Gobble is a meal kit delivery service that offers pre-prepped ingredients and recipes that can be easily prepared in just 15 minutes. When Gobble first started in 2010, it was not successful delivering pre-cooked meals to consumers. The company’s founder and CEO Ooshma Garg changed course and decided she wanted to meet the demand of busy working households with quality meals that save time prep time in the kitchen. Given her own takeout ordering habits and lack of healthy eating, and she wanted fresh home cooking without spending time in the kitchen.
Gobble has established itself as a niche in the meal kit delivery industry due to its promise to give consumers a fresh and fast eating experience. Here’s a deep dive into Gobble to see how it scores overall.
Pricing: Several Options
Gobble offers two plans for either two or four people, and each carries a lowest price per serving of $11.99. Shipping is $6.99 per delivery, and you can order meals for either two, three, four, or five nights a week. The minimum order is two nights’ worth of dinner for two people and costs $15.99 per serving ($63.96 total). The maximum order is five dinners for four people, which has the same price per serving but a total of $239.80. The price per serving for each option:
- Two people: $15.99 for two dinners, $14.99 for three dinners, $12.99 for four dinners, and $11.99 for five dinners
- Four people: $12.99 for two dinners, $11.99 for three, four, or five dinners
How It Works: Choose From 3 Plans
Gobble follows a simple signup process that centers around three basic protein options: classic, vegetarian, or lean & clean. Next, adjust your meal kit settings based on the number of nights per week and the number of people. You are then prompted to select your first delivery within a week, pick your meals, and finalize the order. Meals are delivered weekly and continuously unless you skip or cancel your subscription before the previous week’s scheduled delivery.
You can customize your meals in the delivery calendar to try out different cuisines.
Gobble meals are chef-designed meals and prepared fresh ingredients that are portioned out and require little chopping or measuring skills. These flavorful meal kits are expected to be easily prepared in 15 minutes. Gobble offers gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb, and vegetarian diets in its meal details, but no other restrictive eating plans. Menus changes weekly and features mainly European, Spanish, and Indian cuisines.
Choosing Meals: A Short Selection of Appetizing Meals
Gobble offers a weekly somewhat limited menu of dinners, salads, soups, sides, desserts, and breakfast options in addition to specialty kits for four. Compared to other meal kit delivery services, Gobble does not offer a lot of variety if someone desires a menu with dozens of options at any given time.
At the time we tested Gobble, there were nine dinner options, three lean and clean dinners available, two salad options, two soups, three sides, three desserts, and three breakfast options and one specialty kit for four. Meals are automatically assigned based on your preferences in the sign-up process, but you can customize your meals in the delivery calendar to try out different cuisines. Add-ons on a typical meal include additional protein options, side dishes, breakfast, and desserts. The deadline for modifying any delivery including skipping an order is Wednesday at 11:59 p.m., the week prior to your delivery.
Verywell Fit / Abbey Littlejohn
What We Made
Our Gobble selections included a specialty kit for four, a premium dinner, and chocolate chip cookie dough that we baked into cookies for dessert. Of those, we focused on these five meals for this review:
- Potato pierogi with butternut squash puree & sautéed kale
- Butter chicken with basmati rice & naan bread
- Scallop & shrimp pasta with lemon caper butter sauce
- Hawaiian loco moco plate with fried egg & toasted garlic rice
- Teriyaki pineapple salmon with vegetable fried rice and bok choy
Packaging: Excess Packaging Materials
The package arrives in a recyclable cardboard box with an insulated liner that encompasses the ingredients. The food is kept cool with the insulation and gel ice packs at the bottom, which the company says should keep until you unpack everything within 24 hours. The ingredients are grouped by recipe and are wrapped in plastic, with the meats packaged separately at the bottom. This aspect is important because if you order 10 or more meals, the organized can further cut down the preparation time.
That said, the amount of plastic felt excessive. The specialty kit for four kits contained a total of 18 plastic wrapped items. The total number of packaging pieces we received, including the delivery box, was 60.
Verywell Fit / Abbey Littlejohn
Customer Support: Responsive and Helpful
Gobble provides a simple recipe card that is matched with each kit’s ingredients. Don’t worry if it gets damaged during delivery because you can access it in your email or your account in the delivery calendar for reference.
