Review Insights · App Store
Zest: Meal Planner & Helper
Culi, Inc. · 3,513 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
3,513 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 41 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"
11 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Import feature doesn’t work. I liked this app because you can import videos from TikTok and ig but it doesn’t work. I followed the steps exactly and later when I opened the app to see the recipes I imported, nothing was there. Super disappointed." - dhmnfootd
2
"recipe"
10 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Import feature doesn’t work. I liked this app because you can import videos from TikTok and ig but it doesn’t work. I followed the steps exactly and later when I opened the app to see the recipes I imported, nothing was there. Super disappointed." - dhmnfootd
3
"free"
9 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t cancel free subscription. When I go to my subscriptions in the App Store I see ever other app I have a subscription for but the zest app. Feeling like a scam" - Glamour addict
4
"work"
8 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Import feature doesn’t work. I liked this app because you can import videos from TikTok and ig but it doesn’t work. I followed the steps exactly and later when I opened the app to see the recipes I imported, nothing was there. Super disappointed." - dhmnfootd
5
"find"
8 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "was good till they put it behind a subscription.. i had this app for months and used it with no problem, bragged about the convenience of it to a lot of ppl. i came back to it after a while and find out now i need a subscription. i will be deleting. i can just read the recipe from tik tok." - nenebugger
6
"subscription"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t cancel free subscription. When I go to my subscriptions in the App Store I see ever other app I have a subscription for but the zest app. Feeling like a scam" - Glamour addict
7
"paywall"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything locked behind paywall.. Was expecting a free version, but requires payment to access anything on the app. Edit for the comment: there is no “x” for the paywall, each time I open the app it requests premium, if I could exit it I wouldn’t have left the review 👍" - Athleav
8
"cooking"
7 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointing app. It’s sad that learning some basic cooking skills has been locked behind an overpriced paywall. Some people could really benefit from these lessons but the new platform doesn’t allow you to continue lessons after the trial ends. If Zest want…" - apm0420
9
"doesn"
6 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Import feature doesn’t work. I liked this app because you can import videos from TikTok and ig but it doesn’t work. I followed the steps exactly and later when I opened the app to see the recipes I imported, nothing was there. Super disappointed." - dhmnfootd
10
"behind"
6 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "was good till they put it behind a subscription.. i had this app for months and used it with no problem, bragged about the convenience of it to a lot of ppl. i came back to it after a while and find out now i need a subscription. i will be deleting. i can just read the recipe from tik tok." - nenebugger
11
"everything"
6 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Everything locked behind paywall.. Was expecting a free version, but requires payment to access anything on the app. Edit for the comment: there is no “x” for the paywall, each time I open the app it requests premium, if I could exit it I wouldn’t have left the review 👍" - Athleav
12
"doesn work"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
📋 All 41 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").
Can’t cancel free subscription
When I go to my subscriptions in the App Store I see ever other app I have a subscription for but the zest app. Feeling like a scam
Import feature doesn’t work
I liked this app because you can import videos from TikTok and ig but it doesn’t work. I followed the steps exactly and later when I opened the app to see the recipes I imported, nothing was there. Super disappointed.
terrible do not download!
this app is beyond terrible unless you pay their insane price for the app. i don’t even care that i have to pay to see the recipes or watch an ad but the recipes i saved a lot of them got deleted. and now you have to pay extra for more recipe space. waste of time just download a better app.
was good till they put it behind a subscription.
i had this app for months and used it with no problem, bragged about the convenience of it to a lot of ppl. i came back to it after a while and find out now i need a subscription. i will be deleting. i can just read the recipe from tik tok.
I don’t need another subscription
45 dollars a year for what amounts to saving online recipes I can just google for
New update deleted my account
After the new update the app not only logged me out but seems to have deleted my account entirely. No matter what sign in method I try it’s starting as a new account, even though I have over 200 recipes saved. I can’t find any support line to contact and I’m incredibly disappointed that I put so much time in to
this app
this app
Doesn't import
I've tried many platforms to try to download and import a recipe. Always tells me "import failed" am I doing something wrong? Or this app doesn't work well with others and I can't import from other social media platforms.
