# Dinner Buddy Meal Planner > Meal planning and recipe management app with shopping list generation. (iPhone/iPad app by Nicola Grayson.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dinner-buddy-meal-planner/id1216864133 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Nicola Grayson](https://appshunter.io/developer/1216864132) - Category: Food & Drink, Shopping - Price: Free - Rating: 4.36/5 from 584 App Store ratings · 46 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 12.0 · 31 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2017-03-20 - Data updated: 2026-06-10 - Monetization: freemium - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dinner-buddy-meal-planner/id1216864133/reviews.md ## What is Dinner Buddy Meal Planner? Dinner Buddy helps you to plan your meals in advance, store and rate your recipes, search the web to view & save recipes, auto-generate a shopping list based on your planned meals, share recipes with friends and send weekly menu or shopping list to others. Once you have saved your regular meals as recipes you will be able to randomly generate a weekly menu, or browse the web and your stored meals for inspiration. Shopping list function generates a list based on your selected meals and allows you to tick off ingredients you already have at home and tick off as you shop. Web search function allows you to search and save recipes from a number of well known websites including All Recipes, BBC, Food.com and Jamie Oliver. Free app allows you to create menu for 1 week with 1 meal/recipe only, optional upgrade allows you to plan for up to 4 weeks with multiple meals/recipes per day ## Key features - Meal planning - Recipe storage and rating - Web recipe search and save - Auto-generated shopping list - Share menus and shopping lists - Random weekly menu generation ## What do users think of Dinner Buddy Meal Planner? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Simple and intuitive concept - 📋 Easy meal planning interface - 🎯 Ability to randomize meal selection - 📸 Share menu snapshots with family - 💾 Recipe storage functionality - 🔄 Flexible meal editing capabilities - 📱 Clean chalkboard-style design **Cons** - 🐛 Editing meals requires deleting and re-adding - 📺 Excessive and intrusive ads - 💰 Limited free features, paywall heavy - ⚠️ Frequent crashes when editing - 🔤 Font size too small for readability - 🐢 Slow app performance - 🔄 Data loss after closing app - ❌ Upgrade doesn't remove ads as promised - 🎯 Limited to one recipe per meal **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes when deleting meals - App forgets all data when closed - Upgrade purchase not recognized on restart - Unable to edit recipe text (can't scroll to end) - Recipe search doesn't load properly - Ads cover command buttons and can't be closed - Ingredients don't sync to shopping list - Random meal selection creates editing loop - Thursday meal deletion causes crash **Most requested features** - Alphabetical sorting of recipe list - Multiple recipes per meal (main course, sides, dessert) - Multi-week meal planning (beyond one week) - Breakfast and lunch planning options - Ingredient quantity calculations for shopping lists - Calendar with actual dates - Font size customization - Import recipes from Pinterest and web - Save and reuse previous week's menus - Free-form meal entry without pre-setup - Cross-device synchronization (iPhone/iPad) - Recipe prep/cook time indicators - Paid ad-free version option - Disable auto-capitalization - Customizable menu start day of week ## Recent user reviews (10 of 46) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dinner-buddy-meal-planner/id1216864133/reviews.md ### 1/5 — Ruined by updates!!! PLEASE FIX IT!!! *2023-01-07, version 2.5* Updates ruined this app… pain in the but to change a meal now! You can no longer edit the meal assigned to a day by the randomizer. You have to delete the day, re-add the day, then choose a new menu item!?!? But don’t try to randomly select again or you are back into the same nightmare loop if you don’t like the meal assigned! The app use to let you change any meal without all the steps listed above. PLEASE FIX IT Review used to read… Love this app... I use this every week to generate the family menu. I don't actually use the ingredients/shopping list function but have entered all of our standard dishes into it. Love that I can send a snap shot of the menu board to everyone so they know the plan. Only request would be to be able to sort my recipe list alphabetically. It seems to be based on when it was entered into the list. ### 4/5 — Upgrade not working correctly *2022-06-14, version 2.5* I like the app, it’s easy to use and not overly complicated to get started. My only issues is that I upgraded using the introductory offer, and still don’t have access to the upgraded features. The app treats me as if I’m a peasant, and still prompts me to upgrade. ### 2/5 — Can’t edit menu. *2021-11-08, version 2.5* I just downloaded the app to see if it would work