Comparison

Culinary Backstreets vs The MICHELIN Guide

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Culinary Backstreets

Discover authentic local eateries in major food cities worldwide. This app provides curated reviews and integrated maps to help you find hidden culinary gems beyond typical tourist spots. Explore unique regional cuisines and enjoy offline access to content.

Highlights
  • Curated local food reviews
  • Integrated maps for easy navigation
  • Offline content access
  • Vivid food and people photography
  • Content from global food correspondents
Features
Read full description

Download the application for free and purchase each city volume of reviews for only $3.99 each, with a lifetime of free updates! The definitive guide to eating locally and authentically in several of the world’s greatest food cities, including Istanbul, Athens, Barcelona, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City – with more to come! Each city volume within the application is purchased separately for $3.99 with free updates to the database forever. Beyond the kebab, souvlaki, tapas, soup dumpling, feijoada or taco – and what you will find listed in most guidebooks for these cities – lies a wide range of unique regional cuisines and restaurants with hints of cooking from all around. Most of these spots, though, are found far off the eaten track. With Culinary Backstreets as your trusty guide, you will know what to eat and where to eat it. 

   Application features: 
-Content provided by Culinarybackstreets.com, the online global guide to local eats. -The absolute best of Culinary Backstreets’ local correspondents’  eating experiences: hundreds of opinionated reviews of local and authentic restaurants, street food carts, bakeries, dessert shops and more.
 -Search functions and integrated maps that make finding the perfect meal easy. 
 -Vivid photos of food and the people who make it.  
-Content always available in off-line mode. 


   About Culinary Backstreets:

 Partnering up with some of the most knowledgeable and passionate food writers and bloggers across the globe, Culinarybackstreets.com is a hotline for the hungry traveler, bedside reading for the foodie voyeur, and a heavily bookmarked index for those who live among the culinary backstreets featured in our pages. Dispatching from Istanbul, Athens, Shanghai, Barcelona, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Tbilisi (with more cities on the way), Culinarybackstreets.com is a community of readers and writers who follow their stomachs to the next destination.   Praise for Culinary Backstreets’ Istanbul app:

   “Finally, a guide that truly shows you how to eat like a local in Istanbul!”
-Anya Von Bremzen, contributing editor at Travel+Leisure, author of “The New Spanish Table”

   “…. The insiders guide to the back streets, hidden gems and tasty bites in the glorious old city on the Bosphorus. I love it.”
 Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC NEWS

   “Affectionate, funny and delicious. A must-have road map to the tastiest secrets in this beautiful city. I never leave home without it.” 
-Ivan Watson, International Foreign Correspondent, CNN   

“The brains (and stomachs) ….you want guiding you through the vast culinary treasures of one of the world's most interesting eating cities.”
-Seth Kugel, Frugal Traveler, New York Times   

“Brilliant insider guide to the best eats in Istanbul.” 
-The Guardian

About

The MICHELIN Guide

Discover and book top-rated restaurants and hotels worldwide. Plan your next trip with curated selections, create personalized lists, and access exclusive perks. Expert travel assistance is also available.

Highlights
  • Global restaurant and hotel listings
  • Instant booking for hotels
  • Create and share favorite place lists
  • Exclusive hotel upgrades and amenities (Plus membership)
  • Expert travel specialist assistance
Features
Read full description

Stay in amazing places. Eat unforgettable meals. Take the MICHELIN Guide app wherever you go. The MICHELIN Guide app puts the world’s best restaurants and hotels right in your pocket — and lets you book them. It marks the first time in history that the entire global guide — every restaurant in every location — is all together, all in one place. The app also includes the new and improved MICHELIN Guide hotel selection. Now you can instantly book the world’s most unique and exciting hotels, each one chosen for their extraordinary style, service, and personality. The MICHELIN Guide app makes it easier than ever to plan your next adventure or enhance your current one. Use it to quickly find and reserve restaurants and hotels near you or in a future destination; create and share lists of all your favorite places; or trial our “Plus” membership and receive free VIP upgrades and amenities at participating hotels. Need concierge-level care? Our expert travel specialists are waiting just a click away, available to assist with any aspect of your trip. They’re real people, ready to help you go places. So get going. Find great restaurants & hotels in each MICHELIN Guide city. Book amazing hotels wherever you find yourself. Download the app today.

Screenshots

Culinary Backstreets4 screens
The MICHELIN Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: The MICHELIN Guide at 4.9 against Culinary Backstreets's 2.6. The MICHELIN Guide also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 7) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 2 months). Culinary Backstreets's advantage is review sentiment (68% vs 41%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, monetization model and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Culinary Backstreets sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. The MICHELIN Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The MICHELIN Guide holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The MICHELIN Guide has 7.5K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of Culinary Backstreets's written reviews are positive against 41% of The MICHELIN Guide's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Culinary Backstreets ships an update every 2 months, The MICHELIN Guide every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Culinary Backstreets versus The MICHELIN Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCulinary BackstreetsThe MICHELIN Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.6 (12 ratings)4.9 (7.5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.7% of reviews — better41.1% of reviews
Number of ratings127.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#156 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB172 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCulinary BackstreetsTablet Inc

Customer experience

Culinary Backstreets

All ratings12 ratings
Positive41.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative58.3%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive67.7%
Neutral3.2%
Negative29.0%

The MICHELIN Guide

All ratings7,525 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews358 reviews
Positive41.1%
Neutral11.7%
Negative47.2%

Bugs and requests

Culinary Backstreets

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

The MICHELIN Guide

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes on launch
  • Location services not working as expected
  • Search functionality not returning relevant results
  • Inability to save or access user-created lists

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to search by cuisine, price range, and other filters
  • Map view with location-based recommendations
  • User-generated reviews and photos
  • Offline mode for accessing content without internet
  • Landscape mode support for tablets

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Culinary Backstreets

One-time7
  • IstanbulFree
  • RioFree
  • Istanbul$3.99
Show 4 more
  • Athens$3.99
  • Barcelona$3.99
  • Shanghai$3.99
  • Mexico$3.99
None

The MICHELIN Guide

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Culinary Backstreets free?
Culinary Backstreets is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The MICHELIN Guide free?
The MICHELIN Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Culinary Backstreets or The MICHELIN Guide?
The MICHELIN Guide is rated higher. Culinary Backstreets averages 2.6 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while The MICHELIN Guide averages 4.9 from 7.5K ratings.
Do Culinary Backstreets or The MICHELIN Guide have ads?
Neither Culinary Backstreets nor The MICHELIN Guide shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Culinary Backstreets or The MICHELIN Guide?
Culinary Backstreets ships an update every 2 months, and The MICHELIN Guide every 9 days. Most recently, Culinary Backstreets was updated on October 14, 2026 and The MICHELIN Guide on October 17, 2026.

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