Food journal ideas and prompts, sixty of them.

How to use them

One prompt a meal is plenty.

Don’t answer all of them. Pick the one that sparks something, write a sentence or two, and stop. Over a year, the variety is what makes your journal fun to reread — some entries about flavours, some about friends, some about the rain outside.

1–12

Prompts about the dish.

• What was the first bite like, in five words?
• Which part of the plate would you eat again on its own?
• What did you expect it to taste like, and what did it actually taste like?
• If this dish were a song, which one?
• What is the one ingredient that made it?
• How would you describe it to someone who can’t taste it?
• Was it better hot, or did it get better as it cooled?
• What would you change if you were the chef?
• Where have you had a version of this before, and how did this one compare?
• What did it smell like when it landed on the table?
• Was it pretty, messy, or both?
• What did you order to drink, and did it fit?

13–24

Prompts about the place.

• How did you find this place?
• What did you see the moment you walked in?
• What was the best seat in the room, and did you get it?
• What was playing in the background?
• Describe the staff in one sentence.
• What does the menu say about the people who run it?
• Who else was eating there tonight?
• Is it a weeknight place or a special-occasion place?
• What would you tell a friend to order here?
• Would you bring your parents? A first date? Why?
• What was the walk or ride there like?
• What is one detail you would forget if you didn’t write it down?

25–36

Prompts about the people.

• Who was at the table, and who chose the place?
• Who ordered best tonight?
• What did everyone argue about?
• What was the funniest thing said?
• Who took the first photo, and who refused to be in it?
• Who did you share a plate with?
• What did you learn about someone tonight?
• Who paid, and how did that go?
• Who would have loved this meal but wasn’t there?
• What is the inside joke that started tonight?
• Who was the last to leave?
• If you ate alone: what did you notice that you wouldn’t have in company?

37–48

Prompts about the moment.

• What were you celebrating, if anything?
• What was the weather doing?
• What were you worried about before you sat down, and did you forget it?
• What did you do right after?
• Was this a planned meal or a happy accident?
• What was going on in your life this week?
• What would you tell yourself a year ago about this night?
• What was the best five minutes of the evening?
• Did anything go wrong, and did it make the night better?
• What did you almost order instead?
• Rate the night apart from the food.
• Write the one-line caption you would put under the photo.

49–60

Prompts for looking back.

• What was your dish of the month?
• Which place did you go back to most this year?
• Who did you eat with most, and what does that say?
• What cuisine did you try for the first time?
• Which meal would you relive first?
• Which overhyped place let you down?
• What do you always order when you can’t decide?
• What is a dish you used to hate and now love?
• What food reminds you of home, wherever home is?
• Which meal changed your mind about something?
• What are three places you want to take a visitor?
• What should you eat more of next year?

Paper journals

Page ideas for a paper food journal.

If you keep a notebook, a few repeatable layouts make it look good without a lot of effort:

• The menu page: write the night as a little menu — starter, main, dessert, drinks — with dotted lines to the right and a one-word verdict at the end of each.
• The ticket stub: a small box with date, place and who was there; tape the receipt or a business card beside it.
• The map page: a hand-drawn map of a neighbourhood with a dot for every place you ate there.
• The month grid: a calendar with a tiny doodle of the best thing you ate each day you ate out.
• The year-end top five: five dishes, five places, five people, one meal to relive.

The shortcut

Prompts work even better with a photo.

A photo of the table answers half these prompts for you. In PlateDiary, which we make, one snap cuts every dish into its own save and files it under the place and night; you can add a note, stars and the companions who were there whenever you feel like it. Once a month with a few saves is over, it turns them into a story with your dish of the month, your regular places and who you ate with most — the looking-back prompts, answered.