Trying out the Too Good to Go app

When it comes to getting a good deal on food, I am always down. I eat a lot of food, and am a somewhat picky eater in the way that I do not want to eat food I do not enjoy. At the same time, I always am looking to spend less on the food that I consume. When I heard about the Too Good to Go app, I wanted to try it out, not only for the big savings on food itself, but for the fact that it is a mystery box (which sounds excited) and this food would otherwise go to waste, when instead I can eat it!

The idea behind the Too Good to Go app is that local businesses and shops can take food that is about to go to waste – basically best by today date food – and sell it for a super cheap price so you can go home and eat it. You never know what you are going to get, but you do get to see the total price of the food normally and how much you are paying now. It creates a sort of interesting, mysterious way to get food to eat.

Where there many places to choose from on Too Good to Go?

I do not live in a major city, I live in a smaller city outside. So, I previously assumed there just wasn’t enough places that were apart of the app. When I turn the app on in London, I can see dozens of restaurants, bakeries, and shops using it, but in my town, there are still quite a few options! All of the local stores and petrol stations seem to have the app working, as well as a few chains that are within the town. It’s interesting to see the selection – and there is enough to choose from to make it feel like there is choice.

The major issue with the Too Good to Go app is that you often have to purchase ahead of the time you can collect. If you’re feeling hungry right now, and want to grab a mystery box, it’s often not possible. Instead, you need to order ahead for morning or evening slots, and then pick up your mystery food then, which sometimes isn’t very convenient. We went to three places nearby for the app, to see what we would get.

Costa Coffee

The earliest place nearby to grab from was our local Costa Coffee. I’ve never eaten inside there, and didn’t really know what they had, so I was mildly curious. The price of our bag was £3, which contained £15 worth of items if purchase at the time they were good (so, not including the REDUCED tags on them). We ended up getting three items; a cheese and tomato toasty, a vegan bacon roll and a vegan smoky ham and cheese toasty. This haul was quite small, and probably the most disappointing out of the three. The person who served us had everything ready in a bag, which was a plus, and we did eat all of it, so no food went to waste.

Morrisons Petrol Station

It seems like every Morrisons uses the Too Good to Go app, which is interesting! This mystery box was £3.29, so slightly more than the previous haul, and we were mildly interested in what could possibly come from a petrol station. Would we get just junk food? Would there be anything fun? We went to find out. Unlike the previous location, the guy at the counter asked me for a bag. I grabbed one out of my car, and he went in and took about 10 minutes, in the back, and came out with a full bag of stuff. We got a full loaf of bread, which I froze for another day, a pack of four pork pies (which the kids ate for lunch the next day), a Potato & egg salad that we ate, some roast beef which we ate that night, two egg custard tarts which we ate that night, a cinnamon roll which we ate the next day, a croissant roll that was used in a recipe for breakfast the next day, and a bunch of spring onions which were used during the week. There was, again, no waste from this haul as we were able to eat everything or use it all. This was also a really interesting one, with a great variety of items. You could make sandwiches out of the bread and roast meat (I straight up ate the meat as I do not eat bread) and there was enough to easily feed both of us for a strange but interesting meal.

M&S Petrol Station

The next one we picked up was a bit more, at £4, from an M&S Petrol station that we’ve never shopped at before. When picking up our Too Good To Go order, they had everything already bagged up, and it was probably the most interesting back for us. This one seemed to have one dinner in mind – with a pack of 12 oozing garlic dough balls and a pack of cappelletti with prosciutto di parma pasta, which clearly could be cooked together to make for one Italian inspired meal. We added a bit of sauce we had in the fridge and were all set for a dinner! Along with this, we got a pack of watermelon and mango, which were perfectly ripe and eaten imminently. The only thing in this entire haul that we didn’t end up eating was the falafel wrap. I wasn’t feeling big on bread, and neither was Dann, so this item was forgotten about in the fridge for a little too long, and ended up in the bin.

Is the Too Good to Go app worth it?

Now, I really love the feeling of getting a mystery box and getting to see what is inside of it. I just wish the times were better for me, as the pick ups are always way after I would normally eat dinner. I think it’s a really neat app to combat waste, and if you have some really fun places to pick from, that’s even better. I now know that Costa won’t give me a good variety and seems to have the least amount of food, so I feel that part of it is knowing what you want and where you might get it. I do feel we will be using this app quite regularly in the future though!

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