Charlie Bingham ready meals

[TheGhostOfTheYearYetToCome]

£9.80 for a pasta ready meal.

I don't know quite what I was expecting but I was so disappointed. Are the curry ones any better?

(Currently looking after someone in end of life care, cooking from scratch isn't possible)

Interesting posts thank you. I will get some cook!

I'm not worried about the actual money, just what it costs for such a crap meal. Happy to pay for good food, but if I had been blindfolded I would have guessed it was from the basics range. Very salty, and whilst there was more meat the taste wasn't pleasant.

Will give them another go and try the Thai curry.

Charlie Bingham is actually Jamie Oliver alias aimed at up market ready meal shoppers. Curries are good as is the fish pie (but not enough of it). The pasta dishes are all disappointing as a lot of Jamie ready meals are.

They're for 2 people though, they do single ones too.

I really like them especially the curries.

If you're looking for some decent ready meals, we have Frive which are delivered twice a week. Very nice and lots of options to choose from and microwaved in 3 minutes.
I do have a referral code to give 50% off if you were interested and wanted to try it out.

CB Korma is lovely, Thai green chicken curry is lovely, red is good too, moussaka is good, lasagne is meh.

I try not to buy them full price, you can pick them up on offer for £7.50.

Cook is good too. The chicken satay is delicious, the tarragon and lemon chicken and the chicken dijon is v good. The duck with wild boar and apple stuffing is great. The lamb tagine is meh. The vegetables other than red cabbage are crap including their roast potatoes and pommes dauphinoise.

I like the fish pie - it tastes good and, which rules out most others for me, there’s no wine in it! Only buy on offer though.

They've gone up in price a lot in the last year or two , we only tend to have them instead of a takeaway, because they're expensive but not as expensive as a takeaway and whilst they're not particularly healthy again not as bad as ordering an Indian takeaway when you're tempted by a long week!
I like the chicken madras, and the moussaka best. Tesco did a meal deal for a while that was decent value for two but no more, also they've split some of the meals so the curry now costs the same or more as the curry with rice used to.

😂 Charlie Bigham is a person not Jamie Oliver's alias

I don't think this is correct.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/27/ready-meal-king-charlie-bigham-i-havent-seen-a-single-benefit-from-brexit-yet

Agree with Cook. Great quality meals.

I've only tried the fish pie - and out of all of the supermarket 'luxury' ones I've tried - I like the CB one the least. Far, far too salty.

My DH likes them but he over salts his food anyway.

I'm not in the market for pricey ready meals. I do like Lidl's High Protein meals - bolognese pasta and naked burrito varieties. These are currently £1.79.

Lidl also have a range of steamer ready meals that are supposed to be more wholesome ingredients/less processed which are quite good - the chicken biriyani is particularly nice. £1.99.

I had a CB lasagne yesterday and it was just ok. Definitely not worth the money. The M&S dine in ones are so much nicer and better value.

They look great but their desserts are really disappointing.

Their tarts are not nice. Pastry too thick not enough filling. Chocolate brownies - not particularly nice. The endless meringue roulades are huge and if you don’t eat them immediately they go soggy.

Their lemon possets are excellent though.

I agree the veggie ones are nice. I also like the less plasticky packaging.

Yes their lasagne is deeply average.

Another vote for COOK meals. Lots more choice, and easy to get hold of . Our local coop sell them now.

Only one that’s half decent is the fish pie (and I’ll only buy it when reduced or on a massive offer)

The others are disappointing

Oooh thank you for the heads up @Mirabai .
I'll stick with GU then ☺️

@RebelMoon given how salty the CB meal I had was, I can fully see why someone would have a half portion - although most people would need some plain potato and veg on the side.

Not worth the money, tried the lasagne as it was £1.20 reduced in waitrose, it was very small and not very tasty.

I have a v small appetite but even I can eat the whole of a dish meant for 2. If I had to share that curry meant for 2 between me and my husband we would be getting 4 spoonfuls each!!!

COOK definitely. More choice, greater flavour and better quality. They pop up in surprising places - a small Co-op in the middle of nowhere - and are always chilled and fresh.

If they are at end of life, try a small side bowl of complimentary food. Think big fresh flavours with photosynthesis greens - cucumber with skin on, celery, fresh olives. Maybe some saffron and tangy radishes.

Another one for the CB fish pie here. Sainsburys regularly has it on offer and we stock up on it then. All the others are just about OK but nothing special. We’ve had a lot of CB meals lately as we both had flu and wanted something easy, but I noticed that after a few, my body was starting to reject them for some reason. They make a nice treat now and again but that’s about it.

We had Cook on a UK holiday a few years okay and were impressed. I bought a meal from there more recently and found it disappointing. The quality of Charlie Bingham is much better imho. Our favourite is the chicken and ham gratin. For lasagne M&S's Gastropub one is delicious.