Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game vs The Cook

Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Tie
The Cook 4.6★ · Free + IAP 65

Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game offers a more engaging experience with character customization and a story, but its aggressive monetization and frequent technical issues are significant drawbacks, making The Cook a potentially smoother, albeit simpler, alternative.

Full reviews: Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game · The Cook

Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game is praised for its engaging story, diverse restaurants, and customization options, but is heavily criticized for aggressive in-app purchase prompts and frequent glitches. The Cook, while not directly reviewed here, is implied to be a simpler, less feature-rich game based on the comparison's one-sided review data.

Head to head

Features and Gameplay edge: Cooking Diary® Restaurant GameR2R5R7R24
Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game offers a rich experience with a story, diverse restaurants, character customization, home decorating, and in-game friends R2R5R24. Players enjoy the fast-paced, multitasking gameplay and the challenge it provides . However, some recent updates have removed features like boosters for returning players, which has been a point of frustration R7.
The Cook There are no specific user reviews for The Cook provided in the dataset to detail its features and gameplay.
Ease of Use and Progression tieR3R8R13R15
Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game Many users find Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game fun and addicting R3R8. However, progression becomes difficult at higher levels, with upgrades costing significantly more rubies or gems, pushing players towards in-app purchases R3R13R21. Some players also report issues with not being given the full allotted time for tasks R15.
The Cook There are no specific user reviews for The Cook provided in the dataset to detail its ease of use and progression.
Reliability and Performance tieR6R9R23R25
Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game suffers from frequent freezing, glitches, and crashes, especially after updates R6R9R23R25. Some users have to reinstall the app to resolve these issues, risking loss of progress R6R43.
The Cook There are no specific user reviews for The Cook provided in the dataset to detail its reliability and performance.
Price/Value (Free vs. Paid) tieR1R3R10R12
Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game is free to play but is heavily criticized for its aggressive monetization strategy, with constant pop-up ads and prompts for in-app purchases R1R10R12. Many users feel forced to spend money to progress, as earning in-game currency like rubies is difficult and upgrades are expensive R3R13R21R25. While some paying users find it 'worth it' R24, many free players are frustrated by the pressure to spend R1R12R13.
The Cook There are no specific user reviews for The Cook provided in the dataset to detail its price/value.
Support tieR5R43
Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game One user expressed concern about losing progress if reinstalling due to glitches and sought help, indicating a potential need for better support or account linking options beyond Facebook R5R43.
The Cook There are no specific user reviews for The Cook provided in the dataset to detail its support.
Pick Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game if

you enjoy games with a strong story, character customization, and diverse restaurant themes, and are willing to tolerate frequent in-app purchase prompts or spend money to progress R2R5R24.

Pick The Cook if

you prefer a simpler cooking game experience without the reported aggressive monetization and technical issues of Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game (implied by absence of negative reviews for B, and presence for A).

Evidence note: The evidence for this comparison is heavily skewed towards Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game, as no user reviews for The Cook were provided. Therefore, the 'B_take' sections are empty, and comparisons are largely based on the strengths and weaknesses of App A, with App B's standing inferred from its lack of negative feedback in the provided dataset.

