5 Ready-To-Eat Walmart Meals To Buy And 4 To Avoid

As someone who has a very, very busy schedule, I'll admit that I have a soft spot for prepackaged foods. I don't always have time to meal prep for the week or even assemble a simple sandwich on my way out the door, so being able to walk into a grocery store like Walmart, pick up something prepared, and eat it in the car or on my way to my next errand is a godsend. Plus, these foods are cheaper than what you'd pay at a restaurant, which can make them a money saver when you're tight on time and convenience is of the essence. 

Walmart, in particular, boasts a pretty wide array of prepackaged foods near its deli counter. While it has prepacked chicken salads and slaws, I wanted to see which of its truly grab-and-go meals, including prepared sandwiches, soups, salads, and wraps, were worth buying and which ones were better off being left in the deli case. So, I bought nine different options, sampled them on the day that I purchased them, and then decided whether or not I would buy them again based on their overall flavor, texture, freshness, cohesiveness, and fillingness. Whether you forgot to pack lunch for the day or need a protein-dense bite between errands, you can be sure that any of the items on my "buy" list will satisfy.

How did I feel about eating a croissant that had been left to soften in a refrigerated deli case for who-knows-how-long? About as good as you would think. I didn't have high hopes at all for this croissant, which stood tall in a plastic case adorned with a slice of lettuce and plenty of eggshell-colored chicken salad stuffed between it, but I can happily report that the flavor is a little better than I predicted. The croissant, first of all, is not a high-quality Walmart bakery item by any means. It doesn't have any sort of crunch to it and is instead soft and bready. But its butter flavor did a little more for the chicken salad than a plain bun or bread would, so I could appreciate the thought here. Despite looking a little sad in terms of color, the lettuce added a much-needed crunch to the sandwich. 

The chicken salad is, well, grocery-store chicken salad. I couldn't detect much by way of spice or seasoning, and there is arguably just as much mayo as there was chicken. However, when combined with the buttery base and crisp lettuce, it made for a pretty satisfying bite. I also appreciated that Walmart didn't skimp with the chicken salad; there was more than enough between the croissant layers, which made for an even more filling bite. I'm not going to go out of my way to buy this croissant again, but it's certainly better than many of the other options listed here, earning it a spot on my "buy" list.

I can't entirely explain why these chicken bacon ranch pinwheels were priced almost $2 less than the other wrap option that I sampled, but I didn't really want to know. These pinwheels come four to a pack and are filled with deli chicken, American cheese, bacon, lettuce, and buttermilk ranch, all tucked into a flour tortilla. They look really cute in the deli case, but don't let that fool you; their taste is really subpar. 

Maybe the reason they were priced so cheaply is because the only flavor notes I could pull out from them were the chicken and the cheese, both of which were salty and about as mediocre as you can get from a mass-produced deli wrap. There is a little bit of crumbled bacon in the center, along with some ranch, but both of these flavors were lacking and not evident in the bite. Sure, you could get a bottle of store-bought ranch dressing from a couple aisles over and dip your pinwheels into it, but the purpose of prepared food is supposed to be something you can just grab and go.

There are many pathways for improvement for this sandwich, including doubling up on the bacon and the ranch (two of the three components of the name) and axing the cheap, plasticky cheese. This would be an item you'd get to pacify a toddler, not to satisfy a craving for something savory and high-quality. 

I'll admit that I'm not really a sandwich person, especially when it comes to prepared foods. I would much rather grab a salad or a soup. But if I was in a pinch and needed to pacify a craving for something hearty, I would probably buy a half- or full-sized version of Marketside's All-American sandwich. Ham, turkey, and cheddar cheese come together on what looks like an Asiago roll, which doesn't really stand out but certainly gives this sandwich some visual interest. It comes with a pack of Duke's mayo and French's yellow mustard, though I don't think the sandwich really needs either one of these. 

Is this the best deli sandwich I've ever had? Of course not — far from it, actually. But there is an ample amount of meat, and the cheese is semi-molten (which is weird, considering I purchased and sampled this sandwich cold), making the mouthfeel very soft and easy to eat. There is no veggie topping on this sandwich, and while I would have liked some shredded lettuce or cucumbers to lighten up the bite a bit, I don't think that the sandwich's success hinges upon these fresh ingredients, and it would arguably make it more wet, anyway. All in all, it's a decent sandwich and could come in clutch if you were in a hurry and forgot to pack lunch for the day.

