15 Restaurant-Brand Frozen Foods To Avoid At All Costs

No matter how much you might love those nights when you can spend some time in the kitchen whipping up a meal from scratch, keeping some frozen meals and appetizers on hand is always a great idea. You never know when things are going to get so busy that even the easiest, 30-minute-or-less pasta dinner just isn't going to happen, and there are great options out there for tasty frozen meals.

However, there are just as many awful options. That's doubly frustrating when it's a frozen dinner you may have picked up because it's a restaurant-branded meal associated with one of your favorite places to go for a night out.

But don't worry, we've got you covered. We've tried countless frozen entrees and appetizers in order to come up with our recommendations, but you don't need to take only our word for it. We've also headed out to social media sites to see if other customers have had such poor experiences with some of our least favorite frozen food items. In many cases, they have. So, with that in mind, let's talk about what you can safely reach past the next time you're tempted to bring a bit of your favorite restaurant home.

There are a lot of things you should know before heading out to a Japanese steakhouse for the first time, and if you're interested in bringing some of those incredible flavors home, we've got a tip for you: Skip Benihana's Hibachi Chicken Rice frozen meal. When we here at Tasting Table ranked an assortment of restaurant chain frozen meals, this is the one that took the very bottom spot. Not only did we find it to be defined by an overwhelming sweetness, but the eggs had an unpleasant texture that just added to the unfortunate experience.

And this should have been easy to get right: You can make a deliciously fresh chicken fried rice in not much more time than it takes to defrost this frozen version. We're not the only ones who didn't care for this particular meal, either, and online reviews describe this has having an off-putting lack of flavors, being incredibly overpriced, and others say that even attempts at improving this meal by adding seasonings or other ingredients just couldn't make it into something they wanted to eat.

If you're a die-hard fan of White Castle, we get it. We do, however, have some bad news for anyone who's hoping to keep some White Castle sliders on hand for when those cravings strike and you don't feel like leaving the house. When we here at Tasting Table sampled White Castle's frozen sliders for ourselves, we found both the OG sliders and the Chicken & Cheese version to be pretty awful. In both cases, the buns were dry, the patties were underwhelming, and although our reviewer preferred the chicken, neither were — as the box so optimistically advertises — "Fun to eat."

That said, it's possible that mediocrity is what you expect from White Castle, and there are plenty of Redditors who have said that's what they are. Others are less generous, with reviews noting that these are hard to cook to get them to come out right, and some saying that they were so bad they opted to give them to their dog ... and the dog didn't even want them. Still other reviewers say that they've noticed a decline in quality, claiming thinner sliders, broken buns and patties, and no flavor.

Marie Callender's is arguably better known for its frozen foods than as a restaurant, and the pies are pretty amazing. You might love the pot pie from this company, and it might make you start to look at some of the other frozen entrees. They're not all equal, though, and when we ranked Marie Callender's frozen meals, it was the Beef Pot Roast that our reviewer found to be blandly revolting.

The meat was rubbery, the gravy was watery, and as far as the taste, "fatty" isn't really a great flavor profile, yet here we are. Even though the company's own website touts this as the perfect sort of meal on a cold winter's day, at the time of this writing, it has a rating of 2.1 stars out of five. Reviews condemn this one as having little to no meat, with the beef that was there being tough, chewy, and unpleasant. There are plenty of complaints about bad textures, salty — or not salty enough — gravy, partially filled containers, and tough vegetables. That's too bad, because who doesn't love a delicious pot roast dinner?

When we wanted to see what others had to say about our reviewer's least-favorite entree in a Tasting Table ranking of P.F. Chang's frozen meals, we found the General Chang's Chicken meal making an appearance in the subreddit /mildlyinfuritating. That kind of sums things up really well. The biggest complaint is the chicken — or lack thereof — and just as our reviewer observed, the chicken in this meal might not be the pieces of meat you're expecting. Instead, there are some serious chicken nugget vibes going on, with plenty of people complaining that they're not even good chicken nuggets. 

This meal shows up in other Reddit threads, too, where disappointed customers describe the meat as having breading that inevitably falls off during the cooking process, sauce that was just sort of fine, and many report that in order to make this into a meal, you'll need to add some rice on the side. Combine a lackluster sauce and flavor with only a few pieces of subpar chicken, and it's a major disappointment.

