# Dinner Buddy Meal Planner — user reviews > 46 indexed App Store user reviews of Dinner Buddy Meal Planner by Nicola Grayson, rated 4.36/5 from 584 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dinner-buddy-meal-planner/id1216864133/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dinner-buddy-meal-planner/id1216864133.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 374 · 4★ 111 · 3★ 52 · 2★ 21 · 1★ 23 ## 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 ## Newest reviews (14 of 46) ### 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. ### 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. ### 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. ### 2/5 — Not Intuitive Enough; could be a 4 with polish *2020-03-28, version 2.3* I like the simple and friendly concept of this app. The concept feels easy, familiar, and the app has a share button right on the calendar board; love it. However, the constructive criticism outweigh the beauty of the idea for me. Requires pre-planned setup before use. Meals must be entered before selection, there's no default for day of the week and you have to select it explicitly before you can start adding your constructed meals to the list. I didn't notice it he menu bar on the bottom because it didn't stand out against the add bar at the bottom. This app needs a UX engineer; I can tell the project doesn't have one yet. It also needs to work on more instant accessibility, how can you accept free-form meal entry and use that to populate the meals instead of forcing the user to set the meals up before use? (Hint: see MealPlanner app for good execution of this concept) In the end, I like the corner cafe feel and simple concept, just a few weeks at a time. Projects benefit from constructive criticism input from outside the development team, this project would be a higher rating with more external feedback and more dev cycles. For the ux engineer, it can be a volunteer opinion, they don't have to be payroll. #DrunkPMWeekendThoughts ### 2/5 — Frequent video commercials with new update. *2019-08-11, version 2.1* Has to delete. Ever third click has 30 sec. commercial. ### 2/5 — Better before the update *2019-07-06, version 2.1* This app was a favorite of mine and I used it like everyday, for weekly meals. Since the update though, it is less user friendly and way too many ad pop-ups now. The design update is the reason I will no longer use it and now delete. ### 2/5 — It was great - before the update *2019-04-28, version 2.1* I used to love this app, before the update. I used it to plan dinners for the week. Now I have to type in dinner (only one extra step, but an obnoxious one) and then I don’t know how to erase the dinner option I picked anymore. Now I feel like I’m just being asked to upgrade constantly ### 3/5 — Could be a good app *2019-02-23, version 2.0* Love the idea of this app and was excited to use it but it’s very slow.. when I try to search recipe ideas it doesn’t load and I have to restart the app. Please update the app! ### 1/5 — Frustrating *2018-12-28, version 2.0* The reason I looked for an app for a weekly menu was to help with productivity. I didn’t even get to try it out and create a menu because every time I click on something to create a menu a 5 second add pops up completely covering your entire screen. I don’t have patience for such invasive advertising. I don’t mind a banner add if it doesn’t cover the function of the app but when you have to stop and wait for an add to let you click it off it defeats the purpose of an app to help with organizing or productivity. Really sick of these types of apps/advertising. I would pay for a good app but can’t really tell if it’s any good when I can’t even try it! Deleting this app! ### 3/5 — So much potential *2018-11-09, version 2.0* I would love if I could transfer the recipes I find on Pinterest onto this app without copying and pasting everything. Just a suggestion. ### 2/5 — Eh! *2018-10-31, version 2.0* I plan more than one week of menus and serve side dishes also. Unable to indicate this on this app. ### 3/5 — Want multiple recipes *2018-10-30, version 2.0* It would be nice if you could choose more than one recipe. Unless you make one pot meals every single night, it would be nice to upload more than one recipe each night ie. main course and side dish so you could plan for both. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 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. ### 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. ### 1/5 — Might be good app but *2020-01-16, version 2.2* Can’t do much on here unless you pay. There are other apps that are better for free!!! ### 1/5 — Frustrating *2019-12-31, version 2.2* Is there something I’m missing? I’d like to write a menu without a recipe, searching the web, or any other choices I have been given. I wanna click on a pencil or day and write what I have. Is this possible and how? ### 1/5 — Hard to use and basic is not very user friendly *2019-11-10, version 2.2* Not worth a purchase ### 1/5 — “Upgrades” made it horrible *2019-10-26, version 2.2* Horrible after they made changes. ### 1/5 — Used to be great *2019-09-12, version 2.1* This used to be an amazing app that I used weekly to plan my meals and grocery lists, but you guys really screwed it up. If I choose a meal for one day, I can’t alter it without erasing the entire menu. It’s so frustrating, and with ads every ten seconds, it’s pointless to use it. ### 1/5 — Hard to navigate *2019-07-15, version 2.1* I was really hoping this would be what it purports to be . Could get though ALL the ads to even start to use it. Bogus . Talk about a hook !? Don’t list as FREE if it’s unusable without the purchase. Ugh ### 1/5 — Latest Update Not Implemented Well *2019-05-17, version 2.1* Latest update took this from an ‘ok’ app that got the job done (albeit with some issues) to a poor app where they added extra steps to what was there before unless you pay. Looking for another option. ### 1/5 — Hot mess *2019-04-30, version 2.1* I have been using this app & LOVING it until the last update in the App Store, now every single time I try to delete a meal that was in there before the update it crashes. I cannot delete anything. So sad. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 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. ### 5/5 — Exactly what I'm looking for *2020-03-03, version 2.3* I like the ability for the app to start with random meals for each day and then I can edit some of the meals to change them. ### 5/5 — Total mess now *2019-05-04, version 2.1* This update prevents any editing. You ruined a nice simple app. ### 5/5 — WOW *2018-08-24, version 2.0* Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you ### 5/5 — Nice app *2018-05-29, version 2.0* Allows flexibility....and is easy to use. ### 5/5 — Love this app *2018-05-03, version 1.9* This is exactly what I have been looking for! Extremely easy to use. Perfect place to keep all your favorite recipes. I always copy and paste my recipes from websites that I like and want to save. I wish there was a paid version so I didn’t have the adds. ### 5/5 — Would be so much better *2017-11-12, version 1.7* It would be great if you can download recipes you already have saved ,from Pinterest ### 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. ### 4/5 — Love the idea, needs larger font in recipes for iPad *2020-01-31, version 2.2* This app is exactly what I was looking for—a simple meal plamner that would also store my recipes. It’s pretty great! My only problem is that the font in the recipe section is too small for me to see without my reading glasses, which is a major pain. I’d LOVE an update that gave font size choice. --- *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.*