App doesn’t work as advertised
Would be great if the app actually worked. Every time you open it, you have to start from the beginning. It forces you to do the unlimited trial, and once you go through all that you get stuck on a white screen that never loads.
Everything locked behind paywall.
Was expecting a free version, but requires payment to access anything on the app.
Edit for the comment: there is no “x” for the paywall, each time I open the app it requests premium, if I could exit it I wouldn’t have left the review 👍
Edit for the comment: there is no “x” for the paywall, each time I open the app it requests premium, if I could exit it I wouldn’t have left the review 👍
Why is it 17 +
Like why it made it worse
Recipe importing doesn’t work
Tried saving 4 instagram recipes but all failed
Unusable
Just downloaded the app and I couldn’t even unlock a single recipe without watching ads. Even when I watched the ads it didn’t unlock. Waste of time
Recipe importing won’t work
Super disappointing. Want help fixing
Sad
I've been using this app for over a year, and now without warning you just Pay Wall barricade us, Duolingo would never!
Disappointing app
It’s sad that learning some basic cooking skills has been locked behind an overpriced paywall. Some people could really benefit from these lessons but the new platform doesn’t allow you to continue lessons after the trial ends. If Zest wants to be the “Duolingo of cooking” as one user put it, then they should consider ads for non-paying users.
Never recommending this app again
My girlfriend and have been using this app for quite a few months now. Tonight we wanted to go back and remake a recipe we hadn't made in a few weeks, only to find everything is locked between a substantial paywall. It is unbelievable that the dev's of this app would all of a sudden lock everything behind a paywall as an "experiment', knowing very well they won't walk it back. Hope the money is worth it.
Paywall Locked
You call yourself the Duolingo of cooking, but even they had a free to use version of it.
Locking all of this behind a paywall is just disappointing.
Locking all of this behind a paywall is just disappointing.
Limited Options
As someone who has experience in cooking, I can name a lot more dishes than can the app. I tried looking for a Jamaican jerk chicken recipe and it my even an option in the app. If you want to make a “Duolingo” app for food, ensure you have endless dish options from countries worldwide and not just 5 very simple dishes from like 3 total different countries. If I can count them on my finger, it’s not worth paying for.
Newest update makes app unusable
I installed this app with the intent to learn how to cook in a fun and easy way without just having to read a typical recipe. But the newest update (which puts EVERYTHING behind a paywall) ruined that. I can't look at any of my saved recipes to do and can't do any more quests without paying the subscription. So sad that I lost the chance to try anything out and will have to find a new resource to learn cooking basics. So unfortunate that it is now inaccessible to many people :(
Money money money
It all costs so much money.
expensive
cant coin yourself as “cooking duolingo” if everything costs money
Paywall
Don’t get this if you don’t want to pay for anything. You’ll spend 15 minutes filling out all their questions for your taste profile and what not then once you waste all that time they ask for money. Don’t waste your time.
Nothing is loading!!
I downloaded the app and signed up, it’s showing me recipes and the quest concepts but no information is loading. Please fix!!! I was really excited about this app!!!
Payment?
We have to pay to use the app? I mean free trials is cool, but some of us cannot afford your pricing. I didn’t even use it because it truly turned me off when I knew it was too expensive. Cookbooks it is. 💃
What are these choices???
This app is great if you want to be a knockoff Gordon Ramsay. The only reason I downloaded this app was so I could learn how to cook for my husband and son, these recipe options are horrible if you want to provide a meal for a child. They are something you would find at a fancy restaurant, it’s not practical for day-to-day use, they are only practical if you get a job as a chef and lie on your résumé.
Does not work
I was so excited to try this but it literally doesn't work/won't load. Disappointing.
App won’t open
Two weeks in a row I go to open the app only to find it won’t even load. So much for getting groceries! What a nightmare having to change plans all the time.
