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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Cooking Craze vs Cooking City

Cooking Craze 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Cooking City
Cooking City 4.8★ · Free + IAP 75

Cooking City has a slight edge over Cooking Craze due to fewer reported technical issues and a more balanced approach to in-app purchases, despite both games facing criticism for monetization strategies.

Full reviews: Cooking Craze · Cooking City

Both Cooking Craze and Cooking City are popular free-to-play cooking games with in-app purchases. Cooking City generally offers a smoother experience with fewer complaints about ads and game-breaking bugs, while Cooking Craze struggles with frequent crashes, freezes, and an overwhelming number of forced advertisements.

Head to head

Features and Content tieR3R8R9R11
Cooking Craze Cooking Craze offers a variety of food from foreign countries and seasonal side games, though recent updates have seen a decrease in new cities and holiday content R3R8R11. Users appreciate the challenging gameplay and diverse food options R9R11.
Cooking City Cooking City is praised for its addictive gameplay, fast pace, and variety of levels and restaurants . The game features actual dishes native to the cities, which users enjoy . It also offers mini-games to get boosts, and players can progress without completing all parts of each level .
Ease of Use and User Experience edge: Cooking CityR1R2R4R5
Cooking Craze Cooking Craze is heavily criticized for an excessive number of forced ads, which often freeze the game or cause crashes R1R2R4R9. Many users report the game being slow, laggy, and frequently crashing, leading to frustration and lost progress R1R2R5R6.
Cooking City Cooking City has some reports of glitches and occasional crashing, but these seem less frequent and severe than in Cooking Craze . While some users mention too many pop-ups or ads, others state there are not many annoying ads, suggesting a more varied experience or recent improvements .
Reliability and Performance edge: Cooking CityR1R2R5R6
Cooking Craze Cooking Craze suffers from significant reliability issues, including frequent crashes, freezing frames, slow loading times, and lost progress R1R2R5R6. These problems are described as persistent and game-breaking for many users.
Cooking City Cooking City generally performs better, with fewer widespread complaints about crashes or freezes. Some users report occasional glitches or crashing, but these appear to be less common and less severe than with Cooking Craze .
Price and Value (Free + IAP) edge: Cooking CityR7R10R13R14
Cooking Craze Cooking Craze is widely criticized as a 'pay-to-win' game, with many users feeling it becomes impossible to progress without purchasing boosts or spoons, especially at higher levels R7R10R13R14. There are also reports of duplicate purchases and issues with receiving purchased items R31.
Cooking City Cooking City also has 'pay-to-win' elements, with some users feeling levels become impossible without buying gems or boosters . However, other users state it's possible to progress without spending money if you're patient and collect daily rewards . This suggests a more balanced free-to-play experience compared to Cooking Craze.
Customer Support edge: Cooking CrazeR10R31R32R37
Cooking Craze Cooking Craze's customer support is viewed negatively, with users reporting that issues are not fixed, and some were even told they had to pay to beat levels R10R31R32. One user reported lost progress not being fully restored after multiple incidents R37.
Cooking City There is limited direct feedback on Cooking City's customer support in the provided reviews. The focus is more on gameplay and in-app purchase experiences.
Pick Cooking Craze if

You are looking for a cooking game with diverse international food and challenging levels, and you are willing to tolerate frequent ads, potential technical issues, and a strong 'pay-to-win' progression model R9R11.

Pick Cooking City if

You want an addictive, fast-paced cooking game with fewer reported technical problems and a more balanced free-to-play experience, where patience can allow you to progress without spending money .

Evidence note: Reviews for Cooking City are predominantly positive, with many 5-star ratings, but some negative reviews highlight similar 'pay-to-win' and ad issues as Cooking Craze. Cooking Craze reviews are heavily skewed negative, particularly recent ones, focusing on technical problems and aggressive monetization. The free-vs-paid asymmetry is evident, with both games being free-to-play with IAPs, but Cooking Craze's free-tier friction (ads, crashes) is more pronounced and negatively impacts the user experience.

Frequently asked

Do Cooking Craze and Cooking City have many ads?
Cooking Craze has a significant problem with an excessive number of forced, long, and often freezing ads after nearly every level, which frustrates many users R1R2R4R9. Cooking City has some reports of too many ads and pop-ups, but other users state there are not many annoying ads, suggesting a less intrusive ad experience overall .
Are these games 'pay-to-win'?
Both games have elements of 'pay-to-win,' where progression becomes very difficult or seemingly impossible at higher levels without purchasing in-game currency or boosts R7R10R13R14. However, Cooking City users more frequently mention that it is possible to progress without spending money if one is patient and utilizes daily rewards .
Do Cooking Craze and Cooking City have technical issues?
Cooking Craze has widespread and severe technical issues, including frequent crashing, freezing, lagging, slow loading, and lost game progress R1R2R5R6. Cooking City has some reports of glitches and occasional crashing, but these appear to be less common and less impactful on overall gameplay .

