Zenchef vs Tabby
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zenchef
Discover and book available restaurant tables instantly without the stress of calling or guessing. This app provides real-time availability for your chosen date, time, and party size, offering a clear and confident dining reservation experience.
- See real-time restaurant availability
- Book tables instantly
- Explore trusted restaurants
- Map-based restaurant discovery
- Direct bookings with restaurants
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Zenchef is a calmer way to book restaurants. Open the app, see what’s actually available, and reserve without overthinking it. No juggling tabs. No calling. No guessing if it’s worth it. Zenchef is launching in early access, starting in Paris. Bon appétit, Team Zenchef ––– LAUNCHING IN EARLY ACCESS Zenchef, your free restaurant reservation app, is launching in early access, starting in Paris. The app is evolving quickly and opening to new diners in waves. Join early, try the first version, and help shape what comes next. If you have suggestions, write to us. We read everything. A FREE RESTAURANT RESERVATION APP, BUILT FOR CONFIDENCE Zenchef is a free restaurant reservation app that helps you discover and book restaurants faster by showing real availability for your date, time, and party size. No discounts. No commissions. Just direct bookings with restaurants you can trust. BOOK WITH CLARITY, NOT STRESS When choosing a restaurant, uncertainty is the hardest part. Zenchef removes the doubt by keeping everything in one place. With Zenchef, you can: • See availability in restaurants that actually matches your plans • Book a table instantly without leaving the app • Explore trusted restaurants on a clean, map-based experience • Avoid wasted time calling or clicking through full restaurants If a table is shown, it’s bookable. Simple as that. BUILT WITH RESTAURANTS, NOT AGAINST THEM Zenchef works directly with restaurants and never charges commission. That means: • Restaurants stay in control • Guests get accurate availability • No hidden fees, now or ever Better information leads to better decisions for everyone. STILL HERE? THAT MEANS YOU CARE ABOUT WHERE YOU EAT. Zenchef helps make sure it’s worth it. Now get the app and book something great.
Tabby
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Dinner was lovely. Now the awkward bit. Someone always ends up with a calculator, a pile of notes, and four people saying "just put me down for twenty." Tabby does that part instead. Photograph the receipt. Read out four letters. Everyone taps what they actually ate, and Tabby works out what each person owes — tax and tip included, down to the last cent. HOW IT WORKS 1. Point the camera at the check Tabby reads the receipt and writes out what you actually ordered — "CHKN PARM" comes back as Chicken parmesan. A line reading "2 BEER" becomes two separate beers, so two people can each claim one. Every line, price, tax and tip is editable before anyone else sees it. 2. Read out the code Every tab gets a four-letter code and a QR code to point a phone at. Nobody types an email address, nobody adds anyone as a friend, nobody has to be in a group chat with the whole table. 3. Everyone taps what they ate Claims land live, on everyone's phone, as they happen. Your running total updates under your finger — including when someone joins you on the bottle of wine and your share of it changes. 4. Lock it, and settle up Tabby freezes each person's share and shows them exactly what they owe you, and where the number came from. TAX AND TIP, IN PROPORTION Split down the middle and the person who had a salad subsidises the table's wine. Tabby apportions tax and tip to what each person actually claimed, and hands out the odd cents one at a time, so the shares always add back up to the total printed on the receipt. Not a cent more, not a cent less. LET THE CAT DO THE CHASING You paid the whole bill, and now you're the one sending "hey, no rush, but…" messages. Send a nudge instead. It gets less polite with every one you send, and it's capped at one per person per hour, so it stays funny. YOUR MONEY STAYS YOURS Tabby never touches the money. It's a ledger, not a wallet — no card to add, no cut taken, no account to top up. Settle in cash, or with whatever payment app you already use. Save your bank details or payment handle once, and only the people you've actually shared a tab with can see them. BUILT FOR A DARK RESTAURANT Warm paper, plain ink, and every amount in a monospaced figure so the columns line up. Items nobody has claimed sit faded, so what's left is obvious at a glance. Light and dark, one-handed, and it never asks for your location. TRY IT BEFORE YOU NEED IT There's a demo tab on the home screen. A sample receipt loads, three imaginary friends join and start claiming things, and you can watch a whole tab play out and settle it on your own — before you rely on it in front of people. FREE, AND QUIET No ads. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. No analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising identifier, and no tracking of any kind. Sign in with Apple or Google — there's no password to invent — and delete your account, and everything attached to it, from inside the app whenever you like.
Screenshots
Verdict
Zenchef and Tabby are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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.
| Parameter | Zenchef | Tabby |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 78.8% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 101 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zenchef | John Kealy |
In-app purchases
Zenchef
No in-app purchases
Tabby
No in-app purchases








