Tag: Gobble (Page 1 of 2)

2025 Update

I just tried Gobble again and it hasn’t changed too much in all these years. I’ve updated my original review from 2019.

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 $15 a serving (or $17 if you only order 2 meal kits) – that is $30 per kit for 2 or $48 per kit for 4. You also have to pay $10 shipping, regardless of how many kits you order. Thus, the standard plan of 3 meals for 2 people per week costs $100.

As other companies, Gobble usually offers discounts for its first week. Currently, you can get two meals for two for $18 with my referral link (and I’d get a $20 credit if I happened to be subscribed when you use it).

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 15-20 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 years past. 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. This problem seems to be ongoing years later.

Finally, some recipes require the use of multiple pans, though you can modify them so you only use one at the time, albeit that takes longer. As someone without a dishwasher, minimizing the number of pots and pans I use is a priority for me.

The Shipping and Delivery

I was now able to get my meals on a Monday. They were promptly delivered in the morning and I got a text when they arrived.

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

I found that the recipes I made in my last order, in 2025, were not significantly different than those in years past.

Caramel-Glazed Cobia with Coconut Rice & Chinese Broccoli

This was a perfectly pleasant dinner. It felt a little bit rushed to cook, but it was simple to prepare and the results were very good. The coconut rice was tasty, the fish well portioned and boneless and the vegetables were fresh. But this dish was all about the prepared teriyaki sauce it came with and that you use to cook the fish with and the four over the whole meal – and the sauce was very good. The vegetables added some crunch to the meal, so it was multi-textured as well, and I liked that the fish was meatier than some. All in all I’d have it again.

Flat Iron Steak with Sugar Snap Peas, Sherry Vinaigrette, & Goat Cheese

I was disappointed by this dish. The steaks were pretty small but, more problematically, tough and with too much gristle. The fennel rub didn’t do anything to enhance the flavor which was pretty mediocre. The rest of the dish tasted only of the pungent sherry vinaigrette, which was too acidic and not particularly tasty. After plating it according to instructions (or as close as I could), I had to rescue the mushrooms from the salad

Meal kits from years ago

	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 $30 per meal for two, this is only a few dollars less than the price of takeout, and with takeout I get leftovers. It seems a particularly low value if you are not eating steak and tuna.

I did not actually order this meal kit, and I was quite unhappy when I saw it added to my order online. Neither my daughter nor I like salmon, and I need my meal kits to at least serve two people. I e-mailed Gobble right away, and they gave me a credit for the cost of the meal. As it happened, they sent it to me with top sirloin instead of salmon anyway.

Overall, this meal kit was a disappointment – even free. It consisted of another tiny steak, pan grilled and then sparkled with some paprika sumac spice mixture which didn’t add anything. The steak was good, but boring. On the side was a salad of frisée lettuce, pan fried potato slices, walnuts and olives (I omitted these) in a rather pedestrian lemon gremolata. It wasn’t a bad meal, but I can accomplish the same thing by getting steak and ready-made-salad at the supermarket. Again, I have no one to blame but myself for selecting this meal. But really, I’ve had trouble finding exciting meals in Gobble – something I noticed as well last year.

I do have to commend Gobble for the freshness of their food items. I cooked this meal exactly one week after I got it, the beef was perfectly fine and the lettuce had barely started to wilt.

My second Gobble meal kit this time was a little disappointing in its simplicity. I have no one to blame for this but myself, as I was the one that selected it, but it was the sort of meal that I could put together on my own without the need of a meal kit.

It consisted of a miniature top-sirloin steak, multi-colored carrots, sweet peppers and a slice of onion, a small jar of chimichurri sauce and some pepitas. All I had to do was cut the carrots in two, put the veggies in the oven with some chimichurri sauce and saute the steaks.

Because the meal was so simple, it all came to as how good the chimichurri sauce was. As an Argentine, I can’t say I was impressed. It was very tangy and didn’t really taste like chimichurri. If it had any oregano at all, I couldn’t taste it.

So the meal was OK, but it didn’t wow me. I should mention I cooked it 6 day after I got it and all the ingredients were still fresh.

It’s been a year since I last tried Gobble and I’m happy to report that it’s as good as ever – at least judged by the first meal I “cooked” since I renewed my subscription. As in the past, Gobble offers meal kits which are very fast to cook and put together because they rely on a lot of pre-cooked ingredients. But as you do cook the final product, you feel you’ve made the dish yourself – plus you get to enjoy the greater quality of ingredients that just don’t stand up well to reheating.

I’m a huge fan of beef bourguignon and I was very impressed with this recipe. It requited me to slice a few mushrooms, onions and baby carrots, saute them, and then mix them with an already made red wine sauce, beef broth and pre-cooked stewed beef. All simmered nicely for 6 minutes, while I reheated the pre-made and pre-seasoned mashed potatoes. The meat was tender and succulent, the sauce was nicely flavored and went well with the mashed potatoes and the freshly sauteed veggies were tasty. Basically, it was almost as good as homemade.

I look forward to the next Gobble meal. Currently, they cost $24 per 2-serving meal, plus $7 shipping.

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This post contains a referral link, but Gobble has suspended its referral program.