- Good selection of meals
- Meals are tasty
- Easy to use
- QR and barcoding scanning capabilities
- Frequent sales on the oven
We take a close look at the quality of food, the shipping and the overall healthiness of the meals to determine the best premade meal subscriptions. Tovala, a meal delivery service paired with a smart oven, is the first we’ve tried that strives to do the reheating for you with exacting precision.
When I set out to try the unique service, my gimmick radar was on high alert. But then I tried it.
Tovala’s meal delivery service might just be one of the best on the market. The meals I tried were consistently delicious, the oven is a breeze to use once set up and its compact footprint won’t crowd your counter. But my favorite perk? Saying goodbye to plastic containers, which means no microplastics sneaking into my food and zero prep work to boot.
Although this meal kit does require the Tovala Smart Oven, you can frequently find it on a deep discount. Right now, you can get it for free with the code SPRINGEATS26 when you sign up for a meal subscription.
Here’s my experience with the Tovala Smart Oven and the brand’s custom meals.
How does the Tovala Smart Oven work?
Tovala is a scan-to-cook oven meal delivery service.
Tovala launched in 2016, so it’s a handful of years younger than some of the big-name meal services such as HelloFresh and Blue Apron, but it sets itself apart with a smart oven designed specifically for its meals.
The newest version of the oven, the Smart Oven Pro, is normally $300 but is currently being offered for free when you buy a meal plan. The charcoal-black oven has six modes — bake, broil, toast, reheat, air fry and steam — and comes with an air-fry basket, sheet tray, crumb tray and oven mitt.
My meatballs and sweet potatoes were ready to eat in no time.
The steam mode is the main difference between this version and the original Tovala Smart Oven. The Smart Oven Pro uses a small amount of water to generate steam during cooking, helping produce juicier meals. (And yes, steam and water do play an important role in toasting.)
If you pause or cancel your meal plan, you can still scan a number of QR codes and barcodes on other food items, particularly frozen groceries, and automatically send the cooking instructions to your smart oven as if you’d scanned a Tovala QR code.
@cnetdotcom When CNET editor first got the pitch for the Tovala smart oven meal system, she was a little skeptical based on price and the idea of buying a whole toaster oven for a meal service. But now she says it might just be her favorite service on the market. Cook a meal with us and see it in action. Head to CNET.com to read her full review. #tovala #smartoven #mealdelivery #mealservice ♬ original sound – CNET
Tovala meal plans and pricing
There are more than 30 meals to choose from each week, many of them customizable. While you may see similar ingredients used, you’ll rarely — if ever — see the same meals offered two weeks in a row.
The meals range from $10 to $14 each and become cheaper when you buy more. Shipping is $11 a box. Each meal is one serving.
Ginger tamari-glazed salmon.
Ginger tamari-glazed salmon: This was delicious and one of my favorite meals of the week. The salmon tasted fresh and wasn’t dry after cooking, and the noodles made it extremely filling. The tamari sauce also had great flavor.
The maple bourbon BBQ meatballs came with six meatballs.
Maple-bourbon BBQ meatballs with pecan-streusel sweet potatoes: I liked the flavor of these meatballs and the nuts in the sweet potatoes but the side dish needed a bit more seasoning.
