I got sixteen friends to sit down to dinner and rate 20 frozen entrees (and one appetizer, and one dessert). Not everyone had every meal – there were a bunch of veg(etari)ans and picky eaters, and some people left early.
I lazily adjusted for standards differences by adding the same constant to each person’s ratings that caused their average rating be 5. The average adjusted rating is provided for each meal, as are the individual original ratings. The items whose averaged adjusted rating was greater than 5 link to the product page, or a review page that shows the photo.
The top scoring entrees
- Beef bulgogi (6.7)
- Orange chicken bowl (6.0)
- Pork ginger dumplings (5.3)
- Eggplant curry (5.2)
- French onion mac and cheese (5.2)
The beef bulgogi and the eggplant curry came without rice. (This was not my intention – I only wanted to buy and rate ‘full meals’). Although guests wished they had some rice to go with it, it may not be coincidental that these scored well, since most meals probably contain more carb filler than is ideal.
Individual ratings and notes
Note: I expect the ratings to decrease relative to their true rating further down the list, because people were less hungry. I also think the dessert got a big bump for being the only dessert.
Mushroom tartlettes – 6.35
Served as an appetizer.
7, 6.5, 7, 6, 8, 8
Pork ginger dumplings – 5.3
4, 8, 8, 4, 6
Chicken soup dumplings – 4.8
3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Tikka masala cumin rice – 4.4
5, 3, 9, 5.5, 4, 3, 8, 3, 4
Multiple non-vegans didn’t like the meat substitute but did like the sauce. One person thought it was too coconuty. Second most divisive meal.
Chicken shawarma bowl – 4.3
2, 4, 4, 6, 8, 8, 4, 4
Chicken adobo – 3.4
6, 3, 2, 3, 5, 5, 2, 6, 3, 3 Multiple people found this too bland.
French onion mac & cheese – 5.2
8, 5, 6.5, 3, 7.5, 7, 7, 7, 3, 7, 7, 5, 5
Steak & stout pies – 4.9
6, 9, 5, 7, 6, 5, 3, 3, 6
Vegan pad thai – 3.8
2, 6.5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 8, 6
Orange chicken bowl – 6.0
I was dubious as I microwaved this one – but it rated well, and uncontroversially so. I added maybe 80% of the sauce instead of the full packet.
7, 5, 6, 8, 6, 8, 6
Palak paneer – 4.4
3, 4, 7, 5.5, 7, 5, 7, 3
Mushroom truffle flatbread – 6.6
Too salty, truffle was intense – but got good ratings nevertheless. In retrospect this was an appetizer – you probably wouldn’t have this as a meal, due to nonexistent protein and intense flavor – and I did not count it as a top scoring entree.
8, 7, 8, 7.5, 6, 5, 8, 9, 6, 7, 3, 7
Sausage jambalaya – 3.3
8, 4.5, 7, 3, 4
Beef bulgogi – 6.7
Note: comes without rice, is a pure block of protein. I did not know this when I bought it.
8, 10, 5.5, 7, 9, 8, 7, 5
Thai green curry – 4.0
2, 1, 4, 4, 6, 7, 6, 4.5, 6
Chicken burrito bowl – 4.8
Heavy on rice, corn, quinoa.
6, 5, 3, 7, 8, 4, 3
Paneer tikka masala – 4.8
7, 3, 8, 7, 5.5, 4
Spicy peanut chicken noodles – 4.4
3, 5, 7, 7, 4, 5, 3
Japchae fried rice – 4.2
The most divisive meal.
9, 4, 3, 5, 7, 2.5, 5, 1
Eggplant curry (bhaingan barta) – 5.2
Comes without rice. Guests experienced economic surprise at this. Other curry entrees had rice, and usually a bit too much of it.
7, 4, 7, 6, 7, 6.5, 3
Shredded beef empanadas – 4.6
Undivisive! Doughy; wants a dipping sauce – chimichurri, queso, bbq?
5, 5, 5, 7, 4, 6, 5, 5
Tiny maple butter tarts (dessert) – 7.9
10, 7, 8, 10, 9, 9, 7, 8, 9, 7
Notes on running this:
- Each frozen meal is like 400-700 kcal. Buy ~1.7 frozen meals per guest.
- Each time I brought a meal out, I designated a czar for each entree. The czar was responsible for figuring out who could have that entree and wanted it, and distributing the food reasonably among those people. This was super necessary, highly recommend.
- This is brutal on the host. I spent two hours running between the one microwave and the dining room. The time for each meal is 4-6 minutes in the microwave, which I personally found was not enough time for me to socialize in between, since I also wanted to (1) prep each next thing to minimize time the microwave wasn’t running, (2) use the oven to parallelize out empanadas and flatbread and tarts. I strongly recommend a cohost for this, at least if you are exceeding 10 frozen meals.