Hi! I'm Hannah, and you might know this by now, but I'm a huge Trader Joe's fan.
In particular, I love Trader Joe's frozen food aisle. It's filled with products — both longstanding favorites and creative new twists — that I love keeping around for easy, no-frills meals. And best of all, you can make these heat-and-eat meals any time, anywhere with nothing more than a basic microwave.
The only problem? There are so many frozen options that it can be tough to figure out what is actually worth buying versus skipping on any given grocery trip.
So with the help of a panel of several hungry lunchers, I decided to host a taste test featuring 10 of the most popular Trader Joe's microwavable meals.
Before we get to the meals, let's meet the judges. I asked four of my colleagues to help me with the tasting: Ross, Abigail, Hannah M., and Tessa.
And of course, there's me behind the scenes, taking bites of all the microwave meals between snapping photos and serving plates.
So without further ado, here's more information on each of the 10 meals we tried, plus our detailed tasting notes, ratings, and overall favorites — and least favorites. There were some definite surprises along the way.
Also, if we missed your favorite microwavable meal, leave it in the comments!
THE MEALS:
1. Trader Joe's Steamed Pork & Ginger Soup Dumplings ($2.99)
2. Trader Joe's Vegan Pad Thai ($3.49)
3. Trader Joe's BBQ Teriyaki Chicken ($5.49)
4. Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala ($3.99)
5. Trader Joe's Mushroom Ravioli With Mushroom Truffle Sauce ($3.99)
6. Trader Joe's French Onion Macaroni & Cheese ($4.99)
7. Trader Joe's Mandarin Style Orange Chicken Bowl ($3.99)
8. Trader Joe's Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi ($3.29)
9. Trader Joe's Chicken Burrito Bowl ($3.49)
10. Trader Joe's Meat Lasagna ($6.99)
OUR TASTING NOTES AND RATINGS:
(**Ranked from worst to best!)