A truly stellar chicken fettuccine Alfredo has a sauce that isn't just creamy, but that's also flavorful. Unfortunately for those who might want to keep a frozen option on hand, Boston Market's Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo is so lacking in both that it took the very worst spot in Tasting Table's ranking of frozen chicken entrees. Our reviewer described the sauce as more like a thick milk, which isn't great. Add in flavorless chicken with a rather disturbing texture, and even decent broccoli couldn't save this.

Others agree, and when we stumbled across a discussion about this particular meal on Reddit, the general consensus was that it was bland, flavorless, with questionable chicken and the sort of enjoyment levels that come from the knowledge that this is, in fact, technically edible. One of the only good things about it was that it didn't have any unpleasant chicken gristle, but that's a pretty low bar. The bottom line is that we'd argue that there are plenty of other, better options out there, because frozen meals can be tasty, too.

It says a lot when the reviews on a company's own website mainly consist of apologizing for a particular product, and that's the case with Marie Callender's Italiano Meat Lasagna. At the time of this writing, it has 2.4 out of five stars, and lot of comments addressing what is a common problem with frozen lasagna: Mushy, overdone noodles. Add in complaints about bland sauce and meat that had the texture of beans, and it's safe to say that this particular entree has few fans. 

We here at Tasting Table weren't fans, either, and it came in toward the bottom of our ranking of frozen lasagnas. Part of the problem was a sauce that couldn't seem to decide what it wanted to be, and the thickness of the noodles ultimately worked against it — along with spongy sausage. Our reviewer also pointed out that this was considerably more expensive than some of the other brands they tried, and while this might be just a vaguely acceptable sort of pasta meal, it isn't what lasagna can and should be.

Jalapeño poppers are a love or hate sort of thing, and if you love them, there's a good chance that you'll take every opportunity you can to stock up on the frozen version. They're a pain to make from scratch, after all, but even if they're a favorite, you might want to skip the TGI Fridays version of these appetizers. When we here at Tasting Table included them in our ranking of TGI Fridays' appetizers, they came in near the bottom. Why? Our reviewer found that they delivered on texture, but not much else.

When we looked at what others had to say about these, we found similar sentiments. Plenty of other customers reported getting poppers with none of the spicy kick that you expect from a good jalapeño, and that the pieces of peppers used were tough to bite through, small, and so incredibly mild that they were overwhelmed by the cream cheese. Another common complaint we saw was that there were nowhere near enough poppers in each package to justify the price point.

It's the nature of product rankings that something has to come in last place, and sometimes, it's an easy choice to make. That was the case with Tasting Table's ranking of all of Rao's frozen entrees, and it was the Chicken Alfredo that our reviewer found to be so bland and boring that there was really no question that this was going to be the worst of the lot. There was nothing remarkable about this, from the taste to the texture, and this particular entree isn't even a favorite with customers who head to Rao's website to review products

At the time of this writing, it has just 3.4 out of five stars from customers who are unhappy about watery sauces that are so runny they have an apparent tendency to boil and overflow even when cooked according to the directions. Redditors were also less than thrilled with this particular product, reporting similar problems with the sauce and annoyance at the small size and high price point. One Redditor even summed up their thoughts like this: "Feel like I was robbed of my lunch time joy."

The fact that the Spinach & Artichoke Cheese Dip came in at the very bottom of Tasting Table's ranking of TGI Fridays' appetizers is a massive bummer, because we know that's one of the main reasons that anyone goes to TGI Fridays in the first place. The actual appetizer is downright delicious, and that makes the shortcomings of the frozen version even more noticeable. Instead of that creamy, cheesy dip you might be expecting, our reviewer found that it could more accurately be described as a salty, flavorless sort of soup.

Redditors who have posted pictures of this particular appetizer report also ending up with something that's just way too soupy, and some suggest that it isn't even the company's fault ... exactly. It's just not an appetizer that would stand up well to freezing and thawing, and that makes sense. On the other hand, there are plenty of others who swear by the Trader Joe's version of the same kind of dip, suggesting that if you want the good stuff, you'll head to TJ's.

When you're perusing the frozen meal section at your grocery store, a noodle bowl — especially one from P.F. Chang's — seems like it would be one of those things that would be a relatively safe bet. Unfortunately, we found that wasn't the case, and the chain's Korean-Inspired Pork Noodle Bowl came in at the bottom of our ranking of the brand's frozen entrees. 

Our reviewer's experience with this one was pretty stomach-turning, as they reported finding that it tasted of little more than garlic, with an unpleasantly sour sauce and pork pieces that tasted as if they had flown past the expiration date. Redditors who tried this one report being just as baffled by the weird combination of heat and a smell that was described as being reminiscent of ammonia, which is not something you ever want to get a whiff of when you're thawing out your frozen lunch.

