Meal Kit Reviews: Gobble is Great for Those in a Hurry

Of all the meal kits out there, Gobble may just be my favorite. The food is very good and it can be prepared in about 15 minutes. They accomplish this by using simple recipes and sending you some pre-cooked (lentis, rice). That convenience has a price, and Gobble has among the highest prices in the industry. Still, if I could afford it, I’d probably stick with Gobble because it gives you the satisfaction of mostly cooking a meal, without the necessary expenditure of time. Plus they have a good selection of international fare.

The Plans

Gobble offers plans for 2 or 4 people. You can order as few as 2 meal kits a week or as many as you want. Cost is $12 a serving (or $14 if you only order 2 meal kits) – that is $24 per kit for 2 or $48 per kit for 4. You also have to pay $7 shipping, regardless of how many kits you order. Thus, the standard plan of 3 meals for 2 people per week costs $79.

As other companies, Gobble usually offers discounts for its first week. Currently, you can get one free kit in your first box with this referral link.

Gobble also offers lunch and breakfast subscriptions, but I haven’t tried them.

The Food

Gobble offers mostly American and European food with some Asian, Indian and Mexican choices. They have numerous beef, chicken, seafood and vegetarian (but not necessarily vegan) choices every week. The dishes do take about 15 minutes to put together and most were quite tasty.

The dishes are simpler than those offered by other premium meal kit companies, but the ones I had were nice enough. Cooking speed is also achieved by sending some ingredients pre-cooked, you just have to warm them in the microwave. These precooked ingredients (rice, lentils, roasted sweet potatoes) were surprisingly tasty. Indeed, my daughter thought the rice was the best part of the vegan meal she had.

Ingredients seem to be fresh and of good quality, though I had some issues. Instead of one or two steaks for one of the recipes, I received beef slices – which made cooking them according to the instructions difficult. I contacted customer service and they gave me a $15 credit, which was nice.

Another problem – one that seems ubiquitous with meal kits – was that the portions of meats/seafood sent were of different size and shapes, meaning that you could not cook them at the same temperature without burning one. This I found annoying.

Finally, several of their recipes required broiling. I am not always good about cleaning my broiler, and that’s a big task to undertake to cook a meal for a few minutes. I wish they gave alternative instructions for people without broilers.

The Shipping and Delivery

I was able to get my meals on a Tuesday. The day before they sent me an e-mail reminding me my delivery would be the next day but not giving me a tracking number. They can deliver as late as 8 PM, though I got all of my deliveries during the day.

The Packaging

Inside the box most of the ingredients come in plastic bags organized by recipe. Cold ingredients are at the bottom of the box, between freezer packs.

The Results

In all, I cooked 8 Gobble recipes. The two I originally ordered, three more that I got when I forgot to cancel my subscription in time (fortunately I had that $15 credit, so it wasn’t as expensive as it could be) and then three more that I got with a “come back” deal. Three of the recipes were chosen by Gobble for me, but fortunately they did a good job.

	Blackened Chicken with Marble Potatoes & Broccolini a forgettable dish
	Seared Flat Iron Steak with Baby Carrots & Harissa Green Lentils Great meal quality, but it wasn’t a steak.
	Thai Basil Tofu with Brown Rice The tofu was tofu, but the rice was great!
	Curried Beef Bowl with Basmati Rice & Mini Samosas Very tasty!
	Albacore Tuna with Pearl Couscous, Chermoula Vinaigrette Loved the chermoula!
	Burmese Shredded Chicken with Coconut Rice & Burmese Salad  Best meal kit yet!
	Thai Tofu Noodle Bowl with Peanut Sauce Great Vegan choice
	Gobble’s Japanese Style Steak with Jasmine Rice & Vegetable Stir-Fry OK

In all, I was pleased with Gobble. Most of the recipes weren’t mind blowing, but they were good to really good and quick/easy to prepare. I particularly liked their steaks (which don’t have a premium price). However, it’s the high price that would keep me from subscribing to Gobble. At over $13 per serving this is about the price of takeout, and with takeout I get leftovers (though not meats of the same quality level). It seems a particularly low value if you are not eating steak and tuna. That said, Gobble does have more variety than what I can get locally through takeout.