I Tried Gobble Meal-Delivery Service — Here’s My Review

I Tried Gobble’s 15-Minute Meal Kits — Here’s What I Thought

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A good meal kit can take the mental load out of mealtime — no shopping, just unboxing and chopping. But sometimes even a meal kit can be too much work. In that case, Gobble’s got your back with meal kits designed to be ready in just 15 minutes. As a parent with a busy schedule, I’m always looking for ways to get a healthy meal on the table fast, without resorting to pizza delivery or frozen chicken nuggets. And I’m certainly not the only one: 60 percent of Americans order takeout or delivery at least once a week, and apps like DoorDash and GrubHub report increased delivery rates of about 30 percent in recent years.

I got a free sample box with one meal from each of Gobble’s three plans, and I found Gobble to be a great shortcut to a healthy, tasty meal. It offers a hybrid of fully prepped meal kits and ingredient-only ones, with recipes that appeal to both kid and adult palates. You still need to chop, assemble, and cook, but many ingredients (think doughs, sauces, potatoes, roasts) arrive prepared. You can customize your protein in some dishes: For example, you can swap in plant-based chicken or upgrade from standard ground beef to Wagyu. It also offers prepared meals, salads, sides, soups, breakfasts, and desserts. Read on to find out more.

Gobble at a Glance

Gobble

Pros

  • Meal kits are ready to eat in about 15 minutes
  • Can customize proteins for some meal kits
  • Two- or four-person plans
  • Prepared single-serving meals are available
  • Breakfasts, salads, sides, soups, desserts are available
  • Wheat-, dairy-free options

Cons

  • Some packaged items are bland
  • Small portions
  • Some meals lack side dishes
Get your first six meals for $36.

Signing Up for Gobble

Signing up for Gobble takes only a few minutes. You can browse the plans and upcoming menus without signing up, and once you’re ready to commit, click the Sign Up button on the homepage. You’ll be asked to pick a plan — classic, lean and clean, or vegetarian — along with your protein options, the number of meals (three to five), and the number of people (two or four). You can even pick your delivery day; the first one available to me was just over a week away. After you’ve made your choices, enter your address and your credit card information, and all that’s left to do is choose your meals.

How Much Does Gobble Cost?

Gobble meal kits are about $15 per serving. The exact cost depends on how many dinners you order — it can run up to $17 a serving if you order the minimum six meals a week or drop to $12 per serving if you order 10 or more meals in a week. The shipping fee adds another $15 to your weekly box. This is a bit more than average for a meal kit — HelloFresh starts at $10 a meal — but the surcharge is understandable when you factor in the extra prep work already done so you can get a meal on the table in 15 minutes. The prices felt fair to me: It was more than a grocery bill for the same amount of food but still less than takeout.

Choosing the Meals

Gobble has a good mix of cuisines, much of it American, Korean, Italian, and Asian. The classics meal plan features nine options every week. Some items looked familiar, like lasagna Alfredo, Korean sesame chicken, and American classics like meatloaf and green bean casserole. The lean and clean plan has three options that focus on lean protein and eliminate processed starch and sugars. Its servings clock in below 600 calories. Any meal can be turned vegetarian using the “Personalize This Meal” function: You can swap chicken for tofu, for example. Meat eaters can personalize their meals, too: You can swap out breast meat for thighs or upgrade shrimp to sustainably sourced wild-caught jumbo shrimp.

The menu plays it pretty safe, with plenty of kid-friendly meals. The kits lean on basic vegetables like carrots, spinach, and corn, although there are some fancier kits for squid-ink pasta and lobster tacos. You can browse menus and place orders up to four weeks in advance, and you can skip as many times as you like without canceling your subscription. If you don’t choose meals yourself or explicitly skip a week, you’re still getting a box; Gobble will choose your meals for you.

There are also plenty of add-ons, including prepared meals that just need to be heated up like pork pad kee mao and shrimp scampi, breakfast items like ham and cheese quiche and eggs with biscuits and sausage gravy, four sides like garlic bread and yuca fries, desserts (six types of cookies), customizable salads, and soups like chicken tortilla, tomato bisque, and French onion. In the winter, Gobble offers limited-edition dinner boxes for Christmas and New Year’s that serve four people, with no subscription required.

My sample kit came with one meal from each plan: Yankee Pot Roast (classic), Turkey Quinoa Chili (lean and clean), and Feta Spinach Hand Pies (vegetarian).

How the Meals Arrived

The box arrived with the cardboard a little banged up, but the food was cold, thanks to two large ice packs and an insulated bag. Everything was in great shape, including the fresh veggies, and all of the meals were neatly organized in separate bags for each dinner kit.

Cooking the Meals

Gobble Meal Delivery
Each of my meals came with a recipe card tucked into its bag, providing directions with color photos. I made the Turkey Quinoa Chili first, and it really was a lot faster than a typical meal kit. I had to chop up a small zucchini, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a few stalks of green onion. I pan-fried the ground turkey, added the chipotle coffee mole powder and veggies, then added the broth, which already had the quinoa and cooked beans in it, and a sprinkle of cayenne. Once that heated through, I was ready to serve it in just about 15 minutes. I garnished it with a dollop of sour cream, some Mexican cheese blend, and the green onions — all of which came in my kit. The only ingredient I had to provide myself was a drizzle of oil.