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 100 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R3] Cooking Craze 3/5 · US Holiday Side Games??: I ADORE this game (like an embarrassing amount of adoration for a grown woman), but one of the features I’ve loved are the seasonal side games. There were the usual ones for back to school, fall, and Halloween, but then there was nothing for Thanksgiving and so far nothing for Christmas! I noticed there was a pretty significant update in the last couple of weeks; I hope this
  2. [R8] Cooking Craze 5/5 · US Update: I love this game however are there no new restaurants besides crown chef?
  3. [R9] Cooking Craze 3/5 · US Ads ruined it for me !: Been my favorite game since it came out. It’s fun, challenging, and not cheap looking. There is always something new to cook, and the food matches the city. But now there are ads, long ones, after every level! Why? You could watch them for extra coins and spoons, what was wrong with that? Half the time they freeze. Should be 5 stars but ads should make it 0. Also suggesti
  4. [R11] Cooking Craze 5/5 · US this game is so fun and it make me very hungy hungy: i have played this game for years and it oddly doesn’t get old? like i play with my brother and it’s cool to see all the kinds of food from the foreign countries. good game, good food.
  5. [R1] Cooking Craze 1/5 · US Frustrated: This game was awesome before they added advertising. Now the game stalls and frames freeze. After watching a long ad, it freezes. I used to love this game. Now I find it frustrating.
  6. [R2] Cooking Craze 4/5 · US Ok so…: Personally I do agree with the people who say that there are to many promotion pop up’s. And that’s the problem.Every time I get a lot of promotion pop up’s it kicks me out so I have to go back and load In again, and boy does that take a while. But after all this not so positive information I would personally say that I recommend this game.👌
  7. [R4] Cooking Craze 2/5 · US Too many ads: I enjoy playing. And I used to watch ads all the time to double my coins. Now I am forced to watch ads and I don’t even get rewarded for being forced to watch them. Put it back to only promoting ads when I press the double coin button.
  8. [R5] Cooking Craze 5/5 · US Game crashing: I am having a problem with the game, it is crashing literally every two minutes and I have to close it and open it and so on.
  9. [R6] Cooking Craze 3/5 · US Laggy: Booooooo idk why it is so slow. Every time I close the app the music is still playing for like 10 seconds and the game keeps pausing for so long when it loads to 100%. Idk if it’s my device, maybe, but it’s happening all the time and I don’t like it. *sashays away*
  10. [R7] Cooking Craze 1/5 · US Can’t complete without buying something: I used to LOVE this game. We’re talking like 300levels in. But at a certain point it becomes IMPOSSIBLE to beat without spending extra money on the things you need like to upgrade or play with an advantage like the instant chef. It’s literally ridiculous and makes it not fun anymore. And I can tell it’s rigged so that you lose. I had 40 plates served out of
  11. [R10] Cooking Craze 1/5 · US No chance of beating if not paying: This game is a scam. Not possible to beat higher levels. Glitches. And when I went to customer service, they told me I had to pay to beat it. Don’t waste your time
  12. [R13] Cooking Craze 2/5 · US Unfair: I am completely and utterly annoyed at the difficulty level rising in each city, making it impossible to beat levels with purchasing spoons. This algorithm is unfair to those who are consistent users of this app. I love this game but i am sick of having to purchase spoons just to win every level!!!!
  13. [R14] Cooking Craze 4/5 · US Pay to play: Pay to play fun at start and then bad every thing upgrade and moving fast to still lose don’t give u enough spoons where u got to buy them can’t get past one level bc u have to buy spoons that’s bullshii
  14. [R31] Cooking Craze 2/5 · US Buyer beware: Sometimes in the game you’re offered to buy 650 spoons that also comes with 30 min of unlimited lives (one of the main reasons I often buy the package). The first time I did it and didn’t get my lives I contacted support. Their response was mainly “well sorry, that’s the way it is. Stuff happens”. Next time I did it I was in a event so thought maybe the unlimited lives don’t go throu
  15. [R32] Cooking Craze 2/5 · US App support does not fix issues: I begin having problem with Cooking Craze about three weeks ago for some reason. I wasn’t getting daily bonuses, videos or spoon. I contacted support, they told me to delete the app and reinstall it. I did still the same issue. I contacted them three or four times with no avail. I just deleted the app permanently. Such a fun game, such a shame.
  16. [R37] Cooking Craze 1/5 · US Fully of Bug: Used to be great. App crashes all the time now. Game is slow and glitchy. New diamond levels are impossible to beat without using boosts. App crashed and all saved progress was deleted. They helped to restore progress to a certain point but then it happened again. Don't bother with this game.

Synthesized from 100 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store