Do not take the "Don't go in with an empty stomach" comment from the trailer lightly.

Also, the whole film is very enjoyable.

This movie is an absolute delight and if Open Road plays its cards right it could be a major word of mouth hit this summer. It's hilarious and heartfelt with an incredibly game and likable all-star cast giving universally strong performances, it has a great soundtrack, it's fast-paced and the food on display all looks delicious. It's just a really fun, entertaining, breezy movie that clearly everyone had a great time making. Completely infectious. A-

One of the best movies I've seen all year. Brisk, fun and just a really pleasant movie. Nice change of pace from the other stuff that we've had the last couple of months.

Food is often one of life's simplest pleasures, so it makes sense that Jon Favreau's Chef could be described the same way. The film is feather light but a delight through and through, full of infectious energy (that salsa soundtrack!) and incredibly delicious looking food (that grilled cheese sandwich!). It's also funny and heartwarming, blessed with strong performances all around. A-

An absolute delight! This should have been an even bigger hit. It's a total crowd-pleaser.

They should release a cook book of the dishes from this film. I'm a picky eater but a good bit of it looked yummy.

8/10 (B+)

They've been posting the recipes on the movie's Facebook page.

fluffy

Very enjoyable like everyone else has said. Thankfully the social media aspect felt a bit more natural towards the end rather than the forced nature it had in the first act.

Those 'tweet' birds flying out from people's phones had me cringing, but for the most part the social media stuff worked for me... I understand what Favreau was doing. Overall, a really enjoyable film, reminded me of Ratatouille.... I'll call it Ratatouille Jr.

B+

Chef

Not a bad little film. It's clichéd in its crowd-pleasing motives and full to the brim of Latin music, but I wasn't oversupplied with shots of a culinary nature -- in fact, I could have done with seeing more! The father-son relationship was sweet but not particularly poignant, and could have been built on even more, although I did enjoy the Twitter conversations and overall appearance and effect it had on the success of this small business. Sofia Vergara was stunningly sexy, Favreau was cool as pretty much himself, and Scarlet Johansson was pretty cool in a reservedly sexy role.

B

I'd also probably say that in Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, Scarlet Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr., John Luguizamo and Oliver Platt, Chef has the most undervalued ensemble of the year.

A very good film, but it is not perfect or super memorable by any means. I didn't think the food looked as good as in something like Chocolat, but it certainly was one of the highlights of the film. I liked the whole "Chef fights with critic via Twitter" thing, which was very funny. I also sort of liked the family drama, it wasn't as cliched as it could have been. The kid was never outright like "Dad, why are you never there?" I also liked that Favreau and Vergara got back together at the end; not every film with a divorce has to be preachy about how Mom and Dad can't get back together like Mrs. Doubtfire. The music was good, the performances were good, it was all lovely. For some reason, I still think Ratatouille is by far the best entry in the foodie genre.

B