Comparison

BentoBook vs Restaurant Journal_

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

Head to head
About

BentoBook

Features
Read full description

Save where you want to eat. Remember where you’ve been. BentoBook is a personal restaurant journal and planning tool. A home for the places you want to try and the meals you want to remember. Save a restaurant the moment you hear about it. Organize your places into lists, see them on a map, filter by cuisine or price, or find what’s nearby when it’s time to choose. When a meal is worth remembering, add a visit with photos, notes, and the people who were there. Each restaurant keeps its complete history, from the first dinner to a favorite you return to again and again. BentoBook remembers people, too. Look back at every place you’ve been with a friend, partner, or family member—and see a shared history take shape, one meal at a time. Everything you save stays private until you choose to share it. Send a restaurant or an entire list directly to another BentoBook user, or share it outside the app through Messages, Mail, or another sharing app. Your own places, your own taste, and the people who shared the table.

About

Restaurant Journal_

This app automatically creates a private map and journal of your dining experiences using your existing food photos. It identifies meals, organizes them by location, and allows you to add ratings, notes, and voice memos without manual check-ins or accounts.

Highlights
  • Automatic journal from photos
  • Private dining map
  • Meal ratings (Yay, Okay, Meh)
  • Add notes and voice memos
  • Photo and video storage per visit
  • Optional iCloud backup
Features
Read full description

Eat. Experience. Remember. Restaurant Journal turns the food photos you already have into a private, beautiful map and journal of everywhere you've eaten — automatically. No typing. No check-ins. No account. You have thousands of photos from meals out — birthdays, first dates, that hole-in-the-wall taco place — and no easy way to remember where any of them were. Restaurant Journal fixes that. It quietly scans your library on your device, recognizes your dining moments, and organizes them into a journal you'll actually want to revisit. A private map of your dining life • See every restaurant you've visited on a beautiful map — from your neighborhood to every city you've explored • Zoom from your street to "everywhere I ate in Italy" • Browse your whole history by month and year Effortless and automatic • Builds itself from photos you already took — nothing to log • Detects visits, groups them by place, and finds the restaurant for you • New meals appear on their own Capture what made it special • Rate every meal : Yay, Okay, Meh • Add notes and voice memos • Keep your photos and videos from each visit • Correct a place, or hide spots you'd rather not track Private by design • Your library is scanned on your device — your photos never leave your phone • No account required • Optional: back up privately to your own iCloud and sync across your iPhones, so you never lose a memory Rediscover your favorites Revisit spots you forgot you loved, and see how your tastes have changed over the years. Perfect for food lovers, travelers, photographers, and anyone who believes a great meal is a memory worth keeping. Your memories are more than photos. They're stories. Restaurant Journal helps you keep them alive.

Screenshots

BentoBook4 screens
Restaurant Journal_4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Restaurant Journal_ at every 4 days against BentoBook's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BentoBook ships an update every 2 weeks, Restaurant Journal_ every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
BentoBook versus Restaurant Journal_: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBentoBookRestaurant Journal_
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB7 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperUnhook StudioTimothy Brandt

In-app purchases

None

BentoBook

No in-app purchases

None

Restaurant Journal_

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BentoBook free?
BentoBook is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Restaurant Journal_ free?
Restaurant Journal_ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do BentoBook or Restaurant Journal_ have ads?
Neither BentoBook nor Restaurant Journal_ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BentoBook or Restaurant Journal_?
BentoBook ships an update every 2 weeks, and Restaurant Journal_ every 4 days. Most recently, BentoBook was updated on November 5, 2026 and Restaurant Journal_ on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons