Bon Appetit Reviews

by Starcloud58

The three dots they are talking about are not there

by Mayamere

I’ve loved the Bon Appétit iPad app for years and preferred it to print issues (I’ve been subscribed for about 4 years and seen BonAppetit experience get better and better over time, with fun swipeable layouts for articles, animation, modules you could toggle to make photos easier to view, etc.) The new update gets rid of all the best features about BonAppetit and makes it the same as reading the print issue. In particular, the recipe index and separate section for recipes was very important and made it much easier to cook from directly. In the new version of BonAppetit , the recipe text is as small as the print issue (actually smaller because I have an iPad mini) and very inconvenient to actually read. I’m so disappointed I’m considering canceling my subscription—it would be easier and more legible to just pull up the recipes on the website than try to read them off BonAppetit . I don’t understand why they would go backward like this unless they fired their whole app team.

by Isontneedanickname

It asks for a password, I put it in, it says it is wrong, I try to reset it, it says the email is not a known account, I try to set up an account using the email…you guessed it, now the email is already in use.

by Sibyllinnea

When I moved abroad, I was thrilled with the option of receiving my BA magazine subscription to my iPad. Loved the layout, the extra features and the feel of the interactive app. Before I downloaded OSX 8.2, BonAppetit mysteriously deleted all of my old issues (8) and wouldn't update the library. Finally uninstalled, reinstalled and now it doesn't recognize my account or any past purchases. When I try to set up the All Access option, it says it's already set up and to sign in...even though I'm already signed in. This is especially frustrating because my subscription just renewed, and right now I've paid for a year subscription to a magazine I can't access. Very disappointed with what was a great app and hope that changes and updates will be made available soon.

by I Wanna Cook

There aren’t 3 dots in the upper right corner!!
Pls pls figure out how to let people link their subscription. I beg

by PeepingSpider

I thought I was paying for a collection of Bon Appétit recipes, not a back catalog of magazines.

by W. I. J. Galt

Each month the new issue cover appears in my newsstand, replacing the previous month's issue, however, when I open the "New" issue, the previous month's issue appears.

If I go to BonAppetit Store and touch "Open" for the new issue, the previous issue still continues to appear.

When I am mysteriously successful in bringing in the new issue, I've gone through so many gyrations, I have no idea how I was finally successful.

Although I'm not especially fond of reading the magazine electronically, it is a lot easier to read since the print edition has become impossible to read with the ever shrinking font size and the annoying use of light blue print.

I have issues in my library that are over twenty years old but in the last few years, I have found myself throwing a current issue away and realize that I haven't even read through the whole issue and don't care.

When my subscription expires, I won't renew it.

by Euphorbia Monstrose

I love the magazine/content, and was looking forward to having access to it via ipad app. Immediately turned off by the portrait-only, copy-of-print-magazine-only. I use a bluetooth keyboard / case and I rarely use my ipad in portrait mode! I want to be able to search content, etc., as I can on the Bon Appetit website. What gives??

by Mr Jsh

I could see getting rid of all the bells and whistles. I don’t need fancy animation or a never-ending scroll of what have you, but for god’s sake, why get rid of the one thing people would consistently reference and even go back to months down the road? The recipe index was the cherry on top of a great experience. By removing it and its pop-up feature, you’ve made it infinitely more difficult to bookmark, email, or even whimsically pick a random issue of the past and select a never before made recipe. I get it, times are tight and there are definitely bigger problems in the world, but man, this is a bummer.

by LastAolUser

I never rate apps because no one needs to hear from me, this one has finally pushed me over the edge. Ever since this moved to a subscription-based model it has been nothing but glitchy. The content is great, but only if you can access it before BonAppetit crashes on you. I use several subscription-based apps and have never seen anything malfunction like BonAppetit. Don’t waste your money.

by Mmbrownie

I have subscribed to Bon Appetit for 20 years and was excited for free access to what I've paid for. When I try to login, first I use my account number or my address. Then when I try to load the full access items, I am told to login again! But when I login, it tells me that this account has successfully logged in and that I should try logging in with another method, which is not found. BonAppetit is living up to Gourmet Live, which is complete junk (and I deleted). I have the Saveur and Food & Wine apps and know how to get through a login. They only require 1 login, which seems sensible to me. Conde Nast ruined Gourmet's rep with Gourmet Live and I hope they don't ruin Bon Appetit's.

by Oshe4

I subscribe to Bon Appétit, yet every time I try to sign in on this ridiculous app, I tells me “no subscription found.” And yet, I go to the Bon appetite WEBSITE and voila, there’s my account, all signed in and everything, claiming I have access to “thousands of recipes on Bon Appétit and Epicurious.” BonAppetit needs some serious work if it won’t recognize users’ existing subscriptions. It also seems to only have digital copies of the magazines- available for purchase, since I’m unable to log in… Sigh

by Which Nickname Isn’t Taken?

BonAppetit is completely useless. It’s literally just digitized copies of their magazine. You have to use the Epicurious app to find recipes, which is also a terrible app. I asked for a refund within two weeks of purchasing the annual subscription and was denied.

