Uncle Julio's vs Chef ARV
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Uncle Julio's
Enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine with this app. Order ahead for pickup, earn exclusive rewards and offers, and stay connected with your local restaurant's events and menu updates.
- Order ahead for pickup
- Earn loyalty rewards
- Exclusive app offers
- View menus
- Find nearest location
- Save favorite orders
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Uncle Julio’s – Fresh. Authentic. Rewarding. Discover the authentic taste of Mexican made fresh — right from your phone. The Uncle Julio’s App makes it easier than ever to enjoy your favorites, earn exclusive rewards, and stay connected with everything happening at your local restaurant. Earn Rewards & Offers Join our loyalty program and start earning rewards every time you dine with us. From bonus points to limited-time offers and special birthday surprises, the more you enjoy, the more you earn. Check your balance, track progress toward rewards, and redeem right from the app — no card or code required. Order Ahead for Pickup or To-Go Skip the line and order your Uncle Julio’s favorites for easy pickup or to-go. Customize your meal, choose your pickup time, and pay securely in the app. Whether you’re planning dinner tonight or catering for a crowd, Uncle Julio’s makes it simple and convenient. Exclusive App Offers App users get access to special offers and promotions you won’t find anywhere else. Turn on notifications to be the first to know about limited-time dishes, drink specials, and events happening near you. Authentic Mexican Flavor At Uncle Julio’s, we believe every meal should be made with care, craftsmanship, and a touch of celebration. From sizzling fajitas and fresh-made tortillas to hand-shaken margaritas and our one-of-a-kind Chocolate Piñata, each dish is prepared to delight and impress — bringing family and friends together over flavors you’ll crave again and again. More Ways to Connect • Find your nearest Uncle Julio’s • View menus and new seasonal dishes • Save your favorite orders for faster checkout • Receive notifications about local events and new menu launches Download today and make every visit more rewarding. Uncle Julio’s – Where every bite feels like a celebration. Terms and conditions apply.
Chef ARV
Discover personalized daily menus, explore recipes by ingredient or mood, and plan meals with a smart shopping list. Learn cooking techniques and food science, or engage in gamified culinary challenges. Hands-free Cook Mode offers giant steps and auto-timers for a seamless cooking experience.
- Daily auto-generated menus
- Fuzzy recipe search
- Pantry ingredient matcher
- 2-week meal planner
- Smart shopping list
- Cooking lessons and food science
- Hands-free Cook Mode with auto-timers
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The five tabs Today — an editorial home screen: a daily auto-generated menu (breakfast→dessert, rerollable), the daily Taste Test, technique-of-the-day, what's in season, plus a kitchen tip and food fact. Discover — instant fuzzy search (accent-aware, ingredient/cuisine/dish), 15 mood collections ("Ready in 15", "Date Night", "Bring the Heat"), a cuisine passport, and a "what can I cook?" pantry matcher that ranks recipes by what you already have and lists what's missing. Plan — a 2-week meal planner with auto-fill, and a smart shopping list that auto-categorizes (Produce/Meat/Dairy/…) and dedupes. Learn — an Academy of 16 cooking lessons + 12 food-science deep-dives, plus a Kitchen-IQ toolkit (40 flavor pairings, 32 substitutions, cup↔gram + °F↔°C converters, doneness temps, seasonal guide). Chef — gamified progression: XP, 8 ranks, 20 badges, cooking streaks, a cooking journal, and a culinary passport tracking which of the 47 cuisines you've actually cooked. The flagship: hands-free Cook Mode Giant readable steps, a progress bar, and timers that auto-detect durations from the recipe text ("sauté for 5 minutes" → one-tap live countdown with a chime), plus serving scaling (½×–3×), keep-screen-awake, and a finish celebration with confetti, XP, and a journal entry.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chef ARV at 100% against Uncle Julio's's 15%. Chef ARV also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.9) and update cadence (daily vs every 10 days). Uncle Julio's's advantage is ratings volume (208 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Chef ARV holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Uncle Julio's has 208 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 15% of Uncle Julio's's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chef ARV's.
Uncle Julio's ships an update every 10 days, Chef ARV daily. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Uncle Julio's | Chef ARV |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (208 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 15.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 208 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sun Holdings, Inc | Antonio Reyes |
Customer experience
Uncle Julio's
Chef ARV
Bugs and requests
Uncle Julio's
Reported bugs
52 issues- Rewards points not usable online
- App does not track visits
- Redeeming rewards did not work
- Platinum status reset to gold
- App is a piece of trash
Show 47 moreShow fewer
- App will not open
- Error message: forbidden
- Authentication error
- App never worked correctly
- App flashes and disappears
- Menu bar stays on screen
- App lags badly
- App stuck in 2015
- App only displays member number
- App freezes
- App poorly designed
- App freezes when clicking 'More'
- More button does not load
- No logout option
- New reward status unclear
- Features do not work
- App is glitchy
- More button spins
- App gets stuck
- Old UI
- Slow to load
- Click options don't work
- App is mostly a broken webview
- App not working properly
- Cannot order, redeem, or pay
- App freezes or launches an error message
- More section spins forever
- Cannot make reservations
- Menu button doesn't work
- Home button freezes
- App crashes on 'More'
- Cannot access rewards
- App freezes on 'More'
- Missed adding purchase due to app not opening
- App does not register Rewards points
- Spinning wheel stuck on screen when clicking 'More'
- Unable to add a reservation in the app
- Cannot reset password or username
- "More" button gives a spinning wheel forever
- Cannot create account
- App locks up when hitting 'more'
- Frozen app, cannot place an order
- No back button in the interface
- App malfunctions, cannot register card
- Sign up is impossible
- App broken, nothing happens after entering card number
- Unusable card and app
Requested features
12 requests- Allow section for notes to customize orders
- Fix app to allow reward points usage online
- Fix app to track visits automatically
- Fix app to allow reward redemption
- Fix app to reset status back to platinum
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- Add dark mode
- Improve UI and navigation
- Modernize the app
- Allow users to order, redeem points, and pay within the app
- Add a back button
- Allow card registration
- Allow password/username reset
Chef ARV
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Uncle Julio's
No in-app purchases
Chef ARV
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Uncle Julio's free?
Is Chef ARV free?
Which has better reviews, Uncle Julio's or Chef ARV?
Do Uncle Julio's or Chef ARV have ads?
Which is updated more often, Uncle Julio's or Chef ARV?
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