Eating out or cooking in – there’s an app for that
Most of us rely on our smartphones for everyday conveniences – admittedly or not. And, why not? They make our lives that much easier. So, when looking for a new restaurant experience or in need of a quick dinner fix, there is a myriad of really good apps out there to help us. Here’s a pretty comprehensive top ten:
Eating Out
Urbanspoon
FREE
Shake and let the virtual slot machine do the rest for you! One of the first food apps to hit the market, Urbanspoon can help you find a restaurant by cuisine, price and/or location. Recently the app was updated to include an integrated reservation system.
Open Table
FREE
This is a restaurant reservation app. Specify a date, time and party size and Open Table will find available tables in nearby restaurants; users can also search by restaurant name.
Foodspotting
FREE
Featured on several TV news spots and rated one of Time’s 50 best iphone apps in 2012. Craving Osso Bucco? Foodspotting will give you a list of restaurants serving the dish and include ratings and reviews.
Eat St
FREE
As the food truck trend spreads across North America, foodies are taking their palate to the street. Find all the must-try street food in cities across the US and Canada.
Veg Out
$2.99
Powered by HappyCow.net, Veg Out has the largest listing of vegetarian, vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants in the world. Searches can be done by exact location or custom location.
Cooking In
Epicurious
FREE
From Epicurious.com, this food app features the best recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Self and many renowned chefs and restaurants.
How to Cook Everything – Essentials
FREE
A truly comprehensive guide based on Mark Bittman’s bestselling cookbook. Pros are the user-friendly search features, shopping lists and easy to follow recipe steps. The full and vegetarian versions are both available for $9.99.
Big Oven
FREE
With a database of more than 250,000 recipes, users can search by ingredient, keyword or course. Or, enter a few items from your fridge and Big Oven will produce a few meal ideas for your perusal.
Martha’s Everyday Food: Fresh & Easy
$0.99
The two best features of this app are the Recipe Shuffle and Dinner Tonight functions. With a quick shake, Recipe Shuffle can create a 4 course selection – main course, side dish, dessert and drink. Dinner Tonight provides quick, seasonal and family friendly recipes.
Olson Recipe Maker
$3.99
This is more of an interactive cooking experience, created by television chefs Michael and Anna Olsen. Insert the ingredients you already have in your fridge and they will suggest a range of great recipes and provide you with a shopping list of missing ingredients.