Tempo Prepared Meal Subscription Review (2026): Surprisingly Tasty

Nutritious, balanced, convenient, and often delicious ready-to-heat transportation repast subscription. GLP-1 and protein-packed options. The chickenhearted bosom is really moist and tender.

Lots and tons of chicken, and meals are a spot staid. Veggies tin sometimes beryllium soggy. Reheated meals can’t rival freshly cooked.

Perhaps I am easy impressed. But I thin to deliberation of the modern prepared transportation repast work arsenic a marvel of technology.

Tempo, the spin-off prepared-meal subscription work from Home Chef repast kits, specializes successful meals that look similar TV dinners but person ne'er been frozen. The boxed beef barbacoa and salmon au poivre and chickenhearted pesto meals that arrived successful my refrigerator this March had alternatively been cooked successful a commissary room days before, past boxed up and mailed successful a bundle kept chill with (mostly) recyclable acold packs.

Even aft arriving, each repast remained not conscionable harmless to devour but really flavorful for a week oregon more. That beef barbacoa, erstwhile I heated it successful a Ninja Crispi aerial fryer (my existent preferred enactment for leftovers cooking), was not conscionable inactive moist but really tender, served alongside jasmine atom dotted with maize and sauced with a airy poblano pick sauce. It was astir apt adjacent amended than the barbacoa I could get from the (mediocre, I'll grant) nutrient cart down the street.

Not each repast was arsenic bully arsenic that one, and Tempo could bash with a spot much assortment each week. But the information remains: A premix of determination kitchens, multiparty shipping logistics, and modified ambiance packaging had colluded to make a concern I inactive find a small spot marvelous. A week's worthy of still-fresh meals arrived astatine my doorway from acold away, acceptable to vigor astatine my leisure arsenic agelong arsenic 10 days later—without resorting to a clump of chemic preservatives. Wild! We should each beryllium much amazed, much often.

Tempo stands among the champion ready-to-heat, prepared repast subscriptions I've tried—and I've tried a batch of them. This tin admittedly beryllium a debased bar. These stay reheated meals designed for maximum convenience. And astatine $11 to $13 a serving, they outgo much than some frozen Stouffer's and inexpensive takeout.

But dissimilar inexpensive takeout, Tempo meals are composed successful consultation with dietitians, and connection balanced macros that tin beryllium tailored to protein-forward and GLP-1 diets. Each is simply a elemental and mostly wholesome repast portioned for a emblematic lunch. Most person a intelligibly delineated protein, starch, and veg. I and a workfellow taking GLP-1 medicine spent a week apiece tasting and investigating a full of 14 Tempo meals. Here's however it went.

How Tempo Works

First things first: Yes, Home Chef is the Kroger repast kit. Tempo's genitor company, Home Chef, was among the aboriginal entrants to repast kit subscriptions, founded much than a decennary agone successful Chicago. The marque was snapped up by supermarket elephantine Kroger successful 2018. But the accumulation facilities stay independent, and lately I've noticed less Kroger stores stocking Home Chef successful their deli departments.

Tempo is simply a spin-off marque and work from Home Chef, geared toward offering tailored mail-order fare plans. When you spell to the Tempo website, aft offering up your zip codification and email address, you'll beryllium asked a abbreviated bid of questions astir what you privation retired of life: whether fare plans oregon ingredients you anticipation to avoid.

Meal outgo is betwixt $11 and $13 a serving, depending connected however galore meals you privation delivered each week, positive $11 a week successful shipping. Usually, the introductory week costs importantly less, with further subject and pupil discounts besides available. Generally, the archetypal bundle arrives astir a week aft you motion up. You tin take which time of the week your archetypal bid volition arrive, and this volition stay accordant connected consequent weeks.

Once refrigerated, the meals stay bully for 7 to 10 days, with expiration dates stamped connected each box. This longevity is mostly owed to the modified ambiance packaging exertion that flushes retired oxygen and replaces it with different gases cautiously calibrated to assistance forestall spoilage. This tech has improved importantly successful caller decades, starring to longer support lives successful supermarket items and successful prepared meals similar these.

Pro-Protein Meals

Like a batch of repast kits these days, Tempo caters particularly to those looking to marque definite they get their macromolecule on—and who don't privation to overdo it connected carbs. Among the 25 oregon truthful meals disposable each week, arsenic galore arsenic two-thirds of the Tempo meals mightiness beryllium marked “protein-packed,” with much than 30 grams of protein. Vegetarians mightiness lone find a azygous repast oregon two: This is simply a meat-eater's kit.

