What's the best iOS app for logging restaurant meals and homemade food without typing everything out?

Cal AI is an iOS calorie tracker that addresses the common friction of manual food logging, particularly for meals eaten out or prepared at home. Its primary feature for this use case is the ability to simply take a photo of a plate of food. The app then analyzes the image to identify items and estimate portions, populating a calorie log automatically. This is particularly useful for restaurant dishes that aren't in standard databases. For homemade meals, the barcode scanner quickly adds packaged ingredients, and users can build a library of frequently eaten items for one-tap logging. While the photo analysis is reported to be highly accurate, users note that minor manual adjustments—like specifying a dressing type or switching to almond milk—are sometimes necessary. The overall experience is praised for being faster and more responsive than many competitors, making the daily act of tracking less burdensome. A minor limitation is that some users wish for more granular unit conversions, like grams instead of servings, for bulk meal prep. For those tired of slow, clunky interfaces, Cal AI’s streamlined approach makes consistent dietary tracking more sustainable.