DS Forums

 
 

The Best and the Worst ready meals you have ever had


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 28-03-2008, 13:28
Victoria Sponge
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: UK Garage, GoT, Brasil & steak
Posts: 10,505

I do love food, and though nothing beats home cooking or a good restaurant meal, I do rely on a lot of ready meals for the sake of convenience.

I would like you to all recommend/warn me against the best/worst ready meals you have ever had, to help me with my ready meal diet.

I'll talk about mine first though. The best one I have had is the frozen chicken madras and pilau rice from Asda. For value, taste and fat content this is my fave all-rounder. The rice is so fragrant and tasty and the chicken is spicy and delicious. I drain off about 5g of oil which brings the total to about 15g fat, which ain't too bad. And it's dirt cheap too, less than £1.50 if I remember.

The worst one was the Tesco Light Choices chilled macaroni cheese. Bland as hell, I took one mouthfull and chucked it away.
Victoria Sponge is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 28-03-2008, 13:38
Beer Monster
Banned User
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: London
Posts: 1,073
Best: Thai Green curry from LIDL

Worst: Sweet n Sour chicken from Iceland
Beer Monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 13:56
Orangebathwater
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,369
Never had one and never will.
Orangebathwater is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 14:11
Midiboy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
Posts: 7,759
Best:

Duck with noodles in hoi sin sauce or orkney crab linguine from M&S.

Worst:

Parctically anything from Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainburys etc - all salt, sugar and preservatives and no flavour.
Midiboy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 14:32
RAINBOWGIRL22
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London
Posts: 23,261
I lived 4 weeks without a cooker recently so became a bit of a ready meal expert

Best: Waitrose paprika chicken with cubed garlic potatoes
Worst: Morrisons 'healthy option' duck with noodles. It was inedible.
RAINBOWGIRL22 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 14:53
ladycutie
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 309
Best: Weight watchers mushroom and broccoli potato wedge melt
Worst: Asda's curry and chips - YUCK
ladycutie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 14:54
sezegg
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Hindley,Wigan
Posts: 793
tescos old healthy living chicken and pasta bake was lovely. The new thing they have replaced it with is awful.

worst one ive ever had was another tescos healthy living cottage pie, ive never seen so many tubes eugh.
sezegg is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 15:00
serendipitea
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,365
Best - still racking my brains.

Worst - cheapo Sainsbury's Chinese takeaway box containing revolting luminous red jam-like goo with chewy unidentifiable balls in it, soggy/oily 'veg' spring roll and rice that was like grit.

Bleurgh!!!
serendipitea is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 16:20
indianwells
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,236
Worst; Well I don't think much of any of the ones that you heat up, i'm with orangebathwater on that.

Best; I don't know if it counts but the trays of sushi from M&S are bloody lovely!

Life is definitely too short to fart about making different types of sushi.
indianwells is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 16:24
Orangebathwater
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,369
Worst; Well I don't think much of any of the ones that you heat up, i'm with orangebathwater on that.

Best; I don't know if it counts but the trays of sushi from M&S are bloody lovely!

Life is definitely too short to fart about making different types of sushi.
Why Thanky

You can make your own and freeze them up, much better.

Agree with you about sushi, but there is a great Japanse place at the end of our street for that. If really lazy they deliver.
Orangebathwater is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-03-2008, 23:03
bubblesdevere
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Red Rose County
Posts: 316
tescos old healthy living chicken and pasta bake was lovely. The new thing they have replaced it with is awful.

worst one ive ever had was another tescos healthy living cottage pie, ive never seen so many tubes eugh.
~Heaving online..........The chicken healthy eating one is bearable, less likely to get tubes and other horrors, but I doubt the chicken is all breast meat, rather minced and then bleached to look like the best bits.

