Gobble Meal Kit: Are 20-Minute Homemade Meals Too Good to Be True?

CNET

20 hours ago

CNET's expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
7.8
/ 10
SCORE Gobble See at Gobble
Pricing
Starting at $12/serving
Type
Meal kit
Regional Availability
Most continental US states except MT. Limited availability in KS, NM, and NE
Number of Meal Options per Week
15+
Menu Options/ Diet Types
Meat, fish, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free Score Breakdown
Taste/results
8
/10
Value
7
/10
Ease of recipes
8
/10
Recipe variety
8
/10
Healthiness
8
/10 Pros Many ingredients are prepped or precooked for faster execution
Meals were mostly great and take less than 20 minutes to
Good steak and seafood options Cons Expensive unless you order a lot of servings
Some produce wasn't the freshest
Gobble
7.8/10 CNET Score
See at Gobble
The best meal kit service is the one that ticks the most boxes for you. Some meal kits are fancy, more involved and ideal for intermediate or advanced cooks. Others are designed to help you get a homemade dinner on the table in 20 minutes and on budget. Gobble boldly attempt to marry speedy dishes with gourmet recipes.
You know that old proverb "what's earned with hard labor is eaten with pleasure"? Well, Gobble doesn't subscribe to it. The meal kit service's cheat card is doing most of the prep for you and taking it one step further than other services so you can get down to the business of cooking and eating your meals.
Over the years, CNET editors have tested out the meal kit to see if it lives up to its promises. Here's everything to know.
How Gobble works
Gobble does a bit of the cooking before your meal kit arrives. This steak dinner came with precooked potatoes and a premade sauce.
David Watsky/CNET
Gobble works much like most others in the category. There are three plans to choose from -- Classic, Vegetarian and Lean & Clean -- but you can choose meals from other plans and the price will be the same. The only other choices you have to make are whether you'd like meals for two or four people, and how many recipes per week, three or four. It's worth noting that some other meal services allow you to order only two recipes per week.
David Watsky/CNET
Your box filled with everything you need to make your chosen recipes (except for cooking oil and salt and pepper) is delivered once a week -- unless you cancel or skip a week, which is easy to do. You'll also choose either a Wednesday or Thursday delivery. it should arrive between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Thai shrimp with coconut rice is set out ready to roll.
David Watsky/CNET
How much does Gobble cost?
Gobble meal kits have seen a big increase in the past few years and meal plans for two people now cost between $12 and $17 a meal, plus shipping, depending on how many you order. Plans with meals that have four servings are more affordable at about $12 per serving, plus shipping. Shipping is an extra $7 on every order.
To look at it another way, four meal kits per week that have enough to feed two people (eight servings total) will cost you about $110 a week (price includes shipping). Not totally outrageous, but you can definitely cook eight servings from scratch for less money than that.
Gobble pricing
Recipes per week Meals for two Meals for four 2 $16.99 per serving ($67.96 per week) $12.99 per serving ($109.92 per week) 3 $14.99 per serving ($89.94 per week) $11.99 per serving ($143.88 per week) 4 $12.99 per serving ($103.92 per week) $11.99 per serving ($191.84 per week) 5 $11.99 per serving ($119.90 per week) $11.99 per serving ($239.80 per week)
What Gobble meals are like
Most of Gobble's meals are on the healthier side with a protein, vegetable or salad and a starch of some sort. There are several pasta dishes, burgers and other comfort recipes if calorie counting isn't your thing or you want to splurge on occasion. Most of the dishes borrow inspiration from some global cuisine with a lot of Thai-inspired recipes but also Japanese, South and Central American and Italian fare. There are typically one or two seafood (mostly salmon or shrimp) recipes and about four meatless options each week.
On any given week there are about 15 recipes total, plus a dozen prepared and ready to eat meals and a handful of salads, soups and side items. There are also five breakfast options and seven desserts.
I was surprised to see a package of precooked pork for the tacos recipe. It cut the total meal kit time down by at least half.