The recipes are simple ones that you can find on any other website for free such as meatloaf, chicken piccata, spaghetti sauce, lemon chicken and thyme, etc. Furthermore, the ethnic ones are not authentic at all. I tried a Japanese yakisoba dish and it was the worst food I have ever made for my family. I followed the recipe exactly but while it was cooking, we were all holding our breath because the sauce stunk so badly. I’m Vietnamese and cook with oyster sauce and fish sauce a lot, so that wasn’t that problem. The chicken wasn’t expired, either. The flavor was just as awful as the smell and we ended up throwing it all out and eating a frozen meal instead.

This website has nothing unique or good. I suggest trying something else.

by Hejpeach

I tried to log in with an existing account and it said no subscription found. Sat on customer service for 30 minutes with people who could not understand what was going wrong because they DONT SPEAK ENGLISH and thus could not help me. Fix your broken websites Condé Nast!!!!!!

by Jess Humphries

BonAppetit is actually unusable. It organizes everything by magazine edition which is very odd. You have to sign in to search for recipes but you can’t sign in because that feature is broken. Really terrible and pointless app.

by NLC2000

100% agree with the others who said this latest version is a giant step backward. The former app took a great magazine and made it even better and more useful. The recipe index, pop up recipe pages, story layouts, animation, and high level of interactivity made it perfect and fun for consuming and cooking from via iPad.

It’s not even really an app now so much as it is just a scaled down pdf of the print magazine. It’s hard to read, hard to use, and hard to navigate. Type is to small, you have to flip back and forth between photo and recipe because it’s meant as a two page spread in print.

To add insult to injury, they took all the old fabulous issues away (along with all my bookmarks) so I can’t even refer back to those.

It’s awful in every way. This was the last great iPad magazine app. I’m fairly devastated. They need to revert back but I suspect they won’t for short-sighted, penny pinching reasons. Way to go Condé Nast.

by Tomatoesaretops

The images are beautiful, the recipes are pretty diverse, but why would anyone design a cooking app that requires a vertical orientation? Initially looking at the magazine homepage, landscape orientation is an option, but as soon as you download an issue and try to use it, you're forced into a vertical orientation. But I want to prop up my iPad on my cover which requires a landscape orientation to stay upright! This is painfully frustrating and clearly a major design flaw.

Also, I find it a challenge to navigate back and forth from various areas on BonAppetit . One needs to rub the top of the screen "just so" to get the options like "library" to show up. It's annoying.

Note, I'm using an iPad Pro and paying digital subscriber.

by EES2

In this iteration of BonAppetit , the most useful thing about it - the recipe index with clickable images that was formerly at the start of each issue in BonAppetit - no longer exists. That index was incredibly useful. It allowed me a to feel secure in recycling my paper copies of the magazine because I had an easily accessible soft copy of each recipe in BonAppetit . I would frequently peruse just the recipe indexes ahead of planning dinner parties. The static (unclickable) index without images that is at the end of each issue is nowhere near as useful. Please, please bring the clickable index with images back.

by BWEgal

So far searches yield magazines. Their magazines are fabulous but when I’m searching it’s for a recipe not an issue.

by Wiiareonfire

The iPad app is alright, no issues that I've found while playing around with it... but why doesn't it support landscape? It's not possible to view an entire spread at once (some of which look GORGEOUS), and it's a needless annoyance to have to mess around with my folio case that props my device up in landscape.

Navigating BonAppetit is also a bit oblique and not very intuitive or easy. I'd love to see hyperlinks throughout each issue, e.g. tapping on an item in the table of contents to go directly to that page, or tapping text that says "recipe on p. xx" to jump to it. Still, there are a lot of minor things that could be changed that would help immensely.

by Mssnomer

Even though I entered my subscription #, it wouldn't let me enter a my email address/password to login. I had to use my existing New Yorker email/password combo, since it's part of the Conde Nast group. The popup window with the list of Conde Nast sites had appeared way off to the left of my ipad's screen, so I couldn't read them at first--it was only when I tried to reset the password from my computer that I received a list, and realized I should try that--and it worked! I don't know what that will mean for the "auto-renewing" part, since that's a different email address/password combo than I use for my Bon Appetit print magazine subscription, though.

This business of one password for all Conde Nast sites seems like a hack waiting to happen.

Beautiful display, and I like the navigation. Similar to the New Yorker app that way.

by Geniusla

This is the first magazine I tried on my iPad. It is really nicely designed overall and pretty intuitive. Beautiful photography. As others have mentioned, when I tap the red recipe "button," sometimes it displays and then quickly recedes again. I found that after trying a few times or accessing through the index, I could get it to display. Very annoying, so I hope that gets fixed. I'm not sure I would pay a full $20 annual subscription knowing that this bug is in there. It's a food magazine-recipe functionality should be high priority to get right.

by Visa Decline

I've come to realize that having a cookbook on my iPad doesn't really work for me unless one can search for recipes easily and then put them on the screen sans advertising, etc. and in a manner designed for easiest referral WHILE COOKING.

I have no idea how or whether or not the bon appetit magazine app does this, but I want to UNsubscribe and I have no idea now how to do it. IT should be easier.