Glitched app
Have been wanting to use this app for a while but everytime I try to do any of the quest concepts my screen is blank and there isn’t anything to do
Overpriced
Much more expensive than I expected.
Subscription Paywall
It’s unclear in both the marketing and the app itself that they charge $10 a month to use any features. It’s misleading and a waste of time. Don’t download if you don’t want to pay.
Couldn’t get through all the questions.
WHY?!?!? Does it need to know so much about me. Just let me check out the app and let me personalize it later.
Most questions were irrelevant.
Most questions were irrelevant.
Glitched or just ignoring(possible scam?)
So I got a free trial of this app and i was given to option to give someone a free month trial. The link took you to the website and you had to put your card in. Usually after we get a free trial we just cancel it in our apple settings. I was able to cancel it but the person i gave the free month trial to could not. They went to the support page and tried to cancel and even contacted their support email 3 times to get it cancelled and heard nothing back from them. There was a page saying to cancel through the website but it didnt exist. So were stuck and werent sure what to do and then it kept trying to charge him 80$ or something for the yearly thing. So he ended up having to get a new card because the customer support didnt and wouldnt answer. Please fix this and work on this. I feel like this is a scam and you cant cancel. I like the app but this shouldnt go under the carpet.
Light on recipes
Has a lot of potential but I don’t see depth of recipes. It seems to be variations on a few themes. I cannot add an allergy to coconut so I can’t filter those out. Great videos on the basics but it used in precise measurements that a beginner wouldn’t understand like 1 1/2 pinches of salt, whatever that is supposed to be.
Overstimulated
I have been wanting to download this app for months! I finally got to it after this new update. It was a little tricky trying not to subscribe but I did it. However, the app then offered me a 7 day trial for free and that just overwhelmed me. I felt immense pressure to start utilizing the app and doing everything. I deleted the app right away because I couldn’t handle that pressure. Could the developers perhaps have a maybe later button for me to explore premium? If that’s done I’ll reconsider downloading :)
Thank you!
Thank you!
app needs some work
while creating my account and trying to complete the first lesson, some screens were blank with no option to continue, forcing me to close the app
Confusing
Very confused about how to move on to new lessons? I’ve done everything in quest 1 and can’t move on to quest 2. Do you literally have to go cook all the recipes in the “practice by cooking” section? I don’t see any other way to move on. I’m here to learn so I’d rather have it be an informational app instead of having lessons “locked” without a clear way to get to them. Already canceled my trial.
Eh
Seems like a great app but as someone who has a ton of allergies and not being able to properly filter out these recommendations is a turn off for me. I also don’t find it worth the subscription if these same or similar recipes are on other apps for free.
Free* *for the first 14 days
Absolutely love the concept and the lay out but don't advertise it as free if you have to sign up for a subscription to use it.
Not compatible with smaller screens
I'm really excited to try out this app but unfortunately I can't get past the profile Goals section of setup because the size of my screen makes the 'continue' button cover the sliders on the bottom. Once this bug gets sorted out i'm looking forward to trying it!
App won’t load
I’ve created 2 accounts now, and everytime I tap the x button after creating my flavor profile on the premium plan screen my app goes into a never ending loading screen and I have seen on YouTube the app works as intended for others. Can not find a fix. Would really like to use the app it seams cool.
Not worth it if you have any prior cooking knowledge
I'm by no means a chef, but I cook at home semi regularly. I tested out of most of the levels and now I'm stuck at level 6. Im not sure if that's the max level or if I could pay to unlock more. I'm not sure why they bothered making this app free, because it's not functional without paying. Free users can only unlock 3 recipes, and you can't learn to cook from 3 recipes. Some of the recipes are a waste of time like a baked potato, avocado toast, grilled cheese, plain unseasoned pasta, or literally just adding your own toppings to a frozen pizza. An app for cooking is a good idea, but not worth paying for when you can google new recipes myself.
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)