The world is moving faster every day. We have less time for everything, even eating. That’s why preparing meals at home sounds like a mission impossible. Thankfully, many brands decided to make things easier for us. There are many meal delivery services, express restaurants, and meal replacement shakes (check out these two).
When I heard about Tovala, I wasn’t quite impressed since it’s just another meal delivery service, right?
Well, not quite, the entry ticket is higher – you have to purchase the Tovala Smart oven to get meals prepared by some top-of-the-class chefs. And the oven is a state of the art – it scans your meals and instantly downloads cooking instructions (such as temperature, cooking method, and time) from the cloud.
Let’s find out more.
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About Tovala
Tovala was founded in 2015 by David Rabie who was a student grad at that time. He was trying to make fresh meals on his stove with his super busy schedule. Not long after, he realized that he could never make it happen.
That’s why he teamed up with Bryan and they started Tovala thanks to a Kickstarter campaign – they reached $250,000 and the brand was born. Tovala’s mission is quite simple, really – We reinvent home cooking to save you time.
Tovala Smart Oven Review
Here’s a part that makes Tovala different from other meal delivery services. The Tovala 6-in-1 Steam + Air Fry Smart Oven uses 6 different cooking modes to cook your food perfectly.
But how?
The oven is connected to your WiFi and it downloads the chef’s cooking instructions for each meal. All you have to do is to toss the meal in the oven, scan the code you received with your meal, and voila! Enjoy a high-end restaurant meal.
The meals are sourced, prepared, and delivered fresh, meaning there’s nothing artificial about them. Another great thing is that you don’t have to use the oven to prepare Tovala’s meals only. You can use the oven manually or even scan the Scan-to-Cook brands’ code (and there are many brands). Just imagine – you get cheese pizza at Amy’s, toss it in your Tovala oven, scan the box, and you get perfectly cooked pizza.
Furthermore, Tovala made an awesome app filled with recipes you can use to prepare delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner, hassle-free!
Tovala Subscription
As I mentioned already if you want to subscribe and get Tovala’s Chef’s meals delivered to your doorstep, you have to get the smart oven first.
Let’s have a look at how exactly the Tovala subscription works.
- First, you get the Tovala Steam + Air Fry Smart Oven. It includes everything your need for a perfectly cooked meal. Tovala offers a generous 100-day free trial plus free returns.
- Select meal plan – choose between 4 and 16 meals delivered to your doorstep every week. You can adjust your order size, skip, or cancel the subscription anytime.
- Here comes the yummy part – prepare the meals for cooking in less than 60 seconds (I’m clumsy and even I managed to prepare it for the oven under 60)
- Simply scan the code and let the oven do the chef thing.
- Grab a book or wrestle with your dog, while someone (actually something) makes your dinner.
PROS
- Highly versatile oven
- Saves a lot of time
- It takes 60 seconds to prepare food for cooking
- Meals are made by experienced chefs
- 100-day free trial
- Flexible subscription
CONS
- Flat shipping fee $9.99
- No gluten-free meals, just gluten-friendly
Explore the Menu
Tovala updates menus weekly and the selection of meals is quite impressive. You can choose whether you want a calorie-smart meal, carb-conscious, gluten-friendly, veggie, or spicy meal.
Let’s have a look at some of the most popular dishes.
Chashu-Inspired Chicken Breast & Noodles
with Soy Sesame Dressing, Scallions & Crunchy Veggies – Calorie Smart
by Chef Crissy
Main Ingredients: Marinated Chicken Breast, Crunchy Veggie Salad, Soy Sesame Dressing, Scallions, Chashu Sauce, Sriracha (optional)
Cooking time: 20 min
Chicken breast roast under a sweet, savory sauce. It’s served over warm noodles, fresh veggies, and a soy-sesame dressing. Finally, add some scallions and, if you prefer sriracha for some heat.
Filet Mignon with Maître d’Hôtel Butter
and Parmesan Potato Wedges with Truffle Mayo – Gluten Friendly
by Chef Crissy
Main Ingredients: Filet Mignon, Potato Wedges, Maître d’Hôtel Herb Sauce, Truffle Mayo
Cooking Time: 16 min
This unbelievably tender steak roasts under garlic seasoning and creamy Maître d’Hôtel butter on top. Served next to the thick piece of meat are Parmesan-topped potato wedges dipped in truffle mayo.
Yum!
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Flautas
with Cheddar, Mild Salsa, Sour Cream & Guacamole – Vegetarian
by Chef Crissy
Main Ingredients: Potatoes, Beans & Corn, Cheddar, Guacamole (Optional), Sour Cream (Optional), 3 Tortillas
Cooking Time: 16½ min
This entirely vegetarian meal is amazing! Baked, flour-tortillas are filled with sweet potatoes, black beans, cheddar, and corn with salsa, sour cream, and guacamole toppings.
Tovala Shipping and Return Policies
Tovala meals start as low as $9.99 per serving but generally, they are $12.99 per meal. Of course, the prices vary based on the ingredients and complexity.
Shipping is $9.99 on all orders however you might find some coupons online for free shipping.
If you’re unhappy with the meals and/or oven, Tovala offers Happiness Guarantee – feel free to try the oven and meals for 100 days. If you’re not happy Tovala gives back the money and they will pay for the shipping.
Customer Reviews
Are Tovala meals that good? And the oven? Customers are the true experts in this case.
Let’s see what they think.
According to Tovala.com, the company scores 4.6 out of 5 based on 9000+ reviews.
Here’s a review from Amazon that basically sums up all the positive reviews on the website – I’ve tried numerous of meal kits, prep meals, frozen meals, you name it. It was all in effort to eat healthish foods at the house with the least amount of effort.
Meal kits are generally great but take 30 minutes to an hour worth of cooking THEN you have to clean everything (pots, pans, etc) and honestly it’s just tiring at the end of a Read more about review stating Fantastic idea and executionwork day for me.…
Extremely happy with this purchase and can’t wait to try more tasty foods.
Speaking of negative reviews, there are only about a hundred of them, customers feel that the oven is too expensive, a few of them had delivery issues (e.g. meals were not delivered timely) and some just wrote that Tovala is “not their cup of tea,” and that’s perfectly fine.
Speaking of other websites, Tovala scores 4.5 stars on Amazon, and 4 stars on Facebook. The reviews on both platforms are great!
Is Tovala Worth It?
Tovala is an impressive idea. Most meal delivery services are quite similar but Tovala definitely makes a difference with the smart oven. Some people find the oven too pricey (the oven is $299 but sometimes Tovala offers a limited-time offer and you can get it for $99) but considering that regular ovens are around $100 and even $150 I don’t think Tovala Smart Oven is too pricey. Considering that the Tovala oven does all the work and all you have to do is scan the code, I’m happy to pay a fraction of the iPhone 14 price to get all the meals prepared and cooked perfectly.
Speaking of the meals, Tovala chefs really did a great job making the recipes and preparing everything. The meals are basically for everyone except for people on special diets. Even though some meals are gluten-friendly, none of them is actually gluten-free and I find that quite a drawback.
Subscription service is super flexible, you can adjust the order frequency, pause, or cancel the subscription anytime. Let’s not forget the 100-day trial period Tovala offers. Three and a half months is more than enough to taste and test everything.
The bottom line is, Tovala is definitely worth the money, especially if you’re insanely busy and you still want to eat healthy food, just like me.
Buon appetito!
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