System and method for providing food taxonomy based food search and recommendation

A computer system for maintaining and using a dish hierarchy for menu management and food ordering, the computer system comprising:

• a server including one or more processors;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage media that is communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• store a dish hierarchy having multiple dish nodes at a plurality of levels, each dish node having one or more properties corresponding to one or more of a common plurality of attributes, the dish hierarchy comprising a plurality of menu items having been received from a first restaurant and mapped to one or more of the multiple dish nodes according to a set of values corresponding to a set of the common plurality of attributes, the plurality of menu items including a first menu item that is mapped to a specific dish node;
• receive a set of search terms from a diner communication device;
• identify a list of dish nodes of the multiple dish nodes having properties matching the set of search terms, the list of dish nodes including the specific dish node;
• send instructions for presenting, by the diner communication device, a graphical user interface (GUI) that is configured to show data related to a list of menu items that are mapped to the list of dish nodes and a list of attributes of the common plurality of attributes for user selection, the list of attributes being used to filter the list of menu items;
• receive a food order including the first menu item from the diner communication device;
• send the food order to the first restaurant communication device.