BigNight: Dinner Party Planner

I like this app a lot as it helps to consolidate (almost) everything in one place. I can find online recipes to add the my BigNight at the touch of a button. Unfortunately if you want to add a recipe that can't be found online (and yes this is a possibility) there is no option for typing in your own recipe and adding a photo. I think this app could benefit greatly if these options were added.

I like that you can put in your menu with recipes from the web. But to get a grocery list, you have to enter every ingredient separately by hand to get a shopping list. You also can’t edit the recipes. If you want to enter your own one, you can only use EverNote and then pull it from there. You can enter each task with a date and time, so that’s good. I don’t see a drink calculation feature, table seating, a checklist of all the things to consider for a party, etc. It’s really lacking a lot and I wish I didn’t buy it. I just realized my MealBoard app has notifications! Way better app for importing recipients and editing them. And the notification part under the recipe should work just as well as this one. And MealBoard creates your shopping list from your recipe automatically.

I use this app for every holiday, birthday, and get together. It saves me from making multiple lists and it’s always accessible. A must have for anyone who loves planning events with food.

It was surprising to me that I couldn’t add my own recipes to the app. It is limited to searching and adding recipes from the internet. I probably wouldn’t of paid for app if there was a free trial version that I could have tried

I love this app! It thinks like I do. Two improvements that I would to see is a consolidated shopping list. If I could make one BIG suggestion, I would request a notes field where I could put the vessel that it will be served in or a serving dish field. Then this app would be perfect. By the way, it does a great job of finding appropriate photos of your dish!

Thank you for the update! I didn’t know how useful the menu function would be until I started coordinating dishes with out-of-town family members. -Tynishia

It froze and then I had to reinstall and it completely erased my menus :(

I wish there was more integration with an app like paprika or pepperplate. All of my recipes are stored in those. To use this app I’ve had to put all my recipes into Evernote and then into this app. It’s not the best because the app does not pull the picture of the recipient and there does not appear to be a way to add it. I do like the list aggregator and the reminders list a lot. I just wish I could pull recipes from anywhere on the web not just the websites that are listed

Really enjoy this menu planning app! Love that you can link recipes to the menu so that everything is right in one place. We have family Sunday dinners twice a month and I have used this app to create the menus for the entire year! The only thing that I wish it had is a note section for each menu i plan as i like to make notes.

Maybe ok for cook who needs preloaded or linked recipes, but for anyone wanting to use their own recipes or anything not connected with this app it is way more trouble than it's worth. You have to import ingredients, checklists reminders etc. easier on a simple to-do list. Save your money. Not worth this absurdly high charge for a rudimentary app.