David Watsky/CNET
Most meals are customizable, which means you can swap equal proteins for free as in shrimp for chicken or upgrade to a premium protein as in from chicken to a cobia filet or prime steak. You can also go from non-organic meat to organic. These upgrades cost a few dollars and vary depending on the exact swap you're making.
My ingredients to make the vegan noodles with peanut sauce. Scroll down to see the finished product.
David Watsky/CNET
Is Gobble good for vegetarians or vegans?
Our wellness editor, a vegetarian of 20 years, found that Gobble is a great-tasting meal kit service for vegetarians looking for only a few meal kits per week (about 1 to 3). The recipes tasted fresh, provided a variety of veggies and weren't too complex to prepare. She especially enjoyed the thoughtful sauces that made the dishes flavorful and the toppings that added a nice touch to each of the three recipes she tried. However, there aren't as many vegetarian recipes available each week as she would have liked.
As for vegans, there are no meal kits available, so another service like Purple Carrot may be better.
The nutrition facts for Gobble's Mushroom Bolognese with Pappardelle.
Gobble
Is Gobble healthy?
When trying to find the nutrition facts for each recipe, our wellness editor had difficulty locating this information on the Gobble website because the menu for her week was no longer available. The recipe cards tell you the calories per serving, but that's all. So she had to request the nutrition facts from the company. However, this likely wouldn't be an issue if you have an account where you can view your orders.
After reviewing the nutrition facts, our wellness editor did note that two recipes were higher in saturated fat and sodium (the Coconut and Gochujang Tofu Curry and Mushroom Bolognese with Pappardelle), likely because of the addition of coconut milk and dairy. All were good sources of protein, fiber, calcium, iron and potassium to varying degrees. She recommends checking the nutrition facts for your recipe to make sure it aligns with your particular diet. For instance, she is cautious about sodium, so added less salt when cooking.
How easy are Gobble meals to prepare
The sous vide potatoes were already cooked and only needed heating to serve alongside the steak.
David Watsky/CNET
These meal kits are easy to prepare. While some take longer than the 15 minutes promised, none of the six I made took any longer than 25 minutes and they don't require any laborious prep. Of the six, three of them took significantly less than 20 minutes and that proved to be a big boon on a busy night. Whenever Gobble can take a step out of the equation, such as dicing carrots or shredding cabbage, it does. Of all the meal kit services we've tried at CNET, Gobble's meal kits were easily some of the easiest and fastest, overall.
Our wellness editor found that her vegetarian recipes also took longer than 15 minutes, but less than 40, so it wasn't too bad. She did appreciate the balance between fresh food and that which is pre-chopped or microwaveable.
What we cooked and how it went
The before shot of my seared polenta cakes with veggies and marinara.
David Watsky/CNET
Pan-roasted vegetables over seared polenta cakes: I love a meal kit that's out of the ordinary and easy to prepare. I probably wouldn't have thought to make this. The sauce was premade and polenta cakes only required searing, which meant this meal was on my table in well under 20 minutes.
Easy and interesting. A winning combination for any weeknight meal kit.
David Watsky/CNET
Pulled pork tacos with red cabbage slaw: Because the pulled pork came precooked, this was another meal that took almost no time to make. I had juicy pork tacos for me and a friend ready in about 15 minutes.
Pulled pork tacos were done in not much longer than it would take to order them online. No, seriously.
David Watsky/CNET
Seared steak with bearnaise sauce, garlic snap peas and sous vide potatoes: This recipe took the longest of the three but because it included potatoes that were already cooked and a premade bearnaise sauce, it was still a breeze to make. All that had to be done was sear the steaks and saute the peas with a heavenly jar of garlic confit.
Cilantro pesto salmon with cauliflower couscous: This was tasty and quick to make. The pesto had great flavor although the sides needed a good hit of salt and pepper. The salmon was fresh both in smell and taste.
This cilantro and pesto salmon had flavor for days.