I was cautiously optimistic about the Marketside Caesar chicken wrap, mainly because it looked so dry when I saw it in the store. Priced at $5.64, it was one of the more expensive items that I sampled from the Walmart prepackaged food section. That price didn't make sense, seeing as chicken, lettuce, and tortilla wrap — the primary components of this wrap — seem to be very inexpensive ingredients. I could also get a high-quality grilled chicken Caesar wrap from my favorite local sandwich shop for just about $10, which makes getting this cold and relatively small portion from Walmart seem even less practical.

This wrap looked dry, and I can confirm that it also tastes pretty darn dry, too. This may have been done by design; when the dressing is left to sit in the tortilla for a long time, it could turn into a soggy mess. While the tortilla did fray a bit on the edges, suggesting that it wasn't that fresh, the fact that there was no moisture or dressing in this wrap really didn't convey much in regard to flavor. Most of the "cheese" spilled out onto the plate as I ate the wrap, and I noticed that the cheese itself didn't have all that much flavor, either. It didn't add anything salty or umami to the wrap. While I did like that the chicken was flavorful and juicy, the poor delivery on the Caesar component pushed this wrap into my "thanks, but no thanks" pile.

When I first pulled out this sandwich, the first thing I said was, "Man, that's weighty!' This is indeed the case, as this sandwich is absolutely loaded with turkey and cheddar between what Walmart calls "sweet grain bread." Like the All-American sub, this one comes with mayo and mustard, though I doubt that it really needs it. The bread is pretty nondescript, and I was glad that it wasn't super soggy. The cheese, like in the All-American, was slightly soft, which made biting through the layers of meat and cheese relatively enjoyable. 

This sandwich, priced at $5.97, was the most expensive item on my list, but that doesn't mean I liked it any less. Even for being a near-$6 sandwich, it still boasts a great value thanks to the plentiful meat. Turkey and cheese sandwiches are a comfort food for many, which is why I have no doubt this would garner universal appeal among eaters. I did add a little bit of mayo to my sandwich and appreciated how it made each bite extra creamy and flavorful.

Could it use a little bit of veggies? Probably, but it ultimately wasn't so dry that it needed that fresh uplift from pickles, tomatoes, or anything like that. This would be a good sandwich to pack along for a day at the beach, especially paired with a bag of high-quality, crunchy kettle chips.

I feel the same about Cobb salads as I do club sandwiches: They're mediocre in more ways than one. Traditionally, this salad is composed of lettuce, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, avocado, and some sort of dressing. Walmart's version uses lettuce, turkey, bacon, eggs, and blue cheese dressing. 

I was absolutely convinced that the turkey in this salad was ham. It has the squeaky texture of the ham I remember eating at my grandmother's house on Christmas, though the label and the nutrition facts confirm that it is indeed made with turkey. The meat is smoky, like ham, and adds a savory bite to each mouthful. I think there was an equal amount of the eggs, turkey, and bacon, which were portioned in a plastic insert on top to prevent them from making the lettuce below soggy. It even came with a tiny, compostable fork for easy eating. 

The one thing I will say is that the lettuce (presumably iceberg) was flavorless, and I wished that there was a little bit less of it so that eating it wasn't such a chore. The blue cheese dressing didn't really strike a chord with me either. It wasn't stinky or particularly salty, as some blue cheese dressings tend to be. I supposed that was done on purpose to offset the saltiness of the faux ham and bacon. Overall, though, the dressing didn't do much to enhance the salad. It was mediocre all around and not worth even the $2.97 I paid for it.

If there had to be an item on this list that I think every Walmart shopper should buy, it would have to be the Santa Fe-style salad with chicken. I find that one of the biggest problems with prepared foods (especially salads) is that everything lacks flavor or is made so inoffensive in an effort to appeal to everyone. This salad, which is loaded with iceberg and green leaf lettuce, seasoned chicken, fire-roasted corn, four cheeses, crumbled tortilla chips, carrots, cabbage, and a salsa-ranch dressing, shows that a little flavor isn't a bad thing. It's not so strongly flavored that folks with aversions to spice would recoil after eating it. Instead, it maintains an impeccable balance of being bold but approachable, and I didn't find that any of its ingredients were so spicy that I had to drink water afterward. 

