UCSC Dining vs SlugMenu
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
UCSC Dining
Access detailed menus for all five UCSC dining halls, covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night options. Search for specific foods, view nutrition facts, ingredients, and allergens, and even preview upcoming menus.
- Dining hall menus
- Nutrition facts
- Ingredient information
- Allergen details
- Future menu previews
- Food search across halls
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Menu app for UCSC Dining halls: - Includes 5 dining halls for ten colleges - Provides dining hall menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night - Explore the menu from cafés on campus - Search for your favorite food across all dining halls - Find more information about nutrition facts, ingredients, and allergens - Preview future menus * Data provided by UCSC Dining. Due to the dynamic nature of the current situation, menus may change without notice. You may find item substitutions in the dining halls that are not reflected online.
SlugMenu
Easily find daily dining options at UCSC, including hours and current open status for all campus eateries. Favorite dishes to discover where they are served and get alerts for availability. Access detailed nutrition, ingredient, and allergen information for each item.
- Campus dining hall menus
- Real-time open/closed status
- Dish favoriting and alerts
- Nutrition and allergen info
- Allergen filtering
- Gluten-friendly sorting
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SlugMenu shows what UCSC is serving today. Every dining hall, cafe, market and Perk coffee bar in one place, with hours and whether they are open right now. Favorite the dishes you love. SlugMenu tells you which hall has the most of them today, and how long you have to get there. Tap any dish for nutrition facts, ingredients and allergens. Hide anything with allergens you avoid, and float Gluten Friendly options to the top. Tags come from UCSC, so check with dining staff if your allergy is serious. SlugMenu is an independent, student made app, not affiliated with UC Santa Cruz.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: SlugMenu at none against UCSC Dining's shown. SlugMenu also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and review sentiment (100% vs 67%). UCSC Dining's advantage is ratings volume (394 vs 3) and device support (3 vs 1). On price and in-app purchases 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.
SlugMenu holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UCSC Dining has 394 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of UCSC Dining's written reviews are positive against 100% of SlugMenu's.
| Parameter | UCSC Dining | SlugMenu |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (394 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 394 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | — |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chai Jie | STEFAN JULIAN BATORY |
Customer experience
UCSC Dining
SlugMenu
Bugs and requests
UCSC Dining
Reported bugs
2 issues- Inaccurate opening hours
- Incorrect menu information (e.g., waffles)
Requested features
5 requests- Add Owl's Nest cafe
- Allow viewing nutritional value for cafe items
- Option to search by food and see dining hall serving it
- Update hours for dining halls
- Update status for dining halls (e.g., open/closed for renovations)
SlugMenu
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
UCSC Dining
No in-app purchases
SlugMenu
No in-app purchases