David Watsky/CNET
Sweet chili shrimp with coconut rice and Thai slaw: I wanted to love this one and it wasn't terrible but the sauce was heavy with way too much mayo. I wish I hadn't used the whole package of sauce. But I did, and there was really no going back.
I totally nailed the 20-minute tofu pad Thai and it was a huge hit.
David Watsky/CNET
Vegetarian tofu noodle bowl with peanut sauce: A tasty meal and one I threw together in less than 20 minutes. The tofu was super tender and the flavors all worked wonderfully. A nice easy Thai takeout-style dinner.
The Mushroom Bolognese with Pappardelle & Ricotta Salata ingredients laid out.
Anna Gragert/CNET
Mushroom bolognese with pappardelle and ricotta salata: Our wellness editor loved the taste of this dish and appreciated the variety of produce: portobello mushrooms, zucchini and grape tomatoes, as well as pre-prepared flavorings like rosemary-thyme butter and shallot-garlic confit. Sodium and saturated fat were both 55% of the daily value, but this recipe also offered 170% of the daily value of vitamin D.
Roasted carrots and braised lentils over lemon Greek yogurt: Although this low-calorie dish took longer than 15 minutes to make, our wellness editor thought it was flavorful. She ended up with plenty of leftovers, especially the yummy arugula salad with pear and lemon-basil dressing. She also doesn't normally cook with fennel or chutneys, so she was excited to use these ingredients. This dish was high in dietary fiber (54% of the daily value) and offered 18g of protein.
The final plate of the Coconut & Gochujang Tofu Curry with Jasmine Rice.
Anna Gragert/CNET
Coconut and gochujang tofu curry with jasmine rice: Another hit, our wellness editor enjoyed the variety here: a tofu curry spiced with gochujang paste (she went lighter on the spice), Chinese broccoli and red pepper and Jasmine rice topped with fried garlic. She also ended up with plenty of leftovers of the veggies. This recipe was higher in saturated fat (65% of the daily value) because of the coconut milk and sodium (55% of the daily value), so she went light on the salt. It also offered 31g of protein.
Chocolate chip cookies: Our wellness editor received two packages of two ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies and thought they were delicious. As a chocolate chip cookie scholar, she was impressed with the texture, ratio of chocolate chips to dough and flavor, especially when she topped them with her favorite flakey sea salt.
The Gobble chocolate chip cookies topped with flakey sea salt (our wellness editor's addition).
Anna Gragert/CNET
Chicken with polenta & tomato-corn pomodoro: This meal was one of our flex editor's favorites. As an amateur cook, she liked that it was simple to make with pre-cooked polenta, and the only time intensive step was shaving the corn kernels off of the cob. It was a tasty and simple dish.
Chicken with polenta and tomato-corn pomodoro
Corin Cesaric/CNET
Pizza bolognese with spicy cherry peppers & classic Italian salad: This was by far the easiest dish in our flex editor's meal kit. It was able to be made in less than 20 minutes thanks to the precooked bolognese and flatbread and is ideal for new cooks or those who are often in a time crunch.
Paneer cauliflower tikka masala (prepared & ready): There was nothing wrong with this microwavable meal per se, but it lacked flavor and wasn't something we'd order again.
Paneer cauliflower tikka masala
Corin Cesaric/CNET
Lentil & barley bowl with roasted vegetables & goat cheese: To say this meal was disappointing would be an understatement. However, it didn't have to do with the meal itself (because it was never eaten as intended) but instead because of the packaging of the meal delivery. When our flex editor received her meal kit box, the plastic bag containing the ingredients for this meal was on top and she noticed the spinach was warm to the touch. While she initially didn't think too much about it, once she realized there was precooked brown rice in the same bag with the spinach, she didn't feel comfortable eating it in case it ever reached a temperature that allowed bacteria growth during the delivery journey. Plus, the recipe was supposed to include barley and not brown rice to begin with.
Instead, she used the salvageable ingredients and her own rice at home to make a veggie bowl, but the fact that she had to throw away some ingredients from the delivery defeated the purpose of the meal kit. It should be noted though that all of the other ingredients were cold and the chicken breasts were under an additional layer of ice ensuring they stayed cool during delivery.
