Review Insights · Google Play
NYT Cooking: Quick Tasty Meals
The New York Times Company · 15,089 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
15,089 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 50 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"recipes"
15 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed by the recent decision to incorporate ads on the home screen. It ruins the feeling of looking through a curated cookbook and it feels like a slap in the face to pay for something with ads. Considering cancelling my subscri…" - Allison Brady
2
"subscription"
13 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed by the recent decision to incorporate ads on the home screen. It ruins the feeling of looking through a curated cookbook and it feels like a slap in the face to pay for something with ads. Considering cancelling my subscri…" - Allison Brady
3
"access"
8 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "for the past 60 days I have had extensive issues accessing my NYT Cooking app. it states " sorry you are offline about 30% of the time! I'm ready to unsubscribe at this point." - Pamala Rider
4
"keeps"
7 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this app keeps crashing. I downloaded it today and it's busted. uninstalled, reinstalled, same thing." - Di Billick
5
"screen"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed by the recent decision to incorporate ads on the home screen. It ruins the feeling of looking through a curated cookbook and it feels like a slap in the face to pay for something with ads. Considering cancelling my subscri…" - Allison Brady
6
"cooking"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "for the past 60 days I have had extensive issues accessing my NYT Cooking app. it states " sorry you are offline about 30% of the time! I'm ready to unsubscribe at this point." - Pamala Rider
7
"recipe"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very disappointed by the recent decision to incorporate ads on the home screen. It ruins the feeling of looking through a curated cookbook and it feels like a slap in the face to pay for something with ads. Considering cancelling my subscri…" - Allison Brady
8
"times"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "the most recent update took away the ability to share recipes. the share button now only shows a pop-up of a picture of the recipe and the title No ability to share or even copy the link. this is a major downgrade and makes no sense. I used…" - D MG
9
"paid"
6 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "love this app but currently it is not working on my samsung phone and the app support are not responding to my emails. I have a full screen of privacy terms that I can't remove or scroll past so effectively blocked from content. paid subscr…" - Susan Rossi
10
"past"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "for the past 60 days I have had extensive issues accessing my NYT Cooking app. it states " sorry you are offline about 30% of the time! I'm ready to unsubscribe at this point." - Pamala Rider
11
"reinstall"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app would be great if it ever opened. I've done all the tricks. Clear the cache, delete and reinstall, sign out and back in. It rarely opens, and when it does you can use it for about 5 minutes before an "error" occurs and it closes. m…" - Sarah
12
"constantly"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app constantly crashes and I have to look recipes up outside of the app" - Emily Lockard
📋 All 50 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
I don't want my info shared
This app would be great if it ever opened. I've done all the tricks. Clear the cache, delete and reinstall, sign out and back in. It rarely opens, and when it does you can use it for about 5 minutes before an "error" occurs and it closes. maybe the NYT stopped paying IT people like they stopped paying real chefs and now influencers are also running the IT department.
This app constantly crashes and I have to look recipes up outside of the app
this app keeps crashing. I downloaded it today and it's busted. uninstalled, reinstalled, same thing.
the app insists that i am not connected to the Internet, and it won't load any recipe. I end up loading the nyt website and it's faster. what is the point of an app? just to track me? ughh ughh uninstalling, waste of time!
This app is a buggy mess. I'm constantly getting a "your device is offline." Why does this app constantly ping to check if you're connected to the Internet? And why does that matter if I have subscription? Between that and the fact that the grocery shopping list doesn't actually account for multiple recipes needing the same ingredients and it's obvious the NYT company doesn't actually care about improving this app.
Says I am offline when I am on wifi, only works when I disable wifi and use data
Recent updates replaced the clean and concise UI with one filled with more ads than recipes.
keeps going off line
keeps crashing!
it keeps stopping
app keeps crashing when I try to open it
App does not stop spamming you with emails, even after hitting unsubscribe. Recepies are not that good, there are better free options
Recipes are great but they still haven't improved the app. First off: ads taking up more space than the recipe, when you are already paying for a subscription and clearly not using the revenue for app upgrades. The UI is worse than using a mobile brower. Autoplaying videos in the recipes even with autoplay turned off (this is only for the home tab). No dark mode, clicking on the author's name takes you to search instead of listing the recipes they have, going back takes you to start of the page.
Tried the free subscription through Google Play and it just didn't work. Was unable to view the recipes.
Not worth it! Bad web wrapper app that constantly looses its state (makes it unusable during cooking) and the print functionality also sucks (only works properly on desktop)
I am being billed 2 times every month for the same service.
terrible
love this app but currently it is not working on my samsung phone and the app support are not responding to my emails. I have a full screen of privacy terms that I can't remove or scroll past so effectively blocked from content. paid subscribers should get response when apps don't work.
Just an excuse to try to squeeze money out of you.
terrible - cannot get past the accept cookies page - clearly not properly tested!
