AI-powered restaurant recommendation assistant for kano state, Nigeria.
# LocalBuka – AI Restaurant Recommendation Assistant
## Overview
LocalBuka is a prototype restaurant discovery and recommendation assistant focused on restaurants and food in Kano State, Nigeria.
## Features
- Cuisine preference matching
- Exact and partial meal matching
- Budget matching
- Distance-based filtering
- Restaurant rating consideration
- Spicy-food preference
- Explainable recommendations
- Free-text command-line conversational assistant
## Project Structure
```text
localbuka-ai-case-study/
├── data/
│ └── restaurants.json
├── src/
│ ├── recommender.py
│ ├── test_recommender.py
│ └── chat_assistant.py
├── README.md
├── REFLECTION.md
└── requirements.txt
```
## Requirements
Python 3.9+ is recommended. The current prototype uses only Python's standard library and does not require a paid LLM API.
## How to Run
From the project root:
```bash
python src/test_recommender.py
python src/chat_assistant.py
```
### Example
```text
You: I need something spicy and cheap near me
```
Type `exit` to close the assistant.
## Recommendation Approach
The system scores restaurants using cuisine, preferred meals, budget, distance, rating, and spicy-food preference. Exact meal combinations receive a stronger match than partial matches. Results are sorted by score and accompanied by explanations.
## Conversational Assistant
The assistant accepts free-text requests, extracts supported preferences using lightweight keyword/rule matching, and passes them to the same recommendation engine.
## Testing
The system was tested with different user profiles, including:
- Hausa/Northern Nigerian food preferences with Tuwo Shinkafa + Miyan Kuka
- Budget, spicy Beef Suya preference
- International-food preference with Grilled Chicken
## Production Considerations
Possible failures include misunderstood free-text requests and outdated restaurant information. Mitigations include better NLP, clarification questions, verified and regularly refreshed data, and monit …