Grublin answers "what should I cook tonight?" with a single complete recipe rather than a list of options. You start from what you have, by typing it or photographing it, or from what you fancy, described in plain words. Grub, the goblin in your fridge, decides, and you can ask for a different idea or tweak the one you've got in one tap. Every answer fits the allergies, diet, dislikes and kitchen kit you set once. Grublin is free on iPhone and Android.
The 5pm freeze
You know the moment. Fridge door open, cold air on your shins, nothing registering. There is food in there. There are a thousand recipes a tap away. And still the answer that surfaces is the same one as Tuesday, because deciding is the hard part, not cooking.
Recipe sites make this worse. Search "chicken thighs" and you get four hundred results, each wanting a decision from you. The problem was never a shortage of recipes. It was having to choose one. Grublin takes the choosing away.
Two ways to start, both end in dinner
Use what I've got. Type the ingredients, or photograph the shelf, and Grub builds a recipe around them. He uses what's there, lists the few staples you'll need to nab, and keeps to the kit you own. Pick how fancy you're feeling: weeknight, a bit special, or impressive. Tell him who's eating.
I fancy something. Switch mode and describe a mood instead of a shelf: "something warming and spicy", "light, I ate too much at lunch", "comfort food for a bad day". Grub reads the craving and builds the dish.
Either way, everything you set once in Preferences still applies: allergens, diet, dislikes, spice, kit. The decision is made inside your rules.
Not that one?
Try a different idea. One tap and Grub goes somewhere new. Give him a hint if you like: "not pasta again", "something Mexican", "I'm not in the mood for beef". He treats what you say as the strongest signal and changes direction, and he won't offer the idea you just turned down again. Or pick Surprise me and let him go a bit mad.
Tweak. Right idea, wrong details? Keep the dish and adjust it: milder, swap the rice for potatoes, make it for four.
Both buttons live on the recipe itself, so you never go back to a blank screen.
Breaking the same-seven-dinners rut
"Spag bol again? I live in your fridge. I've seen things."
Most households run on a rotation of six or seven meals. Not because they love them, but because those are the ones that don't need a decision. Grublin changes the default. Because Grub starts from what's actually in the kitchen this week, and because a different idea is one tap away, the answer varies, and so does what you eat.
Testers told us this plainly: they were cooking things they'd never have searched for, and the rotation widened without anyone sitting down to plan it. Steer the variety with the cuisines you like (seventeen, from British and Italian to Korean, Thai and Caribbean), your spice level, how fancy, and who's eating.
Three kitchens where the freeze bites hardest
Family dinners: in from work to hungry kids, the Kid-friendly switch and vegetables they won't find. Student cooking: eating well on a loan, cooking with no oven, and the stale-cookies mug cake. Bargain shopping: the 29p aubergines you've never cooked, decided in the aisle with the staples list as your shopping list.
What Grublin isn't
It's not a meal planner, a calorie tracker or a diet app. There are no macros, no streaks, no weekly plan to fall behind on and no guilt. The only cooking app with a goblin instead of a dietician. He wants dinner. So do you.
Tell Grub what's in the fridge, or photograph it, and he decides for you: one complete recipe, not a list to choose from. If you'd rather start from a mood, switch to I fancy something and describe it in plain words. If the first idea isn't right, tap Try a different idea, or Surprise me. Every suggestion fits the allergens, diet and kit you set once. Tap Try a different idea and Grub goes somewhere new, taking any hint you give him, such as "not pasta" or "something Mexican". If the idea is right but the details aren't, tap Tweak and he adjusts the same dish: milder, swap an ingredient, make it for four. That is what testers reported. Because Grub starts from what's actually in your kitchen and you can ask for a different idea in one tap, the answers vary week to week instead of defaulting to the same few dinners. No. Grublin is for tonight. It writes one recipe at a time from what you have or what you fancy. There are no meal plans to maintain, no calorie counts, no streaks and no macros.Questions people ask
I have no idea what to cook. How does Grublin help?
What if I don't like the recipe Grublin suggests?
Does Grublin stop me cooking the same meals every week?
Does Grublin do meal planning or calorie tracking?