Chocolate chip cookies: Delivered as pre-made cookie dough balls, these cookies were delicious and of course easy as can be to make.
Delicious chocolate chip cookies
Corin Cesaric/CNET
What makes Gobble different from other meal kit services?
Gobble meals are easy to execute, many can be made in as little as 20 minutes and none take longer than 30 minutes, in my experience. But just because they're fast doesn't mean they're basic. They can include interesting global dishes like pad Thai, Peruvian steak with Aji Verde and Japanese bento bowls.
Who is Gobble good for?
If you want speedy meals that don't taste like they were quick-fire, then this is a good service -- as long as your delivery box stays intact during delivery as intended. While many of Gobble's meals can be prepared quickly, they don't taste like it, so this is an ideal meal kit for beginner cooks. Because you can customize a lot of the meal kits it's also a solid choice for picky eaters or folks with kids.
Thai curry shrimp with coconut rice. I wasn't in love with the sauce.
David Watsky/CNET
Because the large meal plans are much less expensive, this could also be a good option for singles or couples looking to meal plan or consistently have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Who is Gobble not so good for?
Because you have to choose at least three meals a week, this is not a good option for someone who can't commit to cooking most nights. It's on the expensive side so this is also not a great meal service for people on a budget (see out list of the cheapest meal delivery services).
While our wellness editor enjoyed all three of the vegetarian recipes she tried in terms of taste and variety, she realized that she got lucky because sometimes there are only one or two vegetarian meal kits available each week. Also, there are no meal kits for vegans. If you have either diet, you may want to check out these plant-based options.
Gobble support materials
The recipes were all clear and concise with glossy images of the finished product and some of the key steps along the way. There was also a clear list of what cookware and tools to have handy as well as detailed nutritional information for each recipe.
Recipe cards help get the job done.
David Watsky/CNET
Our wellness editor also appreciated the allergen information and chef tip on each recipe and that her package arrived with a produce origin sticker.
The Produce Origin label on the outside of the Gobble package.
Anna Gragert/CNET
Packaging and environmental friendliness
As with all the meal kits she's tried, our wellness editor wishes there was less plastic packaging, more compostable or biodegradable packaging and a better way to donate or send back the ice packs for reuse. She appreciated the use of plastic containers instead of plastic wrapping for some ingredients, as the containers are easier to reuse in the kitchen.
Changing, skipping or canceling your meal kits
Between the website interface and a mobile app, Gobble makes it easy to skip weeks, change out recipes or pause your subscription. The deadline to skip or customize your Gobble box is Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. the week before your meals are scheduled to arrive.
Gobble
The final verdict on Gobble
I was skeptical when I read Gobble's promise of satisfying homemade meals in 15 minutes but the speedy meal kit service delivered. The idea of cutting out most of the work for a gourmet-style meal is a good one, and most of my Gobble recipes were successful in doing just that.
I will say though that for certain recipes, all those prepped ingredients do lose something in the way of freshness, especially if it's one of the meal kits you cook last. My slaw, for instance, was pre-shredded and because I waited a few days to make it the cabbage had lost a little snap. Plus, our spinach (delivered warm) was also unusable after a few days in the fridge. I also thought one of my recipes was tainted by a mayo-heavy sauce.
Gobble is also on the expensive side unless you order meals for four. That makes it a better pick for families but not such a good one for singles or couples.
While our wellness editor thought the three vegetarian recipes she tried were delicious, she does wish more vegetarian recipes were offered per week. Her recipes did take longer than 15 minutes but weren't overly time-consuming or complex. She also had plenty of leftovers and loved the ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies.
If your goal is to make more meals at home but spend less time on the making part, Gobble will give you all the glory and bragging rights of a serial home cook with about half the effort. Seriously, some of these meal kits were ready in what felt like no time at all and with very little mess to clean up after. To sweeten the deal, Gobble offers a rock-bottom new subscriber deal -- the first six meals for $36