Gobble Review: A Dietitian’s Honest Take After Trying It

As much as I love the idea of meal kits, I don’t always love the amount of work that can come with them. Between chopping, measuring, washing dishes, and somehow needing 17 different bowls for one recipe, the promise of an “easy dinner” can start to feel like a bit of a stretch.

That’s where Gobble caught my attention. The meal kit company promises quick and delicious dinners with most of the prep work already done for you, which sounds pretty appealing on a busy weeknight. But does it actually live up to its claims?

I decided to find out for myself and ordered four different Gobble meals. I tested everything from preparation and taste to nutrition, portion sizes, and the overall ordering experience to see what I really thought of the service.

Read on for my honest thoughts and whether or not I’d order Gobble again!

What is Gobble?

Gobble is a meal kit delivery service designed to make getting dinner on the table a whole lot easier. Unlike traditional meal kits that can leave you with a cutting board full of vegetables and a sink full of dishes, Gobble does much of the prep work for you. Its chefs pre-portion and prep the ingredients, so you can go from a bag of ingredients to a homemade dinner in about 15 minutes.

The menu includes everything from classic comfort foods to globally inspired dishes. You can also choose from three plans, including Lean & Clean, Vegetarian, and Classic.

If you’d like, you can add extras to your weekly order too, including prepared meals, breakfasts, sides, salads, and desserts.

How it works

Gobble keeps the process pretty simple. First, you choose the meals you want from the weekly menu. You can pick from different meal categories and customize your plan based on your preferences, including a handful of vegetarian options.

Once you’ve made your selections, Gobble takes care of all the tedious stuff. Ingredients arrive pre-portioned and prepped, with sauces, proteins, vegetables, and other components ready to go. Your box is delivered refrigerated with step-by-step recipe cards, so all that’s left to do is finish cooking and assemble your meal.

You’ll still do some cooking, but you can skip much of the chopping, measuring, marinating, and other prep that usually makes meal kits feel like work. You can also skip deliveries or cancel when needed, so you’re not locked into getting a box every single week.

Menu options

Gobble offers a pretty good mix of options each week without having to scroll through an endless menu. You’ll typically find around 15 dinner options each week, give or take, with a rotating selection of cuisines, flavors, and dietary preferences. There are usually about four to five vegetarian dinners available each week as well.

Some meals come with personalization options, so you can swap the protein depending on your preferences. Gobble also offers premium dinners for an additional fee, which can include ingredients like filet mignon or seared scallops if you’re looking to make dinner feel a little more special.

Some examples of meals on their menu include:

• Honey-Harissa Shrimp with Cauliflower & Broccoli Couscous
• Caribbean Vegetable Rondón Stew with Cilantro Rice
• Japanese-Inspired Chicken Bento Bowl with Poached Eggs
• Grilled Bratwurst Sausage with German-Style White Beans
• Apple & Brussels Sprout Flatbread with Goat Cheese

Meals are also clearly labeled with helpful tags, so it’s easy to spot options that fit your preferences, such as Vegetarian Favorite, Lean & Clean, Quick & Easy, Chef’s Pick, Mild, and Best Seller, along with allergen information.

And dinner isn’t the only thing on the menu. Gobble also has an à la carte section with options like:

• desserts
• soups
• breakfasts
• sides
• salads
• lunches
• prepared meals

This makes it easy to add a few extras to your weekly order, whether you need something quick for lunch, a side dish to round out dinner, or a little dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Nutritional value

From a nutrition standpoint, I found Gobble to be pretty well-rounded overall. The meals I tried were a tad higher in calories than I typically aim for, but I appreciated that they were generally balanced and provided a good amount of protein. This was especially true for the vegetarian meals, which can sometimes be a little harder to make protein-rich.

Gobble also offers an assortment of “Lean & Clean” meals, which are a nice option if you’re looking for something on the lighter side. These meals contain 650 calories or less and focus on lean proteins, healthy fats, and lower-carb ingredients.

So while not every Gobble meal will necessarily align with your personal nutrition goals, there are plenty of options that can make it easier to build a balanced and satisfying meal.

Cost

Gobble meals cost $16.99-$22.99 per serving, with shipping usually adding around $9.99 per order. Some meals cost a little more per serving, especially when they feature premium ingredients, so your total cost can really vary depending on the meals you choose.

Like many meal kit services, Gobble also offers introductory discounts for new customers, which can make your first few orders a lot cheaper. Just keep in mind that the discounted pricing doesn’t necessarily reflect what you’ll pay once the promotion ends.

If you want to add items from the à la carte menu, those are priced separately and added on top of your regular subscription cost. Prices vary depending on what you choose, so your total can increase if you load up on extras.

My honest review

I wanted to see what all the Gobble hype was about, so I decided to try it for myself.

To get a feel for the variety, prep time, taste, and overall experience, I picked four different meals to try, including:

• North African Lentil Pitas with Tangy Carrot Salad
• Lentil & Barley Bowl with Roasted Vegetables & Goat Cheese
• Hatch Green Chile & Cheese Tamales with Guacamole & Cilantro Rice
• Vegetable Samosa Wraps with Tamarind Chutney & Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

Here’s my honest take on what I liked, what surprised me, and whether or not I’d order Gobble again.

Ordering experience

Ordering from Gobble was a pretty seamless experience from start to finish. The website was easy to navigate and choosing my meals was straightforward, without feeling overwhelming.

When it shipped, I received a tracking number for my order and everything arrived right on time.

I really liked how the box was organized. The ingredients were neatly packaged into individual bags for each recipe, along with the corresponding recipe cards, so I didn’t have to dig through the entire box to figure out what belonged to each meal. It made putting everything away and finding what I needed when it was time to cook super easy.

