# SideСhef: Easy Cooking Recipes — user reviews > 150 indexed App Store user reviews of SideСhef by SideChef Group Limited, rated 4.70/5 from 1,654 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sidehef-easy-cooking-recipes/id905229928/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sidehef-easy-cooking-recipes/id905229928.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,374 · 4★ 202 · 3★ 24 · 2★ 15 · 1★ 39 ## Newest reviews (13 of 150) ### 3/5 — Beware malicious ads *2026-05-27, version 5.31.1* The app itself is fine, nice tool to help find recipes with the ingredients you have. I have recently deleted the app as it has started showing malicious ads claiming the device has been hacked and instructions to click on it. This needs to be addressed. ### 2/5 — Not adding to Walmart cart *2026-03-09, version 5.31.1* I picked recipes, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get them to add to my Walmart cart. It kept saying try later even after I deleted the app and redownloaded ### 3/5 — Love the app but *2026-03-04, version 5.31.1* Love this app for logging new recipes and creating my own. Easy to organize and categorize. Sad note that takes away stars is that the app no longer logs the nutrition facts when creating new recipes. ☹️ ### 2/5 — Too many requests? *2025-06-06, version 5.31.1* I was absolutely loving this app until I was editing a recipe and it crashed and said too many requests please try again later. I have waited over an hour and absolutely nothing. Then I try to go to the website and I can’t even login because I used my Apple ID and it won’t even let me change my password. ### 4/5 — Great app *2024-12-12, version 5.30.0* Lots of great ideas and easy meal planning. The only thing that could be improved is being able to print out the recipe. Or possibly seeing a monthly view so you can swap things out or move them around in the month. ### 2/5 — Good Design. Poorly Executed. *2024-10-06, version 5.29.1* I want to love this app as the UI is the best I have seen from these recipe manager apps, but it’s clear this is targeted towards the American market with the ingredients forcing themselves to the American way (a perfect example is when adding Rocket, it changes it into Arugula in the ingredients list which is annoying). Another example of this is the estimated cost feature showing it in US dollars with no way to change it to my local currency. Another big issue I’ve had is that when I’ve been copying across my recipes, I’ve had an error pop up saying that I’ve had too many requests. This renders the app completely useless as you can’t even view recipes. I’m not sure if this is intended as I’m using the free version, but there’s no explanation as to why I’m receiving these messages. Also, when you click onto the Meal Planner section of the app, I get presented with a DJANGO REST FRAMEWORK page with code. Another gripe is the clunkiness when putting in ingredients and quantities as you currently have to type in your ingredient, then go to another box to put in the quantity, then go to ANOTHER box to select the units of measurements. It would be far better to design a system that allows you to type in what you want (e.g. 15g of Cheese) and then have the system to decode that statement so that it correctly formats. This will make it feel more natural. Another improvement that should be made in the recipe steps area is designing the step boxes so that they can be expanded or automatically adjusted to the contents being put in as they are far too small which means I need to tediously scroll. In summary, overall, it’s a nicely designed app with potentially awesome features. However, I feel that some areas of the app have questionable design features and poorly executed UI experiences that need refining. The biggest issue that I feel needs addressing is adding localisation features to allow the user to select their own currency and stop forcing the ingredient names to suit only the American market. ### 4/5 — Best app to save my recipes *2024-04-10, version 5.28.0* I’ve tried many recipe apps, and this one is definitely the best one so far. Most of the apps I’ve used before didn’t allow me to save more than 20 recipes (unless I pay for it), but SideChef does. The UI is very user-friendly, and it’s probably the prettiest among the recipe apps I’ve used so far. My only issue with SideChef is that sometimes it doesn’t save the changes I made to my own recipes. I would also like more options for organizing my recipes, as now I can only access them via the “saved” button on the top right corner. It would be nice if I could customize their order, add tags, and add more details like preparation time and cooking time! ### 3/5 — Not working *2024-03-18, version 5.28.0* Unable to update recipes 🤷🏻‍♀️ don’t save any changes in the app or via browser. I like the app apart from this problem. I have to delete recipes and add again to be able yo change. ### 5/5 — Love having all of my recipes in one place! *2023-09-04, version 5.24.0* Great app! I haven’t tried ordering ingredients from Walmart yet, but looks like a great option! ### 5/5 — Finally found this!!! *2023-08-27, version 5.24.0* I’ve struggled for years trying to find recipes that I can easily fix, and are inexpensive, healthy, and delicious. I just downloaded this app and immediately spent several hours scrolling through thousands of recipes of all types. I’m beyond thrilled to get so much inspiration and easy recipes - I finally feel like I can expand my palette instead of fixing the same few meals! ### 4/5 — Great app, but *2023-08-13, version 5.24.0* I use SideChef on a Daily basis, but I miss interaction with other cooks. ### 5/5 — Love it! *2023-07-13, version 5.23.0* I simply love this app! ### 4/5 — It’s good but *2023-07-09, version 5.23.0* I can’t get the copy and paste recipe option to work. Everytime I try to paste a website it says it cannot be saved ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t even access the app *2026-02-25, version 5.31.1* I was going to give this a shot after budget bites is being planned to close, but I can’t even get into the supposed replacement app. No matter how many times I change my password the app won’t recognize the account and can’t log me in. Recognizes the email though when I try to create a new account with it. 