down restaurant, how do you decide where to eat? Do you go to the same old places? Do you rely on recommendations from friends or from people who post reviews on local Web sites?

If you’re a visual person, you’d probably rather see an example of a restaurant’s food than read about it. While some restaurants have online menus, most of them don’t have photos.

That’s the reason Full Sail Digital Arts & Design graduate Gustavo Hernando started his mouthwatering site, DaFoodie.com.

“A lot of times when I went out to eat I had no idea where to go, and the name of the restaurant doesn’t say much. To me, obviously, the pictures say a lot more," said Hernando.

“I decided to actually make a site where all you look at is pictures of food. Instead of deciding on the restaurant first, you decide what you want to eat first and then find where to get it.”

The site’s interface and concept are simple: go out to eat, take a decent picture of your meal, and upload it to the site to share with others. There is no requirement to sign up, sign in, or fill out information beyond selecting the location and category of food and typing in the name of the dish.

The idea is to pitch in for the greater good of everyone’s eating experiences.

Orlando-based visitors to DaFoodie can search randomly, by 10 locations, or by 10 categories of food.

Hernando said the name of the dish is important so that people can be sure to get the same entrée in the picture, should that be their goal.

The picture quality is also important, he points out. “A picture taken with a low-resolution phone in low light conditions is not going help anybody.” He offers basic photo tips on the site as well.

Hernando stumbled on the idea after he began posting pictures of entrees he’d ordered from various restaurants on his Facebook page.

“I got a lot of comments from people asking me where I ate it and [saying things like] ‘Wow, it looks good!’” said Hernando.

Hernando said he also doesn’t plan to clutter the site with a lot of text or browsing options, although fans can choose to be a fan of the DaFoodie Facebook page and comment and connect there.

“The goal is to make the site very simple. I’m not going to have food reviews; I’m not going to have ratings. That is done very well by other people,” said Hernando. “We’re trying to make it really easy for people to submit by email, by Twitter, by Facebook, through the Web site.”

His fast-growing site already has about 200 pictures of local dishes at this point, and Hernando says a mobile app is also in the works.

In the future, Hernando plans to ask restaurants to submit their top ten dishes to help grow the number of entrée photos. However, he makes sure that no one restaurant gets the upper hand by keeping the photos in the general browsing area random, unless a visitor is filtering by location.

“We don’t want a restaurant to take advantage of it and every day upload their menu [so] they’ll always be at the top. We had to be a little clever for that,” said Hernando.

He’s not seeking out advertising yet, but he is getting his name out there with restaurateurs, he said.

“Every time I do go out to eat, I meet the manager and give them the DaFoodie card,” said Hernando. “I show them that this is a site that helps people find food to eat around their area, and I just want them to look at it and let me know what they think. So I’m not pitching them anything, I’m not looking for advertisement yet because I first want to show them value.”

But Hernando sees it as a win-win for diners and restaurant owners. “People see a very engaging, visual way to decide where to eat and the restaurants – they’ll be able to advertise.”