Next, I made the Yankee Pot Roast. The meat and potatoes both arrived already cooked; just the carrots and tiny pearl onions were raw. The carrots were typical baby carrots, not the slender carrots with stems attached as pictured on the recipe card, which was disappointing. I pan-fried them for three to four minutes as suggested, then tossed in the onions, potatoes, meat, demi-glace, and shallot-garlic confit. I simmered the whole thing for another seven minutes, and that was it. It felt more like I had assembled a pot roast than actually made one.

Gobble Meal Delivery

The vegetarian Feta Spinach Hand Pies were undoubtedly the most fun to make. The pastry shells came on stiff plastic cellophane sheets that made it really easy to fill, fold, and crimp the pies. Any dinner kit that feels like a Play-Doh set is going to get high marks from whatever kids may be helping you cook. This was the only meal that took over 15 minutes to make — it took closer to a half hour — but we didn’t mind because it felt like a game. It was also the only meal that came with a side: a romaine salad with roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, and vinaigrette.

Tasting the Meals

Overall, the chili turned out the best, which surprised me because I’m generally not a fan of ground turkey. Whatever Gobble added to the broth that arrived in the kit was right on the money. That prepared shortcut, which included beans, quinoa, and several other components, saved a huge amount of time normally spent slowly cooking a chili. The spices seemed very simple — just cayenne and a “coffee spice” — but they gave the dish a flavor I would have had trouble creating myself. It tasted earthy, smoky, and deliciously savory.

I appreciated that the recipe card from the lean and clean plan included a breakdown of the macronutrients. I could see how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat the meal contained, as well as total calories. (The other meal cards show calories but not macros.)

Gobble Meal Delivery

The pot roast, on the other hand, was disappointing. The carrots and onions never got as melt-in-your-mouth soft as you'd expect, nor did the potatoes soak up much flavor during their literal flash in the pan with the meat and demi-glace. Overall, the roast didn’t deliver in terms of taste, and the meat leaned more airplane meal than grandma’s kitchen. As someone who has scarfed down store-bought pizza in a panicked level of hunger, I’ve definitely eaten much worse. To me, Gobble’s appeal isn’t about getting gourmet meal experiences at home; it’s about having a fallback for busy weeknights when I am tired, am hungry, and have no plan for dinner. In this regard, a pot roast like this is still a win.

The hand pies were pretty good. The filling was tasty, but the kit barely made enough for each pie; I would’ve been happy with double the amount of filling. The side salad brought a very welcome second flavor profile to the meal. While it's asking a lot for 15 minutes of prep, I would have liked the other two meals to come with sides as well. I didn’t learn much in terms of discovering recipes that I could use on my own from these kits, since most of the sauces and broths arrived prepared and I wouldn't be able to duplicate those precisely on my own. Overall, the portions were on the small side, and I was still hungry after eating.

Nutritional Quality of the Meals

Gobble Meal Delivery

Meal kits can be a great tool for anyone who wants to cook for themselves more, and they are also an easy way to get comfortable watching portion sizes. “Gobble meals hit my top two guidelines for a balanced meal by offering a nice serving of protein and high-fiber vegetables,” says Natasha Eziquiel-Shriro RDN, CDCES, founder of Okay to Eat based in New York City. “My third key guideline is for a meal to include healthy fat, and while it seems like the lean and clean dinners do that, the classic dinners can be high in saturated fat from items like dairy and red meat. If someone was looking for a heart-healthy option, I would suggest swapping the proteins — it’s great that Gobble offers that.”

It would also be great if Gobble offered a similar substitution for the starches, like swapping brown rice for white, or whole-grain pasta for refined flour. “Thirty-eight percent of Americans have prediabetes, and half of them don’t even know it,” says Eziquiel-Shriro. “Meal kit companies could do more to help people cut back on fat and refined grains.”

Eziquiel-Shriro says it is hard to tell if Gobble’s prepped foods affect the nutritional content of the meals, since the complete list of ingredients is not provided with the kit and there might be preservatives or extra salt that wouldn’t be found in a kit with a longer prep time.

Overall, Eziquiel-Shriro thinks that meal kits like those from Gobble are “a useful stepping stone to a healthy lifestyle, emphasizing from-scratch homemade meals.” While she doesn’t recommend using a service like this long term, signing up for two to three months can be a great transition for people who currently don’t cook much.

That said, she advises anyone with a complex medical condition like kidney disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or uncontrolled high blood pressure to be cautious when choosing a meal delivery service, since it’s hard to know exactly what is in any meal kit, and there may high sodium levels, ingredients that cause inflammation, or other problematic elements. “Not to say that Gobble is any better or worse than another service,” she says, “but the goal should be to move toward more meals made at home, from scratch,” as that’s the only way to have complete control over what your meal contains.

