# Italian Food Decoder — user reviews > 36 indexed App Store user reviews of Italian Food Decoder by Agorite, rated 4.90/5 from 57 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/italian-food-decoder/id661926224/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/italian-food-decoder/id661926224.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 54 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## Newest reviews (18 of 36) ### 5/5 — Italian Food Decoder is a must *2018-10-20, version 3.12* If one is going to visit Italy, and plans to eat ANYTHING during that time, be sure to get this app. My visit is for three months, and this guide has been invaluable. If you like to cook, as I do, this is an absolute necessity. Whether you are buying food or going to restaurants, this is essential beyond helpful. Do yourself a big favor and download it. ### 5/5 — Confused at the Coop grocery store, try Mangia to help *2018-10-17, version 3.12* I am living in Florence for two months. I am not fluent in Italian and this app has been a great help, I bring it with me on my iPad when I go grocery shopping at the local Coop grocery store which is huge with an endless variety of food some of which I have never seen. Now if only they would make an app to decipher menus! ### 5/5 — Absolutely essential for visiting Italy *2016-09-09, version 3.4* A real life saver in Italy, essential if you go off the beaten track and want to eat where the Italians eat! ### 5/5 — Italian Cuisine Unbound *2016-08-21* This new app is a gem, proving once again (after Barcelona A & C), that Facaros/Pauls have mastered this new travel writing genre. I unfortunately didn't discover their Cadogan guides until a few years ago. So much time was lost, not to mention money spent, digging through numerous travel destination sources when their books alone would have sufficed and provided their special brand of humor and insight - both of which their apps also possess in spades. In The Italian Menu Decoder, Facaros/Pauls have been able to expand the limits of travel writing, making use of this new genre to provide information about anything you could ever want to know about Italian food culture, and making it so much fun that you really do want to jump on the next plane to the Italian Peninsula with your new app in hand and start digging in! ### 5/5 — Second edition even better! *2016-06-13, version 3.4* The new version is much improved by a better Home screen that makes it easier to navigate. Everything you could possibly want to know about Italian cuisine is still here, with the inimitable style that made the Cadogan travel guides so much fun. Beautiful pictures add the finishing touch to an app that will make you crave a trip! ### 5/5 — 5 stars are not enough! *2015-02-02, version 2.0.1* This app is monumental. We travel to Italy all the time, and I can't count how many times it would have come in handy on previous trips - but so glad we have it now. Can't wait to take it to Sicily next month. Mille grazie, Dana and Michael! ### 5/5 — Fascinating *2014-12-24, version 2.0.1* The fullest and most interesting app of its kind that I have ever found. ### 5/5 — Not Just for Travel - a "Foodie" Must-Have!" *2014-05-19, version 2.0.1* I love this app! I only used it a few times while traveling. Not only was it useful, but provided odd bits of history - leading me and my husband down the rabbit hole of Italian gastronomy. Since then I've used it several times with foodie friends just for the fun of it. Great app! ### 5/5 — Really really useful *2014-05-16* Helped me not to order dishes with eggs...which I hate..but also to get around in the mountains of Liguria, where no one spoke English in the restaurants. Just downloaded the latest version and it works like a treat! ### 5/5 — If you are going to Italy you need this *2014-05-08, version 2.0.1* Very useful and just what you need to figure out the menus in Italy. The app has an extensive list of terms. Filter by types of dishes or by region of the country. Now I won't feel so helpless in front of an Italian menu. Thanks for providing this. Highly recommended. ### 5/5 — ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! *2014-04-20, version 2.0* This app is absolutely fantastic! I'm an Italian Instructor and although I'm quite fluent, there are times I look at an Italian menu, particularly in a regional part of Italy, and I am completely mystified. Regional diversity is a hallmark of Italian cuisine and unless you're at a tourist restaurant with everything written in four languages, (yuck! something that I avoid like the plague...) you may find the menus to be filled with local, regional and dialectical