Has anyone else been disappointed with Tesco’s “Finest” ready meals lately?

Just yesterday I was in a posh food hall. I didn’t buy anything but had a good look round. Their frozen meals for one were about £13 each. They had large lasagnes and they were £19 something! Looked like they served 2 people. I can’t imagine who would spend that kind of money.

Tesco finest mac and cheese ( with 4 cheeses) was quite tasty

Have you got an air fryer.?
You can cook most things in it and you don’t have to bend down.

It's the potato on ready meals I'm not keen on, too gloopy for my liking.

If l don’t want to cook, which is often - l make a cheese omelette, beans on toast , sardines on toast
That sounds more like lunch than a proper dinner with vegetables.

We find Charlie Bigham's fine and M&S Gastropub range but there's nothing like home-made.
Are you able to cook, Ethan? Can you batch cook mince, freeze in portions either with mashed potato on top or you could add mashed potato later.

I think overall that M&S and Sainsbury do the best meals.

Salt and regret, love it😆
We have an easy meal now and then, either pizza or a readymeal.Never cottage pie so can’t say really.
Minced beef and potato is cheap enough so no excuse for that meal to be poor, especially as they aren’t all that cheap.

After an accident at the end of last year, I had to pretty much live on ready meals for some time.

I never found any I liked. I ditched all the main supermarkets after a while and tried Cook and other online "gourmet" ready meals, some of which cost a fortune. Charlie Bigham are expensive for the amount you get (smaller than an average ready meal) and are now mass produced alongside their new "Ruby" meals in the same way as supermarket meals.

You only have to look at the customer ratings to see that ready meals don't really have universal appeal!

I'm not sure you can ever achieve en masse what you would in smaller quantities.

Our very occasional CBA to cook dinner is a Fray Bentos tinned pie each, just with frozen peas.

Or my tuna/pasta thing, a tin of tuna, drained, flaked and mixed with a tin of condensed mushroom soup. Heated through and mixed with cooked penne.
Also with frozen peas.

Occasionally get Tesco lasagne for a qick dinner but its also now got too salty along with all the other ready meals maybe I just notice it more as i get older.

I totally agree - They are not “Finest”. I’m sure they used to be marginally better, unless my taste buds have disappeared too.
They all taste so synthetic with so much salt & pepper.
Some of M& S ones are just about passable, but expensive as is the Cook range & l don’t like Charlie Bingham ones either - & again so expensive.
If l don’t want to cook, which is often - l make a cheese omelette, beans on toast , sardines on toast
etc. More nutritious that a Ready Meal. But on saying that , l am always on the hunt for an acceptable one! Any recommendations
gratefully received , thank you!

I never go to Tesco at all, but I'm always in Spar, and I'm quite disappointed by their 400g Cottage Pie and Shepherd's Pie.

They used to be so tasty and well-made; I loved them. However, over the past few months, they have looked and smelled horrible, and the taste has completely gone.

Now they're just mushy and tasteless, so I've not bothered for quite a while!

Hi Ethan, are you new to GN?

We don't eat ready meals apart from Charlie's and M&S's cottage pie. They seem fine.

We do, however, occasionally buy ready prepared meat - usually Waitrose - that seems fine too.

I don't often shop at Tesco but I have noticed that the quality of a number of items from various supermarkets has deteriorated. As has been pointed out before on GN items and packs are getting smaller too.

I loved your description of the cottage pie tasting of "salt and regret." I don't think it is your taste buds.

There do seem to be more of them that have carbs included than there used to be. Not all, but a significant number of them. Once upon a time, if you bought a "finest" ready meal from them you added your own pasta/rice/potato , which made them better than the cheaper non-finest, which had the carbs as part of the deal.

it is another way of raising their profits.