Review Insights · App Store
Epicurious
Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. · 99,204 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
99,204 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 80 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"
37 negative reviews mention this · 46% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Recipe Good, function not. This app is good because it has recipes from some of the best cooking magazines. This app is also good because it has really good user reviews of each recipe so you can learn modifications. This app is bad because you can’t store by food ty…" - Momsthatcare2
2
"subscription"
21 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
3
"load"
19 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
4
"recipe"
16 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Recipe Good, function not. This app is good because it has recipes from some of the best cooking magazines. This app is also good because it has really good user reviews of each recipe so you can learn modifications. This app is bad because you can’t store by food ty…" - Momsthatcare2
5
"doesn"
15 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
6
"epicurious"
14 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Lacking in function. Great recipes but clearly no investment has been made in the apps functionality. Epicurious should take a good look at the NYT food app." - mbmfromct
7
"times"
12 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
8
"work"
11 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
9
"been"
11 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
10
"paid"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All. Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t bee…" - bacandido
11
"buggy"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Most buggy app. I love Epicurious and all the recipes it gives me access to but my GOD it’s such a poorly designed app. So buggy, will randomly shut down, takes forever to open if it even opens at all. The whole thing needs to be rebuilt from the ground up…" - christabeelee
12
"support"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sign In Doesn’t Work. Unfortunately the app is connected to Condé Nast’s antediluvian login system, which provides virtually nothing in the way of account management and correctly tying your login to your Bon Appetit account. Attempting to circumvent this by con…" - ac3charland
📋 All 80 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").
Recipe Good, function not
This app is good because it has recipes from some of the best cooking magazines. This app is also good because it has really good user reviews of each recipe so you can learn modifications. This app is bad because you can’t store by food type and meal and you can’t sort by most reviewed just most stars which could be 5 stars with 1 user or 500 users you can’t sort it that way
Paid Subscription, But the App Doesn’t Work at All
Despite having an all-digital access Condé Nast subscription, I’m completely unable to use the app. It gets stuck during startup and never loads any content. I’ve already contacted customer service four times, and the issue still hasn’t been resolved. This has been a really frustrating and disappointing experience.
Paywall
The fact that you can’t even look at a recipe without paying for a subscription is beyond pathetic. One free week is a total joke imo. Everything is put behind a paywall so they can make money off anyone. If they had, say, 50 free spots of recipes to save, I wouldn’t be so irritated.
Pointless…
After you download the app, you can’t see any of the actual recipes unless you buy a subscription. I immediately deleted it.
Hard to cancel, not worth the cost
Can’t cancel on the app, you need to log in to the website. Clicking through is a little tricky, and for a year there the credentials on the app wouldn’t work on the website.
I also asked them to delete my payment info as I had thought I cancelled my subscription last year. The rep I was chatting with said “no can do” and ended the chat.
Additionally; for the cost of an Epicurious subscription you can instead get both an Apple News and New York Times subscription, both of which offer a lot more along with as many recipes as Epicurious.
100% rip off, I would only recommend this app to people I don’t like.
I also asked them to delete my payment info as I had thought I cancelled my subscription last year. The rep I was chatting with said “no can do” and ended the chat.
Additionally; for the cost of an Epicurious subscription you can instead get both an Apple News and New York Times subscription, both of which offer a lot more along with as many recipes as Epicurious.
100% rip off, I would only recommend this app to people I don’t like.
Zero Stars, nothing without a subscriptions
Another great app ruined by greedy CEOS. I've heard about this app and website but it seems it's gone complete downhill. No recipes or nothing without a subscription.
Most buggy app
I love Epicurious and all the recipes it gives me access to but my GOD it’s such a poorly designed app. So buggy, will randomly shut down, takes forever to open if it even opens at all. The whole thing needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, it’s endlessly frustrating to use
App won’t display recipes
I have no problem viewing recipes on my computer, but the iPhone app frequently sits there spinning instead of displaying the recipe. It’s bad enough that I paid for this app years ago, then you changed your billing structure and I had to pay more but for a less stable product. Now I just download the print version of the recipes to view a pdf instead.
Completely janky app
It’s really hard to believe that I pay for a subscription for an app that performs this badly. Once again I find myself under a deadline to cook dinner from an app that won’t launch. Running the latest version, restarted the iPad, nothing.
Buggy
App would be great if I could open it. This is the second time I’ve encountered this. Initially no problem, then unable to open app on any of my devices. This is the only app I experience this with, and have tried to delete and re-install multiple times. Not worth the headache.