vocabulary and terminology. Absolutely unfathomable! This app addresses those issues beautifully. This is a very rich app, worth every bit of the $5. It goes from the basic to the very detailed. If you are just looking for "Survival Italian Restaurant Skills," this is for you, but for my purposes, it also addresses culinary regional diversity and takes the confusion out of ordering in restaurants, no matter what region of Italy you're in. The app is enhanced by thousands of photos that give life to those wonderful, obscure local food items and dishes. Pure joy! I miei complimenti a Dana e Michael! Buon appetito! - Susan Nus author of Italian Fluency ### 5/5 — Now I know what affogato is! *2013-12-09, version 2.0* I love Italian food. I love Italy. I even love Italians. But every time I visit I end up ordering the same, small selection of things I know how to pronounce. Spa-ghe-tee. This menu decoder opened up a whole new world of Italian cuisine! It's got easy to use navigation to food types, regions and specific dishes. The history of phrases and foods is great - guess where "puttanesca" comes from. Overall, very well-written, helpful and fun. ### 5/5 — This app has it all! *2013-12-01, version 2.0* Easy to use and fun! Excellent organization; smooth navigation. Lots of ways to search--very cool structure. Provides way more than translation of menu terms: historical tidbits, background information and explanations that make ingredients/dishes come alive! Perfect decoder at the market, too--a huge bonus! The authors obviously love Italy and Italian food. Brilliant app! Far more than anticipated! ### 5/5 — Great App *2013-11-26* This is the most incredible app I have downloaded! If you are a fan of Italian food this is a must have. And if you are going to Italy it will be invaluable. The wealth of information is incredible and it is more than just food. There are sections on cuts of meat, the types of cookware and tableware and even a " 5 minute grammar lesson ( very informative). The ingredients and dishes are also sub catorigized by regions which is so helpful as there is such a diversity between the food in Puglia versus Piedmonte for example. We have another app by the same authors on Barcelona. That one is great but we think this is even better! ### 5/5 — Keep the menu APPs coming! *2013-11-11, version 2.0* We recently bought this APP in preparation for our next trip to Italy. I only wish we had had it during our last trip, where we visited many small villages and often had no idea of what we were ordering - as the locals only spoke Italian and our knowledge of the language, as well as our Italian/English dictionary, were of little use. We have been enjoying the APP's lively and informative text, beautiful pictures and all of the extras (such as the 5 minute grammar lesson!) - while dreaming about all of the delicacies that await us. This book is a treasure for anyone who loves Italian food. And being the foodies that we are - we hope that the authors write a food APP for France and Spain soon! ### 5/5 — The perfect accompaniment! *2013-11-09, version 2.0* The Italian menu decoder is one of those apps you wonder how you ever lived without! Whether in your local Italian restaurant, or touring the more remote regions of Italy, this easy to use and beautifully written app is the perfect accompaniment! ### 5/5 — Italian Menu Decoder 'Mangia' *2013-10-27* We spent a year living in Italy in 2009 and have been back twice since in different regions. What a splendid app this is! We looked up many of our favorite unusual food names eg ‘puntarelle’ and always it has the answer with excellent explanations in words but also with beautiful photos which look great on iPads. Also very handy on iPhone when exploring menus in Italy. We would strongly advise anyone travelling in Italy to buy this app, but also just to wander through it and dream. ### 5/5 — Mangia is right! *2013-09-04, version 1.0* I can't believe how much useful info is jammed into this app. Both practical and enlightening. LOVE it. