Every entry in Matcha is a dish: what it was, where you ate it, what you paid and a score from 1 to 10. Here’s how that works for five kinds of eater, and when another app will suit you better. The full tour is in how Matcha works.
People who plan trips around food
You book the table before the hotel, and you’d change trains for a good cinnamon bun.
Before the trip, save places to Want to try with the dish to order, so the row reads “Pizza · Gino Sorbillo”. They show as pink pins on your map and sit in a list grouped by city. In Profile, you can also import the Google Maps list you’ve been building for months. Its places land on your map as saved places, separate from Want to try.
On the trip, add the dish even with no signal. Once you’re back online, Matcha finds the place from where you were, or asks you to pick it. Each price keeps its currency, so the yen you paid in Tokyo stay yen.
After the trip, pick up to 10 photos at once. Matcha reads the date from each one and suggests the place from where it was taken. Every city gets its own page of your best dishes. More on this in travel food journal, and for ideas on what to eat where, see the food bucket list.
Locals keeping their city’s best
Your own city works the same way. Open your ramen ranking and tap your city, and you see the best ramen you’ve had in town, best first.
A restaurant’s page lists every dish you’ve had there, best first, so you know what to order at the place around the corner. Rankings › Restaurant ranks the places themselves by your average. When a dish takes first place in its food, Matcha shows it as your new #1.
On the map, every place you’ve scored carries the score of the best dish you had there. Filter by 9+ and you have the list to give a visitor. See restaurant tracker app for the details, and how to rate food if you want your 8s to mean the same thing every time.
Matcha, coffee and pastry hunters
Yes, the app is called Matcha. Matcha latte is one of the foods it suggests when you set it up, next to coffee, croissant, cinnamon roll and gelato. You can name your own foods too, like “Iced matcha”, “Flat white” or “Pain au chocolat”, and each one gets its own ranking.
When you’re comparing the same drink café after café, the details help. Scores go in half steps, so an 8.5 sits above an 8. A note holds “Iced, oat milk, not too sweet.” The price keeps its currency: ¥750 in Kyoto, $7.50 in New York.
To find somewhere new, search “matcha” on the map. The results come from Apple Maps. To see one food, pick Croissant in the map’s filter: the map keeps the places where you’ve had one, plus any Want to try place you saved for a croissant.
Start with the matcha rating app page, or the guides to matcha in London, croissants in Paris and cinnamon buns in Copenhagen.
Friends and couples who eat out together
Start a shared list for the people you eat with: “Pizza crew” for the Friday group, “Date nights” for the two of you, “Lisbon 2026” for a trip. You invite them through iCloud, and anyone in the list can add dishes.
Everyone scores the same dishes from 1 to 10. A friend’s score stays face down until you’ve given yours, so nobody nudges anyone. The list ranks every dish by the average of everyone’s scores.
Each person needs Matcha on their own iPhone, with Matcha Pro or the free trial. The full walk-through is in rate restaurants with friends.
The friend everyone asks “where should I eat in Naples?”
The message arrives before every trip a friend takes. Open your Naples page, tap Share › Share as image, and pick your top 5, your #1 or a podium, sized for a Story, a post or a square. It’s a picture, so it works for friends on any phone.
If they use Matcha, Send my places hands over the places themselves. Pick the places, send the link, and they get a copy in their Want to try with the dish you had and your score. Nothing comes back to you.
Haven’t been yet yourself? Our guide to the best pizza in Naples lists the places named by several published lists, with each source linked. Other cities are in the guides.
Matcha isn’t for you if…
Better to know before the trial starts.
- You use Android, or want an iPad or web version. Matcha is iPhone only and needs iOS 26 or later. As of October 2026, Beli, Mapstr, Savor and Google Maps lists all run on Android. See Matcha alternatives for what to use instead.
- You want to count calories or track nutrition. Matcha records the dishes worth remembering and never asks about calories or portions. Keep a nutrition tracker for that. What Matcha records instead is on the food journal app page.
- You want crowd scores, public reviews or followers. The app doesn’t recommend places: every ranking comes from your own scores, plus your friends’ in a list you share. As of October 2026, Beli is built around a friends’ feed (Beli alternatives), and Mapstr maps are public by default (Mapstr alternative).
- You want an app you never pay for. Matcha is a free download with a 7-day free trial, then $9.99/year, or $0.99/week without a trial. Other plans may show in the app, prices vary by country, and nothing is free after the trial (pricing). Google Maps lists are free (compared with Matcha), and so is our restaurant spreadsheet template.
More about Matcha
Read why Matcha exists and what makes it different, or go straight to the FAQ.