Just installed and got an annual subscription, but the app freezes at the 'manage privacy preferences' screen. I tried to uninstall/reinstall several times, but the same bug keeps popping up. If developers can get this fixed, I'll be able to check out the app and update my review.
I paid for the subscription but the recipes haven't been unlocked. I have tried several times to access them (turn on/off device etc.) but to no avail. I have cancelled subscription and resubscribed - nothing. I cannot access the full recipe, which is more than frustrating
I signed up for the annual subscription and paid via Google Play and have yet to be able to see a full recipe. I keep getting prompts to sign up for a trial subscription (already done). I've logged out and back in. I've updated my password, and re-logged in. Nothing works. I do not have an unusual phone or payment system and I was willing to pay for the recipes, but it seems you've got a lot more work to do on your product before you put it out there. For now I'm cancelling.
I paid for the yearly subscription offer, and supposedly it's an "All Access" subscription but nevertheless it doesn't reflect in my profile and anytime I check it asks me to "Subscribe" again.
I have purchased a yearly subscription but I'm still locked out of recipes and it's still asking me to subscribe.
not user friendly. have all access and get message that I dont have access to cooking. several attempts with NYT AI has led to no solution
I'm on a trial period and I'm not given any option to cancel. All that shows is that my card will be charged in a few days. I DON'T WANT THE APP. IT'S NOT FOR ME.
App is no longer opening. I have an All Access subscription and this stopped working around early December. Had no problems with it before. Uninstalled and installed a few times, no effect.
App won't load past the splash screen - tried deleting data and cache, also uninstall / reinstall.
it's too hard to use can't find how to get recipes
Charging for what used to be free, like everything.
subscribed for over a week, unable to access any content. no response from any help sought( 3 attempts) why bother, go somewhere else!!
I paid for a subscription on Dec 7, 2025. It didn't work right away so I figured I'd give it until the next morning. It didn't work the next morning so I did some troubleshooting: log out/log in, uninstall/reinstall, restart device, look for updates, etc. That didn't work. I reached out to the Help Center who told me it was a Google Play issue. It wasn't. Tried the Help Center again & was told to report a bug. Now, another day has passed and I still can't access it. Sent 4 emails, no response.
Paid for a cooking subscription, my account shows that I'm a cooking subscriber, but it still limits my access to free content only and keeps advertising the subscription to me... I've submitted 2 bug reports over the past week and not got any reply.
To expensive
Meh, the app is worse for navigating the recipes than the site, why would I use it?
Not compatible with Tablets
Very disappointed by the recent decision to incorporate ads on the home screen. It ruins the feeling of looking through a curated cookbook and it feels like a slap in the face to pay for something with ads. Considering cancelling my subscription for the first time in years. The recipes themselves continue to be excellent.
for the past 60 days I have had extensive issues accessing my NYT Cooking app. it states " sorry you are offline about 30% of the time! I'm ready to unsubscribe at this point.
I have been unable to open the app for the last week
the most recent update took away the ability to share recipes. the share button now only shows a pop-up of a picture of the recipe and the title No ability to share or even copy the link. this is a major downgrade and makes no sense. I used the paprika app to organize my recipes and now I can't forward to the app. I have contacted New York Times customer care 5 times in the last week and I received no response but it automated reply to go to The Help Center
Nothing drains my battery faster or makes my phone run hotter than the NYT cooking and games apps. It's constantly pinging home, I dont know if it's checking for account validity or trying to serve excessive ads. Sometimes it gets into weird "you're offline" loops that make it impossible to view recipes or search for more than a few seconds at a time. Force closing fixes the issue sometimes, other times I have to reinstall. When it actually functions the recipes are nice.
I like that I can save my favorites, but I wish there was a print option like most other cooking apps. Edit- The only way to leverage the built-in print is to screen shot a page the print the screen shot. The mobile webapp has a print button that formats a printable page, but the Android app does not. The good news is if you delete the app, the mobile browser page does allow you to print, that is also what the reply from NYT says too, of course this was a review of the app, which does not print
Who are these recipes for?? I thought I'd get some big flavor, ethnic and fusion dishes that can be put together in less than an hour. But instead, they're pushing weird, bland, time consuming niche recipes that I would never whip out on a weeknight. Uninstalling in disappointment, nyt...
I think I would love this app except I have tried the free trial and haven't actually gotten to experience anything because the app hasn't updated to show this. I'm nervous to keep the subscription after the week is up if it then doesn't give me any access.
good recipe selection, but every time you leave the app for a minute or two it takes you back to your main screen. shopping list could also be improved by allowing you to select what ingredients to add from the list
Can't print recipes or download pdf!
So very poorly organized. They constantly break about the 30 minute meals, but I see no way to search for them.
Fix the grocery list portion and it's a much better app. Don't know when this started not working, but cannot remove ingredients from the grocery list. Shows the ability to delete, but can't select anything. Makes this portion of the app utterly worthless.
Sentiment summary
86%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
10%
Negative (1-2★)