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Italian Food Decoder *2014-09-10, version 2.0.1* Terrible. Crashes upon opening. I have sent three emails to their support and have yet to receive a reply much less a solution. Finally received a return email giving me suggestions I had already tried. They did contact me again and gave me a refund, but no fix. ### 1/5 — Armchair Tourist *2013-08-30, version 1.0* Traveling to Capri/Amalfi next week and want quick lookup of menu items while dining. Poor connectivity in remote areas is why I purchased this app. App is very slow, wants to download many MB of photos, and worst did not list a random test of 5 southern specialties that are all prominently described on various live web sites. Search function does not indicate if it is still searching or simply has no entry found. No wonder they say so little about the app. Its worthless. ### 3/5 — Awkward divisions, navigation *2013-08-13, version 1.0* The overall info seems OK, and it's good that the authors keep up a running dialog in the Comment, and the pictures are often useful. But I very much dislike that vocabulary is strewn between various sections, forcing the reader to root around (is is under General? Restaurant Words? Bar Words? Cheese Words? I also find some of the navigation awkward, what with the General vocabulary split into 4 sections and some of the linked items leading to peculiar results (e.g. the link from 'all'amatriciana' leading to 'in bianco,' and a somewhat cryptic remark about sauces without tomato in them—whereas the name for an 'amatriciana' made without tomato sauce is alla gricia, which ought to be linked there but is not). Some of the choices for vocabulary entry are mysterious. E.g., alla gricia is found under gricia, but all'amatriciana is found under all', and alla milanese is found under alla, not milanese. Peculiar. So, good idea, needs work. ### 5/5 — The best! *2026-04-05* So useful, especially for eating in places off the beaten track! ### 5/5 — Indispensable app when dining in Italy *2021-08-17, version 4.1* The words used to describe different Italian dishes vary by region, and can baffle even people who speak the language fairly fluently. This app will help you decipher the most confusing Italian menus. With helpful pictures and a good search function, it provides context for what’s on offer, which will help you avoid unwelcome surprises . ### 5/5 — Great app *2021-08-10, version 4.1* Love that I can search any word on a menu & have it translated for me!!! ### 5/5 — NOMNOMNOM *2021-03-08, version 4.1* I’m getting hungry and feeling such a longing for travel from looking through the seafood section!! ### 5/5 — Simply the best! *2021-03-08, version 4.1* My wife and I rely on this app. It is a lifesaver and has led to so many extraordinary meals from rumb to Venice. ### 5/5 — Recommend *2020-11-15, version 4.1* I appreciate this app. A lot effort went into it and it’s not only a good language tool, but also a compact culinary reference! I should add that the support team is amazing and quick response to questions! Thank you! ### 5/5 — The Best Italian Food *2020-05-03, version 4.0* Absolutely the best Italian food app I have found it covers everything , history, culture , regions , anything else you need to know about Italian food. Great app! ## Most praised reviews (3 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Informative in a hurry; fascinating to browse at leisure *2019-11-03, version 3.15* You need it when the menu comes but you’ll treasure it at home with a glass or two. ### 5/5 — Excellent Italian Food Resource *2019-04-20, version 3.14* The App is extremely well-organized. The “search” function is great for both food shopping and in restaurants. ### 5/5 — Decipher those Italian Menus with Aplumb *2019-03-18, version 3.14* Love the update. If only I had the benefit of this app when I was in Siena back in 1986. Then, my future wife ordered us mortadella sandwiches for a picnic lunch, perhaps the worst dining experience of my life, at least in Italy. With Italian Menu Decoder I would have avoided that catastrophic meal and the courtship may have run its course more smoothly. Truth be told, I have dined with the authors of this app on several occasions, both in the states some 30 years ago, and abroad. I knew them when they could barely cook a kielbasa and did not have great sense of finer cuisine. But now that they have lived in Italy and France since 1985, and traveled extensively writing over 40 Cadogan tour guides and numerous newspaper and magazine articles on Italy, France, Greece and Spain, things have changed dramatically. To be invited to dine at chez Pauls and Facaros is a culinary delight. The starters themselves are worth the trip. Michael makes a mean aranchini and Dana’s exotic pizzas are beyond compare. Italian Menu Decoder has strong merits. The recent update makes it even better. It deciphers not only the language and dialects that you’ll find on any Italian restaurant menu, but will also explain the cutlery, meats, pastas, ingredients and sauces that bring life to Italian cuisine. If you dine Italiano frequently, or if you jut wish to learn more about Italian cuisine, this app is for you. --- *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 2026-08-28.*