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Free food wheel

What should I eat? Give it a spin.

Pick a wheel, flick it, and lift the lid on dinner. If the answer makes your heart sink, take it off and spin again.

This wheel spins with JavaScript, which looks switched off. The low-tech version still works: pick a list from the wheels below, think of a number from one to ten, and count down to it. Then notice how you feel about the answer.

Cuisines

12 options

For when you’re hungry, but not for anything in particular.

In short

Can’t decide what to eat? Pick a wheel, spin it, and watch your first reaction to the answer. A small “yes” means that’s dinner. A sinking feeling means you’ve learned what you don’t want: take it off and spin again.

Checked

How it works

Flick it, tap it, or press Space.

  1. Pick a wheelSeven are ready to go, from Cuisines to Late night. Choose Your wheel to spin your own list instead.
  2. Spin itFlick the wheel with a finger or a mouse, tap Spin, or press Space or Enter on the wheel. It slows on its own, like a real one, and the pin ticks over every peg. The arrow keys turn it one slice at a time.
  3. Lift the lidThe answer arrives as a covered plate. The lid lifts and there’s your dish, with a link to find it nearby.
  4. Veto honestlyNot feeling it? Remove and spin takes that option off for now and spins again. Tap it in the list to put it back.
  5. Make it yoursYour wheel holds up to 24 options, kept in this browser. Type restaurant names and it’s a restaurant picker wheel. On any ready-made wheel, Edit a copy starts you off.

Why it’s so hard

“What should I eat?” is ten questions in a trench coat.

It sounds like one choice. It’s really several at once: what you feel like, what’s open, how far you’ll go, what you had yesterday, who’s coming and what they’ll eat. By dinnertime you’ve also made a whole day of other decisions, and the menu in your head is every dish you’ve ever heard of.

A wheel helps because it swaps the blank page for a single suggestion. You stop choosing from everything and start reacting to one thing, and reacting is much easier than choosing. Half the time the answer is right. The other half, your face tells you what you actually wanted.

Tricks that work

Six ways to decide what to eat, with or without a wheel.

  • The gut check. Spin, then notice the first half-second. Relief means go. A small “ugh” is useful too: you’ve just crossed something off.
  • Three, then spin. Don’t spin a dozen things you’re lukewarm about. Name three you’d happily eat, put them on Your wheel, and let it break the tie.
  • One veto each. Eating with others? Everyone gets one Remove and spin. After that the wheel’s word is final, and nobody sulks, because everybody had a say.
  • Eat the weather. Cold and wet: soup, noodles, anything in a bowl. Hot and sticky: something fresh, sour or icy. It shrinks a whole city to a handful of places.
  • The fifteen-minute rule. Hungry right now? Only count what you could be eating within fifteen minutes. That settles most nights on its own.
  • What did you love last time? The quickest yes is a dish you already know you like. If you kept a photo of what you ordered at that ramen place in March, the decision is mostly made.

A wheel of your own meals

The easiest yes is a dish you’ve already loved.

A random wheel is good at breaking a tie. But the dishes you already know you love make a better list than any we could write. That’s the idea behind the Craving wheel in PlateDiary, a food memory app for eating out.

  • It spins your own saves. Snap one photo of the table and PlateDiary cuts every dish and drink into its own save, right on your phone. The Craving wheel deals up to ten of them onto a ring of covered plates.
  • Lift the lid. Spin, and the winning plate’s lid lifts to show a dish you’ve actually had, from a place you can go back to.
  • Narrow it down. Chips for All, Food, Drinks or 4★+ keep the wheel to what you’re in the mood for, or only to the dishes you rated highly.
  • Free, with more in Premium. The Craving wheel is free. With Premium you can build your own wheels: hand-picked shortlists of five or more saves, up to twelve of them.
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Questions

Questions people ask.

What should I eat today?

Spin the wheel above and go with it, unless your gut objects. Still stuck? Only count what you could be eating within fifteen minutes, then let the weather pick: soup or noodles when it’s cold, something fresh when it’s hot.

Is the food wheel really random?

Yes. Every option gets an equal slice, a button spin starts at a random speed, and the wheel stops wherever its friction runs out. Nothing is picked in advance.

Can I use it as a restaurant picker wheel?

Yes. Choose Your wheel, type the names of a few places, and spin. Your list stays in this browser on this device; the page doesn’t send it anywhere.

How do I stop overthinking what to eat?

Shrink the choice before you make it: name three things you’d be happy with and spin between them. Then trust your first reaction to the answer. Relief means yes; a sinking feeling means spin again.

Is there an app that spins the food I’ve actually eaten?

PlateDiary’s Craving wheel does. It deals up to ten of your own saved dishes and drinks onto a wheel of covered plates. It’s free; building your own custom wheels comes with Premium.