Google TV is made for media consumption and such device wouldn’t be complete without some good food-related apps. If you want to take your cooking skills to the next level, Google TV offers a few great apps. One of our favorites happens to be Allrecipes TV, which offers a great variety of recipes, awesome video tutorials and great social features.

Right off the bat, the application welcomes you with a very nice TV-optimized app. One can really tell the difference between a quick port and a Google TV optimized app. This one features a very nice UI, with large (nice) images, large font and well-organized categories.

Recipes

The recipes section is the most important (of course), so it is crucial that the section works as perfectly as possible. Sadly, this is not the case – at least in my experience. The application is a bit laggy, but that is nothing we can’t handle (though we would rather it work better). The real problem is that some of the app’s features don’t work.

Te app categorizes recipes by method, occasion, time, ingredients and more, with the main one being the “Best of” section. Sadly, only the last-mentioned section works. If I go to any of the other sections to try and filter out results based on these factors, the app will display no recipes at all. Pretty much, you are stuck with the “Best of” recipes if you wish to browse for recipes. Not sure if it’s my device (VIZIO Co-Star) or the app. Let us know if you are experiencing the same problem.

When you access a recipe, the expected sections pop up. You get your ingredients and steps, but the best part of the app is that it offers other helpful features. There are customer reviews, nutrition facts for the calorie counters and photos. Furthermore, you can also share these recipes via Twitter, straight from the app.

Search

The good news is that you might still be able to take full advantage of the app if you have an idea of what you want. The search function does work, and it works great. In the video you can see me searching for “pizza” recipes. The app offers a plethora of pizza recipes. Can’t complain much about this part!

Videos

My favorite part about this (or any) Google TV recipe app is the video section. We can get written recipes and images from any device, but the real point of using Google TV is watching videos. The video section of this app offers a great variety of categories and filters (which do work!).

These professional videos manage to give you a full explanation and thorough instructions in a very concise manner. Like the images in the recipes section, the video previews are large and well-organized for the Google TV platform.

Conclusion

Allrecipes TV is not perfect – it definitely has some performance issues and bugs. It does offer some great recipes and content, though. As long as you can live with its few issues, it is one of the best food apps available for Google TV.

Its social features (reviews and sharing) make the experience much more interesting. We often have to rely on the big networks, but many times the real opinions are the ones that matter. The fact that this app integrates user reviews is huge! The videos are also high-quality and very concise, while staying informative.

The app is free from the Google Play Store so go ahead and check it out! We will also be reviewing other food apps in the near-future, so stay on the lookout for that! And if you have any recommendations for good apps we can add to the review list? Let us know in the comments!