The One Marie Callender's Frozen Meal We'll Never Buy Again

Marie Callender's frozen meals are super-convenient for those moments when you haven't got the time nor the energy to rustle up a home-cooked dinner. With so many different options to choose from, such as the cheddar mac and cheese to the chicken pot pie, you can easily have a different dinner for every night of the week. However, after testing several of the restaurant and bakery chain's ready-made offerings, there's one Marie Callender's frozen meal we'll never buy again: the slow-roasted beef pot roast bowl.

This dish was the loser in our list of 16 Marie Callender's frozen meals ranked worst to best because it had nothing going for it. While the slow cooking process of a proper homemade pot roast is what makes it so tender, aromatic, and full of complex flavor, this frozen ready-made version didn't tick a single one of those boxes. The beef was chewy and rubbery, the gravy was watery, and the chunks of potato were waterlogged, too. The dish also had an odd fatty quality to it that was overbearing and unappetizing. There were visible pieces of carrot and potato in the bowl (each container counts as a single serving with 13g of protein), but even this couldn't improve the texture and taste. Usually, you can make improvements on frozen dinners by adding fresh herbs or sprinkling over some cheese before reheating, but in this case, we wouldn't recommend it. Simply skip it and start over with another option.

The findings of our taste test concur with many customer reviews on the Marie Callender's website. For example, one reviewer gave the dish a one-star rating, stating that "the picture looked so good, but it was SO horrible. Only 8 tiny pieces of beef in the bowl," further adding that "The beef was not tender at all [and] was tough and chewy." Regarding the gravy, the reviewer noted it "wasn't very tasty either and was extremely salty." Another reviewer posted "I know not to waste my money on this again! The potatoes and broth were fine but the beef was so tough I could hardly eat it and the carrots are hard as rocks."

We'd recommend that you skip the pot roast bowl and buy Marie Callender's roasted turkey breast and stuffing instead, which was the ultimate champ in our taste test. The turkey was on point, the mashed taters had a scrumptious comforting quality, and the homestyle stuffing was herby and bready. The savory gravy was the perfect finishing touch to this holiday-style meal, which gave us all the feels of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.