What it does
Kitchen Stories is a cooking app designed to help users discover, organize, and prepare recipes. It provides a personalized feed of meal ideas based on dietary preferences and favorite cuisines. The app offers detailed, step-by-step recipe guides complete with photos and integrated tools like shopping lists and cooking timers to assist with the entire meal-making process.
Where it shines
The app excels at transforming a static recipe into an interactive tool. On any recipe page, users can dynamically adjust the serving size (02:41), and all ingredient quantities update instantly. A single tap at 02:47 adds these adjusted ingredients to a built-in shopping list. Another standout is the powerful filtering system (06:51), which allows users to narrow down a vast recipe library by specific criteria like calories, occasion, or main ingredients, making discovery highly efficient.
UX highlights
- Contextual Tooltips: The app introduces features with non-intrusive tooltips when they are most relevant, like the one for editing preferences on the home screen at 01:25, rather than front-loading information.
- Integrated Cooking Timers: Recipe steps with specific cooking times include a tappable timer icon (02:54) that starts a mini-timer overlay, keeping users within the app.
- Rich Community Content: Recipes are enhanced with user-submitted photos and comments (01:52), providing valuable social proof and real-world cooking tips.
- Smart Cookbook Functionality: Users can create multiple, named cookbooks (03:18) to organize saved recipes, and the save flow is a simple, multi-select checklist.
- Actionable Shopping List: The shopping list isn't just a list. It allows for serving adjustments and easy check-offs (09:51), and users can quickly navigate back to the source recipe.
Monetization & growth
Monetization is centered around a 'Kitchen Stories Plus' subscription. After completing the initial sign-up, the user is presented with a full-screen offer for a free two-week trial (01:02). The offer highlights key benefits like 'free full access' and automatic cancellation. While the pricing details aren't shown in this flow, the strategy is to lock in a trial commitment early in the user journey, immediately after they have provided personalization data.
Who it’s for
Kitchen Stories is for home cooks of any skill level. Beginners will appreciate the clear, step-by-step instructions and integrated tools that reduce the mental load of cooking. Experienced cooks will find value in the vast recipe library, advanced search filters, and cookbook features for organizing inspiration. It's ideal for anyone who wants a single app to handle recipe discovery, meal planning, and cooking execution.
Notes & opportunities
The onboarding flow requires sign-up before a user can see the core product, which could be a point of friction. Introducing the personalized feed earlier might improve initial engagement. The system permission prompts for notifications and app tracking (00:00, 01:18) are shown without a warm-up screen, potentially lowering opt-in rates. Adding a brief explanation of the benefits before the prompt could be a valuable test.