Following my review on Plated, a few of you mentioned a competitor meal service called Gobble. I am not a fan of cooking and my big beef with Plated was that the meals took 45-60 minutes for me to prepare. That’s where Gobble comes in – their big promotion is that their meals require only a 10-15 minute prep time.
It’s been a few weeks since I tried Gobble and I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t a fan. Allow me to break it down.
Ease and variety of choosing meals. While I found it just as easy to select my meals on the Gobble website as Plated or Blue Apron, I didn’t think their selection was as varied or as intriguing. I ultimately settled on three meals but I’ll admit that I just felt “meh” about them. In comparison, I couldn’t wait to get my Plated meals because they just sounded so delicious. One point that I will give the Gobble folks is that they tag some meals as “Kid Friendly” and I did really like that feature given my two toddlers at home.
Delivery and unpacking the box. There were no problems with the delivery of the meal box. The most notable thing about the box was the pre-cut nature of so many of the ingredients. This made me incredibly happy because I hate chopping and I find it tedious and time-consuming. I also was downright delighted that they included two free chocolate chip cookies for our first order!
Ease of prep. So this is where my experience with Gobble really disappointed. I had Mr. Starfish time me on cooking these meals because they were supposed to be 10-15 minute prep times. I found that my time was easily double what the prep-card stated. I really don’t know exactly why that was – yes, I am slower around a kitchen than most people because I avoid it so severely, but I don’t think I’m a completely incompetent and slow-moving chef. Importantly, I found this to be the case for all three of the meals that I received so it wasn’t just that one of the meals took me longer than expected – it was all the meals.
Serving size. Compared to Plated, I thought the serving sizes were smaller with Gobble. I feel like I got what they told me – two portions. This was different with Plated, where they stated two portions but it ended up being 3-4 portions.
Taste. This would be the second area of disappointment for me with Gobble. I didn’t think any of the meals were all that tasty. For one of the meals, Mr. Starfish even politely requested that I go back and do something to the steaks because the instructions resulted in meat that was practically inedible. My favorite meal was cheese ravioli with a yummy tomato sauce, but if I’m being honest I feel like I could’ve picked up similar pre-made ravioli at the grocery store and a jar of my favorite tomato sauce and had the same meal for much cheaper.
Cost. For a plan that covers three meals a week for two people, the cost is $71.94 a week. Gobble does not cover shipping so you face another $6.99 in shipping. That equates to $78.93 a week, which translates to $13.16 per serving. Personally, I find this pricing too high for the amount of time these meals took me and the mediocre taste and quality.
I realize that I’m coming down pretty harshly on Gobble and so I will say that maybe I’m a bigger idiot around the kitchen than I realized and consequently these meals would take an average person much less time to put together. I also will admit that perhaps I made poor choices in my meal selections or they were having an off-week in their selections.
But in the end I didn’t feel much inspiration through my Gobble experience and I cancelled it right after my first meal prep. My front-runner in the meal-prep delivery service remains Plated, and if I decide to sign up for one of these services again going forward, Plated is who I will choose.
guest
I’m also not a fan of Gobble! The mealkit that had me making hamburgers from scratch definitely took much much longer than 15 minutes. I ordered it for 3-4 weeks and I found the menu to be quite repetitive.
In general, I am not a fan of mealkits. The prep time is never as short as they claim it is, the portions are always tiny, and it always ends up being quite expensive for what it is! I prefer straight up delivery – it’s not always more expensive and the cleanup is much less intense!
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
I appreciate your honesty! If it’s going to take that long, I might as well try Plated if it’s going to be tastier!
I still have not tried any of these services, but I still would because I literally cannot cook for my life so having pretty much ALL guesswork taken out is still a bonus to me. It just might take me 2 hours b/c I’m that much of a noob, haha!
kiwi / 702 posts
I’ve been hearing ads for Gobble on our local NPR station and was intrigued so I totally appreciate this honest review. I’ve tried blue apron in the past and loved the meals but it didn’t save me any time so I figured, what’s the point? It’s too bad no one has invented a time-saving, tasty affordable meal service that can rival takeout/delivery from restaurants. I actually love to cook but on weeknights I don’t want to do much. It’s great that more grocery stores are providing ready-made options that are healthy and easy to grab. But delivery? Now that is awesome. Come on Amazon/google…you’ve taken over every aspect of my life so far!
cherry / 247 posts
I love Hello Fresh! Give that one a try!
nectarine / 2400 posts
@Mrs. Pajamas: I tried gobble when it was newer and wasn’t impressed but thought it might be company growing pains (when they first went national) this has just confirmed to me they haven’t improved
guest
I actually really love Gobble for their indian food options. I found that those portions give lots of rice and naan and sauce, but protein is limited. I add my own meat to get a second meal for my husband and I. These recipes tend to cost less than takeout and taste very good, but aren’t something I normally cook so it feels like a treat. I also don’t generally stock those types of spices. (I do the same with Plated – I tend to only get meals that I wouldn’t have the ingredients for on my own, or that save me opening a bottle of wine or buying ground duck, etc..)
I generally subscribe to Gobble but skip almost every week unless there are two dishes that really appeal. We had fabulous swedish meatballs from them, and they came with Spaetzle, which I’ve never cooked and was easy and yummy. I only ever do 2 meals, not 3, though. I’ve found the times on these true as advertised, but I generally avoid any steak based dishes because they always take me longer and I’m very comfortable in a kitchen.