We get it: Orange chicken can be tough to get right. It takes an incredible orange chicken stir-fry recipe to balance the sweetness with the citrus, and Marie Callender's Sweet & Citrusy Orange Chicken Bowl does not get it right. In spite of the official name of this meal, there's a whole lot of sweetness going on and little citrus.

That's according to our reviewer, who ranked this particular meal among the worst restaurant chain frozen meals they tried for a ranking here on Tasting Table. It was so bad, in fact, that they walked away happy in the knowledge that they'd never have to eat it again. Head to Marie Callender's website, and you'll find that while this entree doesn't get quite the same amount of hate as some of the company's other frozen meals, it's not getting much love, either. Many say that it's got the kind of sweetness that you'd expect for dessert, with others adding that it was more of a spicy chili sweetness than a typical orange chicken flavor profile. If you like the real thing, this isn't it.

Rao's Caramelized Onion Carbonara frozen entree seems to be somewhat polarizing. While there are some people on Reddit who say that it's not all that bad, there are others who are less than impressed and suggest that if you can get it when it's on sale, it's fine. Otherwise, there's just not enough in the package to justify the high price point, and according to our reviewer here at Tasting Table, you're probably not going to be too thrilled to dig into what's in that package anyway.

This particular dish came in at the bottom of our ranking of Rao's frozen entrees, for an interesting reason. While it was good, in theory, it was simply way too rich. Our valiant reviewer could only get through a few bites before throwing in the towel, and noted that the combination of the sauce, bacon, and onions turned this from a meal that should have been savored into one that was just too heavy to enjoy.

Take a look at the photo of P.F. Chang's Dan-Dan Noodles, and it looks like you're in for a treat. The reality is far different, as was discovered by our reviewer, who bravely gave this one a try for Tasting Table's ranking of P.F. Chang's frozen meals. This particular dish rounds out the worst three entrees they tried, and they noted that, as a fan of this particular type of noodle dish, they couldn't even really bring themselves to describe it as dan dan noodles. The noodles themselves were rubbery and drowned in an overpowering sauce, and while you might not expect a frozen dinner to be as complex as the freshly-made versions of the same dishes, this is basically just less-than-stellar noodles in weird sauce.

Plenty of Redditors agree, with many taking issue with the texture of the dish as a whole. Add in complaints of a distinctly chemical aroma, tough and inedible pieces of pork, nonexistent mushrooms and vegetables, and there's not much good that's said about this one.

It's tough to improve on the chicken wing, but there's a school of thought that says boneless wings do exactly that. We respect that. We can't, however, respect TGI Fridays Boneless Chicken Bites, which came in on the bottom portion of our ranking of the chain's frozen appetizers. Our reviewer found a few problems with this particular appetizer, and that started with a thin sauce that didn't bring the burst of flavor that truly good Buffalo sauce should.

Substandard Buffalo sauce is a big enough problem, but that's not the only thing wrong with this particular appetizer. Reheating these chicken pieces leaves you with oddly-textured bites that have none of what makes boneless wings delicious, and that's sad. There are a ton of complaints out there from dissatisfied customers that say the texture of these are anything but the firmness you expect, with some saying they're more of a processed chicken nugget than the whole breast meat the photos on the box show.

Here's a fun fact: Pizzeria Uno is credited with putting Chicago's deep dish pizza on the map. You'd expect frozen pizzas with the restaurant's name on it to be some of the best on the market, but browsing reviews for one in particular — the Classic Sausage — reveals that, perhaps surprisingly, there are a lot of dissatisfied customers out there.

It's the sauce on this one that gets a lot of complaints, and many customers also aren't happy with how little sausage they actually find on the pizza. Sauce and sausage alike get described as lacking in the kind of flavor you expect from a truly amazing pizza, with some Redditors saying that this particular pizza is too acidic, too sour, and the sauce is so off-putting that they had difficulty eating more than a few bites. While there are a lot of places outside of Chicago that are serving up some amazing Chicago-style pizzas, this apparently isn't one of them.

In order to put together a list of some of the worst restaurant-branded frozen entrees and appetizers lurking in the freezer section today, we started with our experience tasting, testing, reviewing, and ranking these foods here on Tasting Table. We didn't stop there, though; we also headed out to see what other customers were saying on social media sites and in the comments of stores and corporate websites. Consistent complaints about quality and price earned these foods a place on our list.