We emailed customer support regarding the missing flour ingredient in our Hawaiian loco moco meal. They reached out promptly with a courteous response that included an apology and were able to refund $6 for the inconvenience. However, there was no information available online that indicates how much of a refund would be provided if other ingredients were missing. We used the chatbox to ask if any nutritional experts participate in the menu planning and nutrient analysis. Immediately, this generated links to company articles for possible answers. There were no specific details on experts used but there was information on what constitutes healthy meals for Gobble. There is also an option for calling during their hours Monday through Sunday and texting as well.
Nutrition: Transparent
The weekly, semi-varied menu offers dietary choices that address regular diets, lean and clean options, and vegetarian meals. The lean and & clean meal highlights low carb and lean protein options that are under 600 calories. The classic dinners are consistently between 700 and 900 calories and utilize different ingredients along with various cuisines. Some meals are dairy-free, nut-free, or gluten-free, which can be viewed in the meal kits description and recipe card. Full nutrition information is available in the delivery calendar section of your account, along with ingredients and recipe details.
Verywell Fit / Abbey Littlejohn
The Cooking Process: Almost 15 Minutes
For starters, the recipes for the dinners for two were summarized into three steps and were simple to follow. Gobble does a good job of pre-prepping most ingredients such as dicing the chicken, and packaging the caramelized onion and sauces that simply need to be added in the cooking process. The only other ingredients we needed were salt, pepper, oil, and, as mentioned above, flour for the Hawaiian loco moco plate. In addition, the Hawaiian dish took more time than expected as there was chopping involved and the meat had to be molded into patties.
Otherwise, the cooking process was beginner level. The rice, for example, just needed to be microwaved for 90 seconds, stirred, and then put back in for 60 seconds. Cookware such as a saute pan, knife, cutting board, spatula, tongs, and a pasta pot and strainer were used.
Verywell Fit / Abbey Littlejohn
Flavor, Freshness, and Quality: Fresh Ingredients
Gobble brought the gourmet flavors that we expected from this service for the majority of the meals tested. We were particularly impressed with how tasty the butter chicken was and felt a cultural connection to the Hawaiian loco moco plate because our tester was from Hawaii. It was a little on the sweeter side, but overall it was delicious. The potato pierogi with butternut squash puree and sautéed kale serving size seemed more appropriate for three or four people, rather than two. However, the flavor was tasty with each bite and the ingredients provided the expected flavors.
The shrimp and scallop pasta fell short on the bold savory flavors that we anticipated and could have benefited from additional seasoning like salt. The teriyaki pineapple salmon was also disappointing. The sauce was too salty and the bok choy lacked any flavor. We found no issues with the quality of the meats and the produce was fresh and in good shape. No sourcing information was provided, however.
Gobble is Good For
Gobble is ideal for someone with a busy lifestyle who wants a simple cooking experience with fresh pre-prepped food. It offers a sense of empowerment behind the stove without the need to chop and measure out ingredients. Gobble is also for people who may not have access to a variety of food locally, and it’s a good fit for those on non-restrictive diets who don’t have dietary concerns and want to try convenient home cooking.
Gobble does a good job of pre-prepping most ingredients such as dicing the chicken, and packaging the caramelized onion and sauces that simply need to be added in the cooking process.
It’s important to mention that Gobble is not recommended for those with serious food allergies, food intolerance, or dietary restrictions, even though meals can be adjusted by excluding certain ingredients. It’s also not suitable for anyone on a strict budget.
The Competition: Gobble vs. Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon
Gobble and Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s meal-kit delivery service both cater to people who desire convenient, delicious, home-cooked meals with less prep time. We found that Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s plan was more cost-effective, but it was also time-consuming; meals took roughly 30 minutes to make and required more preparation. In addition, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s menu offers a wider variety of 40 recipes per week to choose from along with more categories in addition to ready-to-eat meals.
We also found that Gobble used more unnecessary plastic compared to Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon. Finally, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s meals were more on-point on flavoring and taste than Gobble’s meals.
Ultimately, if you’re seeking a time-saving subscription, choose Gobble. However, if you’re looking for a cheaper and more delicious option, consider Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon.
Final Verdict
Gobble has undoubtedly delicious meal-kit options with straightforward instructions without the fuss of cooking from scratch. If you’re looking to try food from other cultures, Gobble may be an option for you. Just keep in mind that the price per serving is a bit higher than some of its competitors.
Methodology
We ordered, cooked, and evaluated meals from 27 meal delivery services to get a sense of each one’s offerings, nutrition profiles, prices, and, of course, flavors. We contacted the customer service teams at each of the companies, filled out surveys, and wrote detailed reviews about each one.
Our writers are all registered dietitians and relied on their research and its resulting data to inform their reviews.