Maybe I'm just too old now to easily learn new things, be able to navigate through another new app, but mostly...how do you unsubscribe???

by .Dragoo

BonAppetit is great when the recipes work. Pages open up fast enough with a good connection, idk why people would complain about that. There are a million points for that to bottleneck... BUT there is some bug where the recipes will open for about half a second and then close........ I've tried restarting BonAppetit , then restarting my iPad Air, and reinstalling BonAppetit ... Still the same problem over and over. Please fix Conde naste/Bon appetit!!!

by Macattack9004787635

I've been waiting for this addition. You did not disappoint me. I love your " kitchen " recipes. Very useful in my iPad under counter mount. Add a timer app and ur golden. I don't mind the advertisements as the advertisers sometimes add useful information; if not, a flick of the finger and it's gone.

With that said, I think 600+ megabytes is too large of a file, and I would like to see them more storage friendly. After all, I have to share space with my family..... So I took a star.

You guys are very clever... Keep up the good work.

by Djfishny

I'm really impressed with the navigation of the Bon Appetit app. This is the first time that I've actually preferred the tablet version of a magazine to paper! It's fun to page through and easy to get to recipes.

I've been waiting for greater functionality over the last year, but haven't seen a few items that would really add to the experience... there is no way to save or bookmark recipes. On the magazine's website, it allows you to save recipes to Pinterest. Each time I read the magazine, I have to jump to the browser, find the recipe and pin it if I want to save it for future use. I would also be thrilled if I could save recipes to Evernote (like the NYTimes allows).

by MaddowAddict

I installed it three times (including the "update"), and each time it disappeared at the conclusion of install. Obviously, this needs more work.

Update: fourth time was the charm. After it disappeared forthe third time, I got an update message and this time it downloaded and stayed put. The magazine is very impressive. Tons of content, lots of recipes, lots of interactivity. It's quite beautiful to look at. I'm downgrading it one star for the initial bugginess, but also because there is no bookmarking function for the recipes. To "keep" a recipe, you have to email it to yourself and then copy and paste to a recipe app, like The Recipe Box. I could not find a bookmark tab the way that Food & Wine has.

by Jtg22

When I learned my normal subscription to Bon Appetit included a digital copy, I was ecstatic. Initially, on my 1st generation iPad, the experience of reading the magazine I loved on a touch screen was good. Then, when I upgraded to an iPad with retina display - wow. The images are more eye popping and more beautiful than the paper version - that is for certain. Some people have complained about the size of the download, but Bon Appetit is a highly visual experience so it makes sense that high resolution graphics are going to require a sizable download. Typically, I keep all back issues archived and only have the current and previous issue downloaded at a time to conserve space. I've seen others post about numerous technical problems but I haven't experienced any of them. It's an amazing cooking magazine and an excellent application if you have one of the newer iPads.

by Nofixedabode

I like BonAppetit , but it would be really nifty if access to the website or online recipe library could be included.

by S-dub_78

The graphics are great and I love how the magazine "flows" from one item to the next. As with the print version, the content is great. My only complaint about BonAppetit is the download - I don't mind the big file size, but it won't download in the background. I live overseas with a slow connection, which means it could take several hours to download ... During which I can't use my iPad for anything else. Definitely inconvenient!

by Msredhd

Very easy to navigate. Vertical swipe as well as horizontal (to continue reading an article or feature without having to go page by page).
Easy recipe section set up special to use the iPad for point by point instructions (enlarged for easy viewing at a distance.) Also some nice interactive features as well. Kutos to the developers for making the digital version much more than the printed one.

by Chipper43

I was a long time subscriber of Bon Appetit’s print version until I grew weary of stacks of magazines and recycling. This morning I decided to try subscribing to the digital version. I read other reviews and decided I could work around the small type by printing the recipes I want to use only to discover this is not possible. Well, I can take a screen shot, edit it and then print a photo. Not very practical. I like the simple layout of recipes, but reading articles gives me a headache. Without a change to BonAppetit I won’t be renewing next year. Too bad for both the magazine and myself. I gave BonAppetit three stars because I love the content.

by Palous1an

I've been getting the print subscription for the last few years, and decided to make a paperless switch to the digital version.

I had expectations going in that it would fall a bit short of the paper version in some ways, so I have been very happy to find the digital version MORE enjoyable than the print. They've managed to make the digital an interactive experience that goes beyond being just a magazine. I also love how the recipes are set up and the sleek pages where the additional information is just a touch away.

Other magazines need to study what Bon Appetit has done with their app.

by Iamlindalee

As a print subscriber, I look forward to each and every month. A subscription to the very affordable print edition gets the digital edition. Register and it downloads to your iPad Newsstand. So well done (not the food, the magazine). This is the way ALL e-magazines should be. Totally love it.

The food photography looks good enough to eat on the Retina Display iPad. The beautiful layout is easy to follow. The interactivity works great. Recipes full screen to follow on your kitchen counter. There are even embedded videos! It just keeps getting better. Highly recommend.

* July 2012 downloaded within minutes. Previous issues did take longer so perhaps they've addressed the problem.