After 18 months of development by a Troy company, a restaurant-recommendation app for users of mobile devices launched Dec. 1 and hopes to grow to 1 million users nationwide by the beginning of next year. Download it here.

Called Taste, the app contains listings for 1.8 million restaurants across the country, according to CEO Kevin Vanderwarker, who founded the parent company, called The Taste App, with COO Chris Raymond. Both are tech-industry vets who continue to work day jobs while building Taste.

What distinguishes Taste, says Vanderwarker, is the personalization of its recommendations. Users of the free version can manually enter their dining experiences and reviews and also build a network of TasteBuds — fellow users of the app — whom they choose to follow. As a user’s dining profile and TasteBud network grow, Taste’s algorithm uses the information to tailor recommendations. Users can jump-start the process by paying for the premium version, which costs $1.99 per month and pulls all dining data from a designated credit card for up to the past 12 months to automatically build a large dining profile and continue adding to it as restaurant charges are made on the card. Taste Premium also includes access to the company’s concierge — an actual person! — who will respond to individual queries for recommendations and make reservations with desired restaurants, according to promotional material.

Taste now has approximately 250 users, 10 percent of whom are premium members, and another 500 have downloaded the app, Vanderwarker says, with more added daily. He says the company is committed to declining advertising from restaurants, meaning that a restaurant will never be able to boost its place in recommendations by buying an ad. The app is presently free of ads, though Vanderwarker says the company likely will begin accepting them from complementary businesses, meaning a user who searches for a steakhouse recommendation might see an ad for a nearby cigar shop or liquor store known for its scotch selection.

Taste has four employees and has raised $250,000 in startup funding, with a goal of $500,000 within the next 60 to 90 days, Vanderwarker says.

I’ve poked around the app briefly but did not sign up for a premium account. There are minimal reviews at the moment. Of the 63 restaurants that came up under the “American” category within 5 miles of my office, nine had reviews; seven showed a single review, another had two, and a third had three. A number of the reviews I came across were by Vanderwerker himself. (I’m told in a forthcoming updated version of the app, users will be able to see reviews only from themselves and their TasteBud connections.)

The database seems mostly accurate, though it contains closed restaurants including The Ginger Man in Albany (closed for 15 months, and its replacement, The Cuckoo’s Nest, open for 13 months, isn’t listed) and The Epicurean in Latham (closed 2.5 years, and its 6-month-old replacement, Kiernan’s Craft Tavern, isn’t listed), as well as some amusing glitches like the website link for Deacon Blues pub in Watervliet going to the site for a Steely Dan tribute band of the same name. I imagine they’ll be fixed soon.