🤷🏻‍♂️ ### 1/5 — Budget bytes terminated and replaced with whatever this is *2024-12-09, version 5.29.1* I know I’m late to the game but I was going through my apps and forgot budget bytes was replaced by this. This app is hard to navigate and pointless. Budget bytes was meant to help people find affordable meals that were easy to cook. This is not that. ### 1/5 — Misleading free trial *2024-03-04, version 5.28.0* Largely misleading free trial and also full of bugs. Churned user ### 1/5 — Paying for disappointment. *2023-12-30, version 5.27.1* I originally paid for this app while it was BudgetBytes. It then changed to SideChef and now charges for a premium membership. I didn’t pay for an app once to be asked to pay again. ### 1/5 — Terrible search function *2023-10-07, version 5.25.1* There are good recipes on the app, but when adding filters, instead of narrowing the thousands of results, it expands them. So, the app isn't great unless you know what recipe you want. Also, the suggestions are always complicated recipes with ingredients I don’t usually have in the house. I miss Budget Bytes. They had recipes I wanted to / could readily make and good suggestions. ### 1/5 — What happened to budget bytes and my saved recipes? *2023-09-08, version 5.24.0* Not liking the app. Had all my recipes in budget bytes. All appear to be lost. ### 1/5 — Awful *2023-07-23, version 5.24.0* Almost all the budget bytes recipes aren’t on the app. Not sure why. Likely will not be using this. ### 1/5 — Must really hate us *2023-06-25, version 5.21* Since the company won’t tell us if BudgetBytes has been bought out or rebranded or whatever, let me just point out that all the recipes that I loved from that app are nowhere in this one. The app and blog are identical except these new versions have worse recipes with worse pictures and more ads and premium features and money grabs. Just another stupid company more interested in money than providing a solid experience. ### 1/5 — RIP Another Victim of Monetization *2023-06-20, version 5.21* I was quite saddened to see the predecessor app to this one (the fantastic BudgetBytes) be discontinued in favor of SideChef and in a way, the transition to me represents just another illustration of the way the digital world is slowly changing and in my view leaving its golden age behind. I really appreciated how before this change one could purchase the budget bytes app one time using what I thought was a fair amount of real money, and then access an elegantly designed and seamless program to find and catalogue recipes. While this new app is free initially, it is clearly now designed more as a shopping and advertising app than a recipe app. I am saddened that this has become the new normal. While you can change the view of the ingredients list to remove ingredients shopping links, there does not seem to be a way to make this the default setting meaning you in effect have to click past advertising in every recipe. As a person who will not abide advertising in any form, this is intolerable to me. I received the notice that budget bytes will soon lose developer support and be unavailable after 7/6/2023. I downloaded and tried out sidechef, realized what had happened, shed a single tear for the days before freemium products, deleted the app, and dusted off my recipe spreadsheet. As the sinister creep of engagement and advertising continues to permeate every aspect of the digital experience, perhaps someday I will be even forced to start an actual recipe notebook on paper like this is the 1970s. ### 1/5 — Pas de français *2023-03-19, version 5.20* Pas de traduction française ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Delicious food *2025-12-04, version 5.31.1* Easy and practical I love it! You should try! ### 5/5 — Those food are good!!! *2025-05-18, version 5.31.1* Please make a restaurant and a store ### 5/5 — My favourite recipe app! *2025-02-10, version 5.30.0* I love this app - it’s easy to navigate and no matter what you feel like cooking (or eating), there’s a suggestion or a recipe to suit. I use the groceries option, even though I’m in Australia and it doesn’t ‘do’ anything as far as convenient grocery ordering, it’s still a great function for making a list without having to go back and forth between recipes to make sure you’re buying enough for all meals. The pantry function is awesome when you want to use up what you have before restocking. Great app, and the only one that I’ve found that really has it all! Hopefully one day it will connect with my local grocery chains, but even without that, it’s my go-to! Would love to see some more complex & gourmet options for really special occasions too! ### 5/5 — Meal prep *2024-10-18, version 5.29.1* Application très utile pour faire un repas pour la famille ou simplement un Meal Prep pour la semaine quand tu t’entraînes à la salle d’entraînement ### 5/5 — Really seems to be great! *2024-08-23, version 5.29.0* This app seems to be a great app and I can’t wait to make a meal from using it. ### 5/5 — The only cooking app you will ever need *2024-08-15, version 5.29.0* This app is all encompassing! You’ll never need anything more. It’s so user friendly and has the most delicious recipes to try. ### 5/5 — Great app *2024-04-18, version 5.28.0* Highly recommended, helps you make stuff from what you have in the cabinets as well as find new recipes and organizes a grocery list of everything you will need for all the recipes. Helps you plan out your week in advance for what you would like to have each day. Really Lovin’ this app use it everyday ! ### 5/5 — Great app *2024-03-19, version 5.28.0* Haven’t actually made any of the dishes yet. Just downloaded it today but so far I am loving how easy it is to find and save new recipes and make meal plans and it even gives you a shopping list for what you need ### 5/5 — A TOTAL LIFE SAVER! *2024-02-29, version 5.28.0* Deciding what to eat every week and providing variety in a nutritious way for my family has been a struggle. I have been ordering food online for a while, but getting a cart together is still an annoying chore. I love that I can find a recipe here, and it converts all of ingredients into a grocery cart for me to order at Walmart. And it’s free! Absolutely awesome so far. We have saved so much money on groceries using this app. Try it! ### 5/5 — Creative *2023-12-24, version 5.27.0* I really like how everyone can put their own spin on recipes and they always leave the items you need and the price . --- *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 2026-09-10.*