Nice if it opens
Enjoyed this app while it worked, now it won’t even open / load.
Subscription Doesn’t Connect
I have a Bon Appetit subscription which gives me full access to the Epicurious App. When the most recent update rolled out, the app no longer acknowledges my active subscription. I paid for an annual subscription, so I can’t cancel. I wish the app would just work properly. Customer service/tech support was unable to solve the issue and referred me to Apple. It is an obviously app glitch. Just fix the bug.
*response from creator was to delete and reinstall. This was the advice from the app support as well. I deleted, reinstalled, restarted my phone, multiple times! I even deleted my data and came back logging in with my Apple ID. NOTHING WORKS.
*response from creator was to delete and reinstall. This was the advice from the app support as well. I deleted, reinstalled, restarted my phone, multiple times! I even deleted my data and came back logging in with my Apple ID. NOTHING WORKS.
Great Recipes, Super Buggy App
For an app you pay to use, this one is consistently super buggy. I can rarely get it to behave as expected. It will often fail to open or just totally crash on me, even after checking for updates and restarting my phone.
I would say that happens more than half of the time when I try to use it. I’ve been a subscriber for over 3 years and this continues to be a consistent pain, not just occasional.
The only reason I still subscribe is that the collection of content is superb. I love that I can find Gourmet Magazine recipes (now out of print) and read reviews of other cooks experience trying them. I love that I can find a recipe for just about anything I want and store them all in one place.
I just wish this app was even modestly supported by bug fixes and occasional updates to make the UI better and fix performance problems.
If you’re willing to put up with a subscription for an app you can only get to work your you sometimes, I’d say give it a try, but don’t hold your breath hoping this will perform as promised.
I would say that happens more than half of the time when I try to use it. I’ve been a subscriber for over 3 years and this continues to be a consistent pain, not just occasional.
The only reason I still subscribe is that the collection of content is superb. I love that I can find Gourmet Magazine recipes (now out of print) and read reviews of other cooks experience trying them. I love that I can find a recipe for just about anything I want and store them all in one place.
I just wish this app was even modestly supported by bug fixes and occasional updates to make the UI better and fix performance problems.
If you’re willing to put up with a subscription for an app you can only get to work your you sometimes, I’d say give it a try, but don’t hold your breath hoping this will perform as promised.
App is not working
App really hasn’t worked since I got the subscription.
Garbage
While the content might be ok it’s hard to say given how awful the app experience is. Total garbage
Site keeps crashing
The site now continuously crashes when I try to open a recipe
Loading
Great app when it loads. Sometimes it never loads, other times it takes too much time. Time is precious when cooking. Also doesn’t allow for toggling between two recipes so you have to open two devices to use to recipes
App is unreliable
Excellent recipes offered, but the app itself is totally unreliable. Just when you need it, it won’t load.
Too expensive for it to be broken all the time
Makes no sense. This many people spending $72/year and they still can’t get it together. The recipes are good but I just can’t keep paying for it to be broken.
Always down
The app hasn’t worked or loaded in several weeks. Very disappointing
Great, when it loads
This app is easy to use and provides great recipes and pictures. That being said, it consistently will not load or freezes.
App buggy, not opening July 2025
What the title says. Fix the bug guys, we're paying for this!
Deleted the app 3 times
This is one of the worst apps I’ve ever had. I have had to delete this app 3 times so it will function properly. It often doesn’t load my saved recipes. I have switched to NYT’s cooking app. It’s way better.
A great product but terrible app
I have never written a review for an app. But I’m at my breaking point. This app frequently fails to load, crashes and blanks out on search requests. Today it decided to never open.
Won’t load. Try NYT Cooking instead
Had it for a long time, worked great. Deleted or archived (can’t remember). Downloaded again in Summer 2025. As of writing, it’s August 2025 and I wonder why I bothered... Just 2 weeks ago it worked. Last weekend…nothing. Just a hopping, useless dot on its i…please fix.
Everyone, just go to NYT Cooking. It doesn’t have the diversity of Epicurious but it works (and you can review recipes).
Everyone, just go to NYT Cooking. It doesn’t have the diversity of Epicurious but it works (and you can review recipes).
Love it when it works
Not working for 2 days now. Cannot open app on iPhone or iPad. Please fix this problem.
App won’t open
Love the recipes but the app is buggy… haven’t been able to get it to open for days!
App won’t open
I’ve tried to open this app multiple times over the course of this week. It perpetually loads- no errors, doesn’t crash, but will not open. It’s stuck on the loading graphic.
