I Let an App Decide What I Eat for a Week — It Knew Me Better Than My Boyfriend

My boyfriend and I have had the same conversation roughly nine thousand times.

“What do you want to eat?” “I don’t know, what do you want?” “I asked you first.” “Anything’s fine.” “Okay, tacos?” “…not tacos.”

This is a man I love. A man who has known me for four years. And he could not, under interrogation, tell you what I actually want for dinner on a given night. In fairness, neither could I.

So I ran an experiment. For one week, I’d hand the question to Ugh, What Should I Eat instead of to him, and see who knew me better. I regret to inform him that it was not close.

Day 1: The fridge ambush

7pm. I opened the fridge for the daily standoff. Instead of texting “what do u want 🙄,” I opened the app, hit Cook In, and took a photo of the sad little scene — wilting cilantro, two eggs, leftover rice, a lime.

It gave me five things. One card at a time, swipe yes or no. I saved a quick rice bowl thing, made it in fifteen minutes, and it was genuinely good. My boyfriend’s contribution to dinner that night was saying “oh, that smells nice” from the couch.

Day 3: It noticed I’m a coward about spice

By the third night it had clocked something he never has. I’d swiped past a couple of suggestions and tapped “why not?” — too spicy both times. It stopped throwing chili at me.

For the record, I have told this man “I can’t do super spicy food” on at least a dozen occasions. He still orders me the spicy one “to try.” The app needed two swipes.

Day 5: The “I don’t want to cook” night

Some nights you have ingredients and ambition. Day 5 I had neither. I switched to Order In, and instead of doom-scrolling delivery menus until I rage-ordered the usual, it just… showed me a few dishes near me that fit what I was in the mood for. I swiped, I ordered, I ate. No 25-minute menu spiral.

My boyfriend’s competing suggestion: “we could just get tacos?” Sir.

Day 7: It knew before I did

By the end of the week the deck stopped feeling like a robot guessing and started feeling like a friend with good taste who’d been paying attention. It had absorbed my allergies, the cuisines I lean toward, the stuff I always skip. The suggestions were me. Comfortable, a little adventurous, never spicy enough to ruin my evening.

That’s the part that got me. It wasn’t just filtering. It had quietly learned the shape of what I like — which is more than I can say for the decision-making process of “I don’t know, you pick.”

The verdict (sorry, babe)

To be fair to my boyfriend: he’s better at many things. Carrying heavy stuff. Killing spiders. Remembering people’s birthdays. But “knowing what I want for dinner” is now, officially, outsourced.

The standoff is over. Nobody has to lose the “what do you want / I don’t know” game anymore, because something else answers it — and it actually knows the answer.

Download Ugh, What Should I Eat free on the App Store and let it settle dinner before the standoff even starts. Your relationship will thank you.