A food journal with nothing to count.

The idea

Memories, not numbers.

PlateDiary started from one question: what do you actually want to know about a meal a year later? Not how big it was. You want to know what it was called, where it was, who you were with, and whether you’d go back.

So that’s what it keeps. One photo of the table, each dish cut out on its own, filed under the night and the place. The only numbers on the board are memory numbers: “eaten 3×”, “your 4th visit”, “N days at the table” this month.

Instead

What you keep instead.

Every one of these is optional. A save with nothing but a photo is still a complete memory.

• The dish, cut out from the photo, with its name if you add one.
• The place, from where the photo was taken.
• The people — “with Lena and Tom”.
• A note — one line is plenty.
• Stars, if you like them.
• The bill, if you want to remember what the night came to.

No pressure

Nothing to keep up with.

No daily reminders to fill in, no “days in a row” to protect, no scores going up or down. Skip a month and nothing scolds you; open the app after a long trip and your history is exactly where you left it. You eat out when you eat out, and PlateDiary is there when you do.

Prompts

A no-counting journal page: prompts to borrow.

Use these in any journal — an app, a notebook, the back of a menu:

• What made this dish taste like this place, and not anywhere else?
• Who ordered best tonight?
• What would you order next time, and what would you skip?
• One sound or smell from the room.
• What was everyone talking about when the food arrived?
• Is this a place for a date, for your parents, or for eating alone with a book?
• Finish the sentence: “Next time I’m here, I…”

Only if you want

If you ever want numbers: off unless you turn them on.

To be straight with you: PlateDiary does have an optional Calories feature, because some people asked for it. It’s off unless you turn it on, under Settings → PlateDiary AI → Calories. With it off, the app looks exactly as it does without it — no numbers on saves, moments, the board or the You tab.

If you do switch it on, a PlateDiary AI read can add one rough “~” estimate per dish, or you can type your own; there’s a Calories page that adds up the meals you saved, and an optional daily number that’s off by default. Nothing is written to Apple Health or Health Connect, and calorie values never go to analytics. You can read how that works on the calorie counter page — or never think about it again.

Who it’s for

Who this kind of journal is for.

PlateDiary isn’t a health or medical app. If your relationship with food is something you’re working on, a doctor or a specialist is the right person to talk to — a memory app is no substitute for that.

• People who eat out and want to remember it — date nights, food trips, Friday dumplings.
• Anyone who has tried a counting app and wanted the memories without the maths.
• Families and friend groups who want the who as much as the what.

Other ways

Other ways to keep a journal without counting.

There are also mindful-eating journals, which ask how hungry or full you felt. That’s a different job from remembering a great night out, and worth choosing on purpose.