What Is a Food Spin Wheel?
A food spin wheel is a wheel divided into segments, each labelled with a meal, a cuisine or a restaurant. You spin it and eat whatever it lands on. It can be a physical spinner, a website, or a feature inside a food decision app. The wheel itself has no intelligence: every segment has an equal chance. Its value is that it produces one answer, immediately, with nobody having to argue for it.
Why a Wheel Ends the Indecision
Three things happen when you spin a wheel, and each one helps.
It removes the comparison. Deciding between pizza, ramen and tacos is tiring because you could be happy with any of them. A wheel skips the weighing-up entirely.
It removes the blame. In a group, nobody wants to be the person who chose the disappointing place. If the wheel chose, nobody did. This is the main reason wheels work so well for couples and friends.
It reveals what you wanted. While the wheel is still turning, most people notice they are hoping for a particular segment. That hope is your real preference showing up. If the wheel lands elsewhere and you feel let down, you now know what to eat, and you are free to choose it.
How to Build a Wheel That Gives Good Answers
Only add options you would actually accept
The most common mistake is padding the wheel. If landing on a segment would make you groan, it should not be there. A wheel with four good options beats a wheel with twelve mixed ones.
Keep it to four to eight segments
Fewer than four and you could have just chosen. More than eight and you are back to an overwhelming list, only now it is circular.
Put the same kind of thing on every segment
Mixing "sushi" with "that place on the corner" and "cook at home" makes results hard to act on. Decide what the wheel is choosing, a cuisine, a dish or a specific restaurant, and keep every segment at that level.
Agree the respin rule before you spin
One respin is reasonable. Unlimited respins mean you are just choosing with extra steps. In a group, a good rule is that anyone may call one respin for the evening.
Wheel Ideas
The weeknight dinner wheel
Six meals you can make from what you normally have in the house. Spin it on the evenings when you cannot face thinking. Replace a segment whenever you get bored of it.
The cuisine wheel
Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Thai, burgers, Mediterranean. Useful for eating out, because once the cuisine is fixed, finding a place nearby is quick.
The "our places" wheel
The handful of restaurants your household or friend group already likes. This is the one that ends the weekly "where should we go?" conversation.
Using a Food Wheel App
A wheel in an app saves you from building one by hand and can connect the result to real places. In FeedMii, a free app for iPhone and iPad, you choose food or drink, select the cuisines you would be happy with, and spin a wheel that lands on a specific dish. From there the app shows nearby places that serve it, with each place's rating, distance and whether it is open now, and a Directions button that opens the route in Google Maps. If you would rather browse than spin, the same options are available as swipeable cards.
For a comparison of wheel and non-wheel apps, see our list of the best food decision apps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a wheel that decides what to eat?
Yes. A food spin wheel picks one option at random from a set of meals, cuisines or restaurants. You can make one on paper, use a wheel website, or use an app such as FeedMii, a free iPhone and iPad app whose wheel lands on a dish and then shows nearby places that serve it.
How many options should a food wheel have?
Between four and eight. Fewer than four barely needs a wheel, and more than eight recreates the long list you were trying to avoid. Every option should be one you would genuinely be happy to eat.
What if the wheel lands on something I do not want?
Then you have learned what you do want. Feeling disappointed by a result means you were hoping for a different one, so eat that instead. Agree in advance on a limit of one respin so the wheel still ends the decision.
Does spinning a wheel really help indecisive eaters?
It helps because it replaces a comparison with a single answer and, in a group, removes the pressure of being the one who chose. It works best when the wheel contains only acceptable options.
Stop Deciding. Start Eating.
FeedMii is a free iPhone and iPad app that helps you decide what to eat: swipe through dishes, spin the wheel, then see nearby places that serve your pick.
Download FeedMii Free