Talk Dim Sum vs The MICHELIN Guide
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Talk Dim Sum
Navigate Chinese and Chinese-adjacent cuisine with confidence. Hear pronunciations in Cantonese or Mandarin, search dishes in English or Chinese, and discover over 500 restaurants. Practice your speaking with speech-to-text and AI dish recognition.
- Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation
- English and Chinese search
- Save favorite dishes
- AI camera dish recognition
- Speech-to-text pronunciation practice
- Over 500 US restaurants listed
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Love dim sum, but don't know what to order or how to order? Bring this app, find what you like, and tap the speaker icon to hear the dish pronounced in Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin) using iOS text-to-speech. I made this app after visiting Hong Kong and trying to crash course learn Cantonese in the food courts. The early focus was just on dim sum and Cantonese text-to-speech and my favorite restaurants, but has since expanded (based on user tips and requests and my own interests) to more broadly cover Chinese and Chinese-adjacent food (over five hundred dishes) and include features such as Mandarin (traditional and simplified), search (English and Chinese), saving favorites, AI camera recognition of dishes, speech-to-text pronunciation practice, basic phrases, and over five hundred restaurants in the US (sorry, I gave up on trying to list every restaurant in the world, it's just not feasible). Tips: If the voice is stuck in Cantonese or Mandarin even after switching the tabs in the Practice screen, go to the Settings app, select Accessibility then Spoken Content and check the Chinese voice. If it's not one of the Siri voices, try selecting Siri in Mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. If you don't hear the Chinese speech 1) check the mute switch on your iPhone and make sure it isn't on. 2) text-to-speech for a particular voice sometimes seems to require an internet connect, at least on initial use (same with speech-to-text, the microphone practice button). 2) sometimes a device will have trouble accessing the text-to-speech voice (it's the Hong Kong Chinese voice used for Accessibility in Settings), so try turning your device off and on. Tapping the speaker icon plays back the Chinese pronunciation at half speed to help you learn. Tap the microphone icon to bring up more options, including adjusting the playback speed, switching between Cantonese and Mandarin, and practicing speaking (the speed and language settings are also in Settings). Aside from the default speed, the speech may sound not quite natural because the app does not play back recorded speech but instead uses iOS text-to-speech functionality, which utters one character (i.e. one syllable) at a time, which may not match how an entire compound word or phrase is normally pronounced (you can hear this effect when using Siri). The home screen shows categories of dishes. Tap each category to see the dishes. Or tap on the Search button at the top left (some vocabulary items like "takeout" are not in categories but available in via search). Talk Dim Sum is developed with: The dim sum icon from Stock Image Folio on Iconfinder.com. The technicat logo designed by Dakota Snow. Restaurant link icons from Simple Icons. Photos from many dim sum excursions. Regional map images from Wikipedia (Creative Commons License from Wikimedia). Swift open source packages: AlertToast, ImagePickerView, LinksKit, Qgrid, SQLite.swift, SwiftUIPager, and SwiftyJSON.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: The MICHELIN Guide at none against Talk Dim Sum's 1. The MICHELIN Guide also leads on ratings volume (7.5K vs 345) and chart position (#171 vs unranked). Talk Dim Sum's advantage is review sentiment (70% vs 41%) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 9 days). On price, rating, ads 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. Talk Dim Sum sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. The MICHELIN Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Talk Dim Sum against 4.9 for The MICHELIN Guide. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The MICHELIN Guide has 7.5K ratings behind it against 345, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 70% of Talk Dim Sum's written reviews are positive against 41% of The MICHELIN Guide's.
Talk Dim Sum ships an update every 3 days, The MICHELIN Guide every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Talk Dim Sum | The MICHELIN Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (345 ratings) | 4.9 (7.5K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.4% of reviews — better | 41.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 345 | 7.5K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #171 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 115 MB | 172 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Technicat, LLC | Tablet Inc |
Customer experience
Talk Dim Sum
The MICHELIN Guide
User reviews
Talk Dim Sum
From 345 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for learning dim sum
- 👍 Useful for ordering food
- 👍 Helpful for non-native speakers
- 👍 Good visuals and audio
- 👍 Covers many dishes
Room to improve
- 🐛 App freezes on picture tap
- 🐛 Speech sound not working
- 🐛 Incorrect Cantonese pronunciation
- 🐛 Wrong word usage
- 🐛 Audio recordings are bad
The MICHELIN Guide
From 7.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ⭐ Curated and reliable restaurant recommendations
- 🌍 Comprehensive global coverage
- 🔍 Useful for discovering new dining experiences
- 🌟 Michelin brand reputation and credibility
Room to improve
- 🔍 Limited search and filtering options
- 🗺️ Inconsistent map functionality
- 🔒 Forced registration to access content
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 📱 Suboptimal user experience on mobile
Bugs and requests
Talk Dim Sum
Reported bugs
7 issues- App freezes when tapping on food pictures
- Speech function has no sound
- Cantonese voice pronunciations are incorrect
- Wrong word usage and pronunciation (Mandarin vs. Cantonese)
- Audio recordings are laughably bad
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- All dishes displayed in Mandarin instead of Cantonese
- Sound not working, even when highlighted
Requested features
4 requests- Add Boba names and rituals
- Add conversations for ordering
- Add more Chinese food items
- Add various teas
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
Talk Dim Sum
- Talk Dim Sum Pro$0.99
The MICHELIN Guide
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Talk Dim Sum free?
Is The MICHELIN Guide free?
Which has better reviews, Talk Dim Sum or The MICHELIN Guide?
Do Talk Dim Sum or The MICHELIN Guide have ads?
Which is updated more often, Talk Dim Sum or The MICHELIN Guide?
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