Another strong suit of this salad is that all of the components offer something different in terms of texture and flavor. The corn is sweet and just a tinge charred; it adds a bright burst of juice to complement the rich salsa-ranch and cheese. The tortilla chips are slightly seasoned (and come in a separate plastic pack to stave off sogginess), while the chicken is plump and Tex-Mex-adjacent (even if I couldn't entirely tell what exactly it was seasoned with). There is just enough dressing for the lettuce portion, which I can also appreciate. 

Grocery store salads don't have to be boring, and this is proof of it. It would make for an excellent lunch or when your regular ol' sandwich starts to lose its appeal.

I would be remiss not to include broccoli cheddar soup on this list, which is a fan favorite at chains like Panera Bread. It was also the only vegetarian option I tried.

This soup could be prepared on the stovetop (which I was not doing, seeing as these were supposed to be foods that were as "ready-to-eat" as possible) or in the microwave. The latter directions were to reheat it in its container, but since I was only doing a small serving, I decided to plop some into a separate bowl (emphasis on plop; it looked like broccoli-flavored queso blanco) and nuke it for about three minutes. After letting it stand, I gave it a taste. 

It tasted, as I suspected, like broccoli-flavored queso blanco. Normally, broccoli cheddar soup is supposed to be thin and brothy; this one was thick, like a cheese sauce. If you had given me a bag of tortilla chips for dipping, I would have been in pig heaven. That said, there is not enough broth in this soup to make it worth eating. It sticks to the spoon and is like eating cheese-flavored sludge. While the occasional piece of broccoli is nice, they are few and far between and don't really add to the freshness factor or balance out the saltiness. It might be good for a chips-and-dips night, but it's just about the last thing I want to eat for lunch. 

Let this chicken tortilla soup be an example that Walmart can indeed do flavorful things — and do them well. Despite looking a little salsa-esque, this chicken tortilla soup fared far better than the creamy, broccoli-filled queso blanco I tried before it. It heated up much more evenly and wasn't nearly as thick as the aforementioned soup. This chicken-broth-based creation was filled with veggies, including peppers, which retained some of their toothsome texture, as well as pieces of beans. While I didn't really get any chicken pieces in the soup that I sampled, I could tell this was a brothy creation that was made with love. The beans added extra heartiness, while the blend of spices, including thyme, bay leaves, and marjoram, was very cozy and warming. The simmered tortillas also made it thick and brothy — perfect for enjoying on a blustery winter day or when you want to dive into a soup that clears out your sinuses.

The only thing I didn't really like about this soup was that it teetered on the edge of not really being Tex-Mex. When I think of tortilla soup, I think of spices like cayenne and cumin, not necessarily the ones inside of this soup, or at least, not its dominant flavor profiles. But overall, the flavor of this dish worked well and left a positive impression on me. It would, of course, have been better with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of crunchy tortilla chips on top.

I sampled each of these products on the same day that I purchased them to ensure that they were at peak freshness. I don't entirely know the time that Walmart sets out these items, which are more lunch-adjacent than they are dinner-adjacent, but when I visited my local store at around 4 p.m., I found that all of the items were pretty well picked over. I was glad that, as a whole, the breads weren't soggy, meaning the sandwiches especially couldn't have been sitting there for very long before they ended up in my cart. However, if you visit your Walmart later, the quality of these prepackaged foods may differ. 

I sampled a range of products, from sandwiches and wraps to soups and salads, but I looked for the same thing across the board: freshness, cohesiveness, and fillingness. Prepackaged foods are a one-stop shop for a filling and simple meal; you shouldn't have to grab condiments or toppings in order to make them taste good or fill you up. Products that had complex or fun flavors, as a whole, did better than those items that were bland. As I sampled each item, I also looked at the individual components, like the meat, cheese, and bread on the sandwiches and the toppings and dressings for the salads, and considered their flavors and textures, as well as how they worked together to create a cohesive and well-rounded meal.