How Does Gobble Compare to Other Meal Delivery Services?

Gobble Meal Delivery
Food from Gobble (left) and Blue Apron (right)

Gobble requires much less time and effort to prepare than a typical meal kit. You won’t find yourself zesting half a lemon or searching for a mandoline slicer for a single baby zucchini, which honestly, was a relief. Marley Spoon and Blue Apron, for example, involve much more ingredient prep and time cooking in the kitchen. With Gobble, it's much more about opening bags and combining ingredients.

The convenience is nice, but the difference shows up in the flavor profile of the meals, as many of the precooked ingredients taste, well, precooked. The portions were smaller than meals I’ve had from HelloFresh and Purple Carrot, but to be fair, neither of the plans I tried from those services featured a limited caloric intake.

Price is also a factor. Gobble meals are a few dollars more per serving than most other plans we compared. If you’re considering Gobble, know that this higher price is for the additional time-saving prep — I didn’t notice higher-quality ingredients than the other plans I tried.

Comparison Table

Price
Number of Plans
Diets Supported
Add-Ons Included
Meals per Week
$15 per meal
3
Omnivore, low calorie, vegetarian
Yes
6 to 20 for 2 to 4 people
$9.99 per serving for 2 people, 3 meals per week
6 and up
Family-friendly, veggie, meat and veggie, pescatarian, fit and wholesome, quick and easy
Yes
Up to 12 meals for 2 or 4 people
$10.99 per serving for 2 people, 3 meals per week; $7.99 per serving for 4 people, 5 meals per week
5 and up
Chef favorites, wellness, family-friendly, fast and easy, veggie
Yes
2 to 5 meals for 2 or 4 people
$13.25 per serving for 2 people, 3 meals per week
2
Vegan
Yes
2 to 4 meals for 2 or 4 people
$10.99 per serving for 2 people, 3 meals per week
4 and up
Vegetarian, picky eaters, low carb, low calorie, quick and easy
Yes
2 to 6 meals for 2 or 4 people

Is Gobble Worth It?

The niche Gobble aims to fill is certainly a necessary one. If you’re looking for time- and labor-saving meals that are made (mostly) at home, Gobble might be perfect for you. Gobble’s price point speaks to the saying “Time is money.” The meal kits were more expensive, lower quality, smaller, and less tasty than some competitors, but a lot more of the work had been done for me.

Have you ever had a meal kit rot in your fridge because you simply couldn’t bring yourself to do the work involved? That’s not going to happen with Gobble. Gobble is a happy medium that’s good in a pinch. That said, I wouldn't use it on my own. The servings felt more like snacks than dinners, and I’d rather pay a little more for takeout or take a little more time to make something higher quality at home.

Get your first six meals for $36.

How We Evaluate Meal Delivery Services Like Gobble

At Everyday Health, we’ve got a team of product testers working with certified nutritionists to evaluate over 50 meal delivery services to find the best options, both overall and in particular aspects, such as quick-prep options like Gobble.

We evaluate each service based on our overall impression, as well as a number of individual aspects:

  • Website functionality
  • Ease of sign-up
  • Cost
  • Availability
  • Variety of meal plans
  • Flavor and appearance
  • Ingredient freshness and diversity
  • Nutritional value
  • Quality of ingredients
  • Amount of prep work
  • Meal variety
  • Meal appearance
  • Ingredient sourcing

As a meal kit-loving busy mom of a picky eater, I’m always looking for good ways to make meals simpler, without sacrificing quality. I strive to give my honest opinion of any product I review and to let readers know what to expect — both good and bad — before making their first order.

FAQ

Do I have to subscribe to Gobble?
Yes. As with most meal delivery kits, once you’ve ordered your first kit, you’ll be mailed a kit every week until you cancel your subscription. Or you can skip a week anytime, as often as you like, without canceling your subscription.
For me, no. My 9-year-old and I had fun making the meals together; we took our time, and they usually took about 30 minutes. Had I been racing the clock, perhaps I could have gotten it done in 15 minutes, but overall, they came together much faster than other meal kits, for which I usually spend close to an hour on a meal. I also found cleaning up to be faster, since there were fewer kitchen tools and cookware involved.
Gobble delivers to 47 states, excluding Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii. Its service to Nebraska, New Mexico, and Kansas is limited.

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Mary Dennis

Author

Mary Dennis is a Singaporean American health and science writer based in New York. Her work has been published in the Beijinger, Nautilus, South China Morning Post, Motherly, and Verywell Mind.

Her interest in covering mental health increased after the pandemic revealed our society's increasing need for care and information about how to manage our emotional health. She is passionate about maternal mental health issues in particular, and is the founder of Postpartum Brain, a website designed to educate and encourage people to learn more about perinatal mental health issues.

Mary has a masters degree in science journalism from Columbia University.

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. 2024 Consumer Dining Trends: How Americans Are Spending on Restaurants and Takeout. Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. September 25, 2024.
  2. National Diabetes Statistics Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. May 15, 2024.