Previous versions would open and immediately crash, but then at least you could open it on the second try.
A key part of an app’s success is being able to open it. This is on iOS 18.5.
Previous versions would open and immediately crash, but then at least you could open it on the second try.
A key part of an app’s success is being able to open it. This is on iOS 18.5.
Randomly stops working
The app is awesome but there have been multiple instances over the past couple years where I go to access the app and it just won’t open at all. I pay for a subscription and I can’t access anything that I’m paying for, for an unknown amount of time. It’s hard to validate the subscription when I might end up getting booted out of the app for long stretches of time.
Not Working
App will not load. Constant problem
App not opening
2nd day in a row this app won’t open, just sits their with the dot over the I bouncing up and down over and over again
App won’t open
That’s it. Paid for the subscription specifically to use the app and it NEVER opens for me.
Garbage app
A few good recipes but constant updates that do nothing.
Another subscription based app
I downloaded the app and started looking up recipes. Turns out you have to have a paid subscription to even see any recipes.
Search function is poor
I’m sure there are great recipes here, if you can find them. The search function is awful.
Will not load on Apple 16 Pro
App will not load, get a message “Unable to load. Please try again.” under a graphic which looks like a pot boiling over. Verified on line that my annual payment was made earlier this month. Tried again, turned phone off and on tried again, uninstalled and reinstalled and tried again, turned phone off and on after reinstalling tried again - just get that graphic. Maybe if they fixed the app instead of making a cutesy graphic?
Doesn’t work
I love Epicurious but this app doesn’t work at all- signed up for a trial subscription and although the payment went through and it tells me I have subscribed I can’t open any recipe. It asks me to subscribe, though I already am. Around and around it goes-
Bait and switch liars
They sell you a digital subscription claiming “full access”, then when you force them to the truth you find out that the app will only work if you have a print subscription. Save your money and find recipes somewhere else.
Crashes
Clicking on an Epicurious link on the web opens the Epicurious app which promptly crashes.
iPhone 12. iOS 18.3.2
25MAR 25 - Developers response was useless. Not clear how to reset cookies in Settings. App Store didn’t prompt to update app.
Workaround - abandon app and view recipes on laptop. 😡
iPhone 12. iOS 18.3.2
25MAR 25 - Developers response was useless. Not clear how to reset cookies in Settings. App Store didn’t prompt to update app.
Workaround - abandon app and view recipes on laptop. 😡
App won’t load
I can no get the app to load when I open it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled it multiple times. I tried to contact app support and they did not respond.
Same thing happened to me, I was paying for it, but they refuse to acknowledge it.
Although I was paying for it, I did not have access
Unable to Load
Help! The app has been unable to load for weeks. I deleted it and reinstalled it. I don’t know what else to do. I pay for a subscription which is useless at this point.
Sadly Unusuable
Have used for more than a decade. Have hundreds of recipes saved in my recipe box, but this app will no longer even load on my iPhone despite updating, re-installing, etc. This worked far better before they monetized with paid subscriptions.
Doesn’t work on iPhone 16 pro
Contacted support multiple times with no fix since Dec’24
No recipes
Everything is locked behind a paywall. I’ll just use google
Terrible App!!
I have had a subscription to this for years. The app has never been good but now it is completely useless! It will not load. Tech support will only give canned answers ie delete and reinstall, reboot your device, is your software up to date etc. They will not READ what I have written. The app will not load. They told me they reset my password and it worked fine from their end. Please sign in and try again. That would be fine if I could get to the sign in part but - did I mention? The app will NOT LOAD! I will not be renewing this after being a customer for over 20 years. Going back to paper.
Why doesn’t it work anymore?
Same problem as others, content won’t load. Fix it!
so broken.
app is unusable, wont ever even load.
website on ios so full of ads (even as a subscriber) it is also basically unusable
website on ios so full of ads (even as a subscriber) it is also basically unusable
Same problem!
I was given a subscription as a Xmas gift. The app refuses to acknowledge my subscription. I have contacted customer support with Epicurious and Bon Appétit at least 3-4 times with no resolution. The whole point of a digital subscription is to be able to use recipes from the app!!I have sent screenshots from the website indicating the app is included in the digital gift subscription and that has fallen on deaf ears. I would like to cancel and have the money returned to my son and DIL.
Suddenly no longer loads on my iPhone 16
Disappointed. I’ve had this app for years and now it’s useless. Won’t load content. There a many more recipe apps to choose from.
+ 30 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)