Worst was some burgers, supposed to be 100% beef, but they sprouted growth like things when they were cooked, I nearly fainted into the grill.
bubblesdevere is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 00:33
Fizzbin
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: East London
Posts: 25,851
Best: Waitrose Salmon & Prawn Tagliatelle

Worst: A Lancashire Hotpot, can't remember where from, but the 'meat' was all gristle.
Fizzbin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 00:49
damoc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Leeds
Posts: 410
Best:Chicken Tikka Masala (M&S)

Worst:Chicken Tikka Masala (Morrisons)
damoc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 01:09
*AJ*
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: *^*Scotland*^*
Posts: 1,711
Best= Birdseye Chicken Curry

Worst= Rustlers Burger(why i even picked it up i'll never know)

AJxx
*AJ* is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 08:43
Raspberri Twist
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 349
I don't have a favourite ready meal but I do have quite a few that I like and buy regularly. Mostly from M&S.

I think the worst I ever had was a low fat lasagne that was tasteless and had a horrible watery consistency. No idea where I got it though.
Raspberri Twist is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 14:14
Kevin1960
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Turnford, ENGLAND
Posts: 2,732
Best: M&S Organic Chicken Casserole. Mind you, it does cost £4.09.

Worst: Anything containing Quorn.
Kevin1960 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 16:08
vidalia
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: London
Posts: 24,469
Best: Bighams Individual Shepherds Pies from Waitrose - gorgeous tasty ragu topped with crushed potatoes in individual pottery ramekins to keep and use again. Costs more than a shepherd's annual salary.

Worst: Roast Lamb Dinner from Iceland - unspeakably nasty. It was made for me with the best of intentions and I had to pretend to enjoy it, a great feat of acting that I think I just about managed to pull off before I had to go to the toilet and bring it back up.
vidalia is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 18:32
serendipitea
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,365
Ah, I've thought of a Best: Bombay Brasserie meal for 1 at £4.99 from Sainsbo's

Bevheth - I think I've had that Roast Dinner too! It was indeed horrid. I swear if I'd put a strip of the cardboard packaging picture side down in the gravy it would have been hard to distinguish from the meat.

Another worst from me: I can't remember which less-than-supermarket it was from, but it was a great big puffy pastry steak and ale pie which, when you cut into it, was all puff (ie steam) and a thin greyish-brown gruelly layer of slop at the very bottom.
serendipitea is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-03-2008, 18:35
Martin Phillp
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: London
Posts: 20,282
Best: Birds Eye Chicken Curry.

Worst: It's between the Sainsbury's Chicken Curry which gave me stomach ache, or the tight fisted Cooks Pie and Mash.
Martin Phillp is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 04:06
dickyhart001
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: glasgow
Posts: 95
Spar frozen curries, they are really bad, the chicken one i got for me lunch one day, didnt have any chicken in it all
dickyhart001 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 09:13
Quickblood
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: South East London
Posts: 1,050
Not a big fan of Ready meals athough Lasagne is always pretty edible.

Best: Chinese Stlye Beef Curry from Farmfoods (Can't remember the manufacturer) Almost as good as the local takeaway.

Worst: Some Healthy Options Low Fat Rice & Chicken Curry. It's some sort of joint venture between Iceland Bird's Eye and was awful but their Healthy options deserts are lovely.
Quickblood is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 09:23
serendipitea
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,365
Another worst from me:

Budgens Thai green curry (not sure if it was own brand).

It looked like last night's left over washing up water and tasted of soap, and not in a good way.
serendipitea is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 12:37
spoty
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 10,707
Best: Icelands beef madras, at £1.50. [it's one of my greatest finds]
Worst: Anything with pressed chicken in it. [enough to put you off food for life]
spoty is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 13:20
weateallthepies
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,288
Worst - mostly every one I've tried...particularly anything claiming to contain meat.

Best - I'm struggling but probably those fresh Asda curries which are not all terrible and can be improved with a little fresh coriander.
weateallthepies is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2008, 16:32
Zapomatic
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: London SE17
Posts: 681
Best: Thai Green curry from LIDL

Worst: Sweet n Sour chicken from Iceland
I agree about the Thai green curry from Lidl, it's delicious and sometimes on special offer down to £1.39. The red one isn't so great, but the various Indian ones are nice too.

Worst I think was some tuna pasta bake thing from Tesco - watery, bland and just plain nasty.
Zapomatic is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:50.