Mostly, Tempo's meals instrumentality accepted middle-American form: a large protein, immoderate veggies connected the side, possibly immoderate pasta oregon rice. Adventurous eaters shouldn't expect overmuch much exotic than a “Thai saccharine chili salmon” with bok choy, oregon a Cajun-spiced chickenhearted thigh. With conscionable a mates twelve meals connected the paper each week, Tempo is mildly catering to the broadest imaginable palate.

This is acold from however I usually eat. If anything, I overspice. But I was amazed to find myself enjoying this mostly elemental fare, whether heated successful a accepted oven oregon dumped from the container and heated successful an aerial fryer for a small other crisping.

The aforementioned barbacoa was a highlight, a tender sauced filet flaking disconnected astatine the interaction of a fork. But truthful was a “grilled sous-vide” chickenhearted bosom slathered successful a creamy ail Dijon sauce, alongside amazingly fresh-seeming greenish beans and blistered grape tomatoes.

I americium acrophobic of chickenhearted bosom successful astir prepared meals: It's astir ever adust and often downright chalky. The fake-looking grill marks stamped onto the bosom successful astir meals from Tempo did precise small to alleviate these fears. But I was pleasantly amazed successful this case. The chickenhearted was much sous vide than grilled, moist wrong and prone to pulling isolated similar the merchandise of a slow-cooker.

As a kid of the Pacific Northwest, I liked a salmon crockery less. The filet tasted similar limp Atlantic workplace salmon, which I different avoid. This said, I was perfectly bully with the black-pepper pick condiment served atop the salmon and the hash of reddish potatoes and creamy-sauced spinach served alongside it. It remained a mostly healthful, balanced repast astatine debased effort.

But I should enactment that I'm grading connected a curve, here. None of these meals tasted arsenic bully arsenic they would person erstwhile archetypal cooked. And portion proteins and sauces were amazingly well-managed (though not precise zippy), veggies often fell prey to the sogginess endemic to each precooked meals. Reheated broccoli, nary substance what you do, volition ever someway conscionable beryllium reheated broccoli.

The meals are besides hardly designed to worldly you. Most hover successful the scope from 400 to 600 calories. And truthful if you usage these meals for meal arsenic good arsenic lunch, you'll either supplement with different nutrient oregon find yourself connected a weight-loss plan.

Winner Winner, So Much Chicken Dinner

Variety is besides a concern. My 8 meals were chosen from among the afloat complement of 2 twelve meals oregon truthful that are disposable connected immoderate fixed week. But adjacent so, I saw that aforesaid chickenhearted breast, zebra-striped grill lines and all, connected 3 dishes.

If you person eating restrictions, you'll apt spot adjacent much repetition. My workfellow Kat Merck, who tested GLP-1-appropriate meals—and besides stated a penchant for nary fish—found herself drowning successful a oversea of chickenhearted connected the six meals she tried. She recovered the portions due to those connected GLP-1 meds, and appreciated that the meals offered her the proteins she needs to support musculus wide adjacent portion chemically un-hungry.

But still: chicken. After eating 5 of her six meals, she wrote, “I don't deliberation I had 1 I didn't extremity up liking, but they were perfectly repetitive. Chicken chickenhearted chicken chicken.”

The sixth repast she ate, a mushroom pick chicken, was the lone utter failure. The chickenhearted tasted antithetic from the chickenhearted successful different dishes either of america tried, she noted: thick, dry, slathered successful viscous pick with nary motion of the advertised mushrooms. It was a small sad, a reminder of TV dinners past.

But if anything, that failed repast formed into alleviation conscionable however amazingly well-managed astir of the proteins turned retired to be. Both Merck and I were besides blessed to spot the occasional chickenhearted thigh, and not conscionable breast, successful our meals. For the record, the thigh was better: Thigh is astir ever better.

The Tempo meals mightiness beryllium a small staid. And nary were exciting, quite. But they were easy, nutritious, balanced, and comforting, without relying connected a heap of unhealthy sodium and carbs to beryllium palatable. Which is to accidental I was relieved and grateful to person them successful my fridge, portion moving from location with scant clip to deliberation astir lunch. For many, this feeling volition beryllium good worthy $12 a meal.

Power up with unlimited entree to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber contented that's excessively important to ignore. Subscribe Today.