Frequently asked

Does Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game have a good story?
Yes, Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game is praised for having a good story and engaging levels that keep the game interesting R2R5.
Is Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game free to play without spending money?
While Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game is free to download, many users report that progression becomes very difficult without making in-app purchases due to expensive upgrades and limited in-game currency rewards R1R3R13R21.
Does Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game have ads?
Users report that Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game constantly spams them with pop-up ads and offers for in-app purchases, making the experience annoying R1R10R12. However, one user mentioned the absence of traditional ads R17.
Are there technical issues with Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game?
Yes, many users experience frequent freezing, glitches, and crashes, especially after updates, sometimes requiring reinstallation and risking loss of progress R6R9R23R43.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 50 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. [R2] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 4/5 · US Cooking Diary: Cooking Diary is a fun and colorful cooking game where you run restaurants and serve customers quickly. The goal of the game is to cook different foods, upgrade your kitchen, and keep customers happy before time runs out. One of the best parts of the game is how many different restaurants and foods there are. As you move through the levels, you unlock new locations and recipes, whi
  2. [R5] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 4/5 · US GREAT GAMEEEEEE: Everyone that plays this game will become absolutely in love. It’s my favorite mobile game right now! There’s a good story, fun levels, and a lot more! The only recommendation that I would leave is to add the option of being able to sign in to an older account to not lose your progress with something else other than Facebook. Thank you!
  3. [R7] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 1/5 · US Removed boosters for returning players: It’s such a shame they removed boosters for players that come back after more than a month. I deeply enjoyed using them to play multiple levels with ease. Please bring these back, now it’s just depressing without them.
  4. [R24] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 5/5 · US Worth It!!!: I spend so much money on this game it’s no joke but it’s so worth it! The outfit changing, the Home decorating, the changing your pups clothing or your animal in general and let’s not forget the different type of restaurants. This game is a 10 out of 10.
  5. [R3] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 3/5 · US Way to many rubies: I enjoy playing this game. It’s very addicting. The problem is that you compete in tournaments and events, you have to play a lot to win these tournaments and events and only end up winning a few rubies when an upgrade is 22 movies it can be hard to regret in the game. If you win 30 consecutive rounds you get 10 measly rubies. The game makes it so that you have to spend money a
  6. [R8] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 5/5 · US Fun Game: Very relaxing game and it’s fun to play.
  7. [R13] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 1/5 · US Too difficult you have to spend money to get through the levels: This game has changed. At first it starts out fun and exciting but then it changes all about money. I don’t recommend
  8. [R15] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 3/5 · US Not given the full allotted time to complete tasks: The photo shoot & others give you a limited time to complete, however the last 14 hours or so they don’t let you continue to complete it. It’s misleading.. We should be able to have the full allotted time to complete all of the tasks.
  9. [R6] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 3/5 · US Freezing: Great fun game, but freezes fairly often, have to delete app and reinstall.
  10. [R9] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 3/5 · US Update issue: The game was running great but ever since I updated the app it glitches and exits itself out
  11. [R23] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 1/5 · US Crashes after Update: After update on 1.2.26, cannot get back into game. Keeps crashing after the initial Mytona screen.
  12. [R25] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 1/5 · US Annoying: Since last app update after New Year’s Eve, the music and the background music fight with each other. The levels are so annoying, money grabbing scheme to buy crystals because it’s impossible to go through them.. bs
  13. [R1] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 2/5 · US TOO MANY IN APP PURCHASES: The game itself (when you can actually play it, is fun) but omg I can’t even make it past one level without the game trying to make me purchase something 10 different times!! It’s annoying!! Look, if someone wants to purchase gems, they’re gonna do it. You do NOT have to ask a million times. I had to uninstall, it was more about the purchases than the actual game.
  14. [R10] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 1/5 · US STOP WITH ALL THE POP UP ADDS!!: This was a good game until they constantly spam you with pop up adds and offers for their game! Bs
  15. [R12] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 3/5 · US Kay…: Limit the number of prompts to get you to pay for stuff. I’m a lot more likely to spend money if you occasionally offer a good deal that actually helps in game, versus being incessantly prompted to spend money I know for a fact will last about four seconds. Stop trying to. Scam people, basically.
  16. [R43] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 5/5 · US Glitching: Hello! I love this game and have been playing since 2021! However, whenever I open the app, it closes out or is simply stuck on the screen with no options. At allllll. I don’t have the option to update. Anyone having the same issue? Can someone help please? I’m afraid if I delete and reinstall, I’ll lose my progress. Please help
  17. [R21] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 2/5 · US Make it make sense.: The game made it much easier on the lower level to gain rubies as prizes. Now I’m at the pizza shop level and it’s become stagnant. A complete halt. How did I go from winning the treasure boxes with 15-20 rubies to now nothing?! You would think as the levels get higher they would give you a bit more because now the upgrades cost much more. This is America during the $2 minimum
  18. [R17] Cooking Diary® Restaurant Game 5/5 · US So Fun: I absolutely love this game especially the fact that there aren’t any ads. Would love to get outfits for free here and there. I also feel that maybe we get more money than necessary in the game tho I just started playing so it could be that the money is for something besides upgrades. Overall great game for ppl of all ages. 💛🌻

Synthesized from 50 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store