And Gobble gets bonus points for including free cookie dough with my first order so I could bake chocolate chip cookies. Obviously, that was very much appreciated (and somehow disappeared almost immediately!).

Overall, I had no issues with the ordering or delivery process, and the whole experience felt really easy and well-organized.

Preparation

All of the Gobble meals I tried were pretty easy to prepare overall, although not every meal was quite as speedy as the advertised 15 minutes. The Lentil & Barley Bowl, in particular, took me noticeably longer, mostly because washing all the mushrooms took forever. The other produce also wasn’t pre-cut, so there was some washing and chopping involved.

That said, Gobble does include plenty of shortcuts that make the cooking process much easier. Things like premade spice blends, seasoning packets, sauces, and other ready-to-use ingredients mean you’re not measuring out a dozen different ingredients or making everything from scratch.

So while I wouldn’t say every meal was on the table in exactly 15 minutes, I do think Gobble is very beginner-friendly, and the prep was still pretty minimal compared with cooking a meal completely from scratch.

Taste

Taste-wise, I really enjoyed the Gobble meals I tried.

My favorite dish was the Samosa Wraps. My husband even commented that the dal tasted really authentic, which is saying something considering it actually came premade. The pitas with lentils and pickled veggies were another favorite. They had tons of flavor and were surprisingly satisfying for a vegetarian meal.

The only meal I wasn’t particularly excited about was the Lentil & Barley Bowl, but honestly, that one is on me. I somehow didn’t notice that it came with mushrooms (and I’m pretty sure I’m the only vegetarian on the planet who absolutely hates mushrooms). Even still, the flavors were good, and I’d probably enjoy the dish if mushrooms weren’t involved.

My biggest issue, though, was actually the portion ratios. I consistently ended up with more filling than the amount of bread or wraps provided.

The Samosa Wraps, for example, made a lot of filling, but there was no way I could fit it all into the four wraps that came with the meal. Luckily, I had a few extra tortillas in the fridge, because we ended up with enough filling for closer to eight wraps.

The same thing happened with the pitas: even after I loaded them up as much as humanly possible, I still had extra filling left over and ended up eating it straight from the bowl.

Obviously, having too much food isn’t the worst problem to have, and the leftovers were easy enough to eat separately. But for a meal kit that’s supposed to provide everything you need for two servings, I would have preferred a better ratio between the fillings and the wraps or pitas.

Would I recommend it?

Overall, I really enjoyed trying Gobble, and I think it’s a fun option for adding more variety to your usual dinner routine. It’s a great way to try new recipes and flavors without having to buy a bunch of unfamiliar ingredients or spend hours prepping everything yourself.

That said, I’m not sure I’d rely on it as my main source of meals for the week if you have specific dietary needs. The vegetarian selection is decent, but there aren’t always enough options to give you tons of variety from week to week. If you’re more flexible with what you eat, though, there are plenty of fun and unique meals to choose from.

The other consideration is cost. Gobble is on the pricier side compared with some other meal kits on the market, so it may not make sense if you’re working with a tighter food budget. But if you’re willing to spend a little more for convenience and variety, I think it’s worth trying, especially as an occasional meal kit rather than something you have to order every single week.

Who should try Gobble?

Gobble could be a good fit if you want the convenience of a meal kit with a little less prep work. I liked that I could try recipes and flavors I probably wouldn’t have made on my own, while still getting a homemade meal on the table pretty fast.

I also think it’s worth considering if you’re cooking for a household with different preferences. There’s a decent variety of meals each week, and some recipes offer customization options, so you have a little more flexibility than you might expect.

That said, Gobble isn’t necessarily the right fit for everyone. It’s more expensive than some other meal kit services, and the number of options for specific dietary preferences can be somewhat limited. Here’s how I’d break it down.

I think Gobble would be a good fit for:

• people who want convenient, relatively quick dinners without doing all the prep themselves
• anyone who enjoys trying new recipes, cuisines, and flavors
• busy couples, families, or individuals who want to simplify dinner
• people who appreciate shortcuts like premade sauces, spice blends, and prepared ingredients
• those who are comfortable spending a little more for convenience

On the flip side, you might want to skip Gobble if:

• you’re on a tight grocery budget and want the most food for your money
• you need a large selection of meals for a specific dietary restriction
• you prefer to cook completely from scratch
• you want every ingredient to arrive pre-chopped and ready to use
• you’re looking for a meal kit with a very large weekly menu to choose from
• you have very specific dietary needs or preferences with limited flexibility

Comparison with competitors

Curious how Gobble stacks up against other meal kit delivery services? Here’s a quick look at the differences in price, menu variety, and what you can expect from each one.

	Price per serving	Menu options	What stands out
Gobble	$16.99-$22.99	15+ meals/week	prepped ingredients, 15-minute meals, vegetarian and Lean & Clean options
HelloFresh	$10.49-$13.49	100+ meals/week	lots of variety and dietary categories
Home Chef	$9.99	35+ meals/week	many customization options and meal formats
Blue Apron	$9.49-$15.99	80+ meals/week	more chef-inspired recipes and à la carte options
EveryPlate	$5.99-$6.99	35 meals/week	budget-friendly meals with simpler recipes

FAQ

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Conclusion

I really enjoyed my experience with Gobble. The meals were flavorful, the prep was pretty easy, and I liked having the chance to try recipes and ingredients I probably wouldn’t have picked up on my own. While it’s a little pricier than some meal kits and the vegetarian selection could be more extensive, I think it’s a fun option when you want to make dinner a little easier and more interesting.

If you’re looking for a convenient way to add some variety to your weekly routine, I think Gobble is worth a try. And if you do try it out, please do report back — I’d love to hear what meals you end up making!