for my needs, but it’s difficult to use right off the bat. Would like to be able to utilize this app better, but I’m not a fan of it. ### 5/5 — Hard to read - type style very small *2021-01-30, version 2.4* Like the general format The type style is not bold and hard to read The recipe search is random - could be organized better ### 5/5 — Easy to use *2020-12-02, version 2.4* Easy and simple to use. Wish there were more features to the upgrade. I liked the app and upgraded. Only thing i can do now that I couldn’t before was add 4 weeks at a time and add more to my list. Don’t think it was worth the 4.99. Hoping more features to come to make it worth it. Features I would like to see is actually dates for a calendar. Then today’s menu will be at the top of the menu. I wish there was more ways to modify the menu. ### 2/5 — Cannot delete Thursday meal *2020-09-18, version 2.3* Added my first meal on Thursday. Needed to edit and change day. Every time I tried the app closed. Thursday meal still there. Please fix. ### 2/5 — Ads are annoying *2020-09-05, version 2.3* Hard to use and the constant ads are annoying. Deleting. ### 3/5 — Good app, but missing an important feature *2020-08-21, version 2.3* Overall I like the app, and it is good for planning a weekly menu. However, the grocery list feature would be so much more helpful if it listed the amounts of each ingredient that were needed each week instead of the number of recipes it is used in. The lack of that feature makes it much less useful for me. ### 1/5 — Don’t waste your money. *2020-08-11, version 2.3* Don’t waste your money. Initially I liked the app but purchased the upgrade too soon. The app forgets everything each time you leave it. I setup a weeks worth of meals, populated recipes, created a shopping list. Left the app and when I went to go shopping and opened the app everything was gone. It even forgot that I purchased the upgrade to pro version. In have to restore purchased every time I open the app. Not sure how this app gets any positive reviews as it is completely unusable for me. I really hate it when I try am app and it seems good then you upgrade it to the full version and it gets worse than the free version. That’s what this app is doing for me. My recommendation is try something else. Don’t go here. ### 3/5 — Needs more recipe options *2020-06-09, version 2.3* I love it so far- the paid version so no commercials- but I wish I could pull other internet recipe ingredients in for the shopping list. The search is limited in the app. ## Frequently asked questions about Dinner Buddy Meal Planner ### What does Dinner Buddy do? Dinner Buddy is a meal planning application that helps users organize their meals in advance. It allows you to store and rate your recipes, search the web for new recipes, and automatically generate a shopping list based on your planned meals. You can also share your weekly menus or shopping lists with others. ### What are the key features of Dinner Buddy? Key features include the ability to plan meals, store and rate your own recipes, search and save recipes from popular websites, auto-generate shopping lists, and share your plans. The app also offers random weekly menu generation for inspiration. ### How much does Dinner Buddy cost? The app is free to download and use, allowing you to create a menu for one week with one meal per day. An optional upgrade is available to plan for up to four weeks with multiple meals per day. ### Can I use Dinner Buddy on multiple devices? The provided description does not specify compatibility with multiple devices or operating systems. However, it is a mobile application, suggesting it is designed for smartphones and tablets. ### How can Dinner Buddy help with grocery shopping? Dinner Buddy simplifies grocery shopping by automatically generating a shopping list based on the meals you have planned. You can then tick off ingredients you already have at home and mark items as you purchase them while shopping. ## Version history (last 1 release) ### 2.5 — 2021-03-18 Updated to new settings Updated SDK settings Added sort function to recipe list ## Apps similar to Dinner Buddy Meal Planner | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Brza vendor](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/brza-vendor/id1659222000) | — | Free | Food & Drink | | [Speedyy Superapp](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/speedyy-superapp/id1638569440) | — | Free | Food & Drink | | [Balloo](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/balloo/id1638606760) | — | Free | Food & Drink | | [LeyEat](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/leyeat/id1636706180) | — | Free | Food & Drink | | [Мой бренд](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id1636586340) | — | Free | Food & Drink | | [Sheesh Mahal Indian Restaurant](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sheesh-mahal-indian-restaurant/id1642478700) | — | Free | Food & Drink | --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*