Developer: Penguin Books
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4
I’ll admit it. If I had to choose two great material loves, they would be technology and food. I’ve got a feeling that eating the kinds of food that I eat will one day take revenge on me but for now, I’m going to revel in having meals out and enjoying different cuisines. This is precisely why Jamie Oliver Food Guide should be ideal for someone like me. It’s an app that recommends over 1000 places to eat, visit and shop around Britain.
It’s incredibly simple to use Jamie Oliver Food Guide. Upon loading, users can tap the button to turn on the GPS functionality and instanteously, the app recommends a selection of eateries nearby. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be anywhere to choose what area to look at, with users relying on the location they’re currently at. The variety of places means that some areas fare better than others. While there’s a huge wealth of places recommended in London, there’s fewer to look at in the likes of South West Wales and there are some noteable omissions.
Each entry comes with an attractive photo of what to expect of the location, contact details such as telephone number and website address plus a brief description of what kind of food the place offers. Opening hours are also offered along with a map that helps guide users to their destination. While some places are recommended by Jamie Oliver himself, others are covered by his team or Jamie’s mates as the app calls them. Further recommendations come from Rough Guides, famous for their useful skills in this area. It’s all pretty useful providing the user is in an area of the country catered for by Jamie Oliver Food Guide.
A calendar function adds to the usefulness of the app providing details of local food festivals over the coming months. It’s a little minimalist, again failing to cover as much of the country as some users would like but it does offer an attractive summary of the events. The ability to import into iCal provides further functionality. The main other addition to the app is that of the Recommend section thus enabling users to add their own favorites. The hope is that then the app can grow in size and smaller outlets can be noticed from further afield.
Whether the asking price is worth it depends much on the area of the country that users reside or plan to visit. While residents of cities such as London or Liverpool will revel in the advantages of Jamie Oliver Food Guide, those who live in more rural and remote areas will struggle to really find the benefits. Tourists can garner similar benefits depending on their choice of destination.


via:148Apps