6 Trader Joe's Wraps And Sandwiches You Should Buy And 2 To Avoid

I remember when Trader Joe's first opened in my hometown years ago and slowly became all the rage. Iconic tote bags would be seen on shoulders all over town, and conversations with friends seemed to always start with "Have you tried this snack from Trader Joe's?"

While some might complain that they can't find everything they need at the hip grocery store and that they have to run around town to fill in the gaps, many others (myself included) love to stock up on exciting varieties of frozen dumplings, chocolate-covered candies, chips, drinks, and what-have-you.

Like any good grocery store understands, sometimes shoppers come in hungry and can't wait to get home and cook their meal. Enter Trader Joe's ready-to-eat wraps and sandwiches. There's quite a variety of prepared foods to choose from, including salads and even sushi, but the wraps and sandwiches are perhaps the most convenient in that you don't need any utensils to chow down. Next time you're looking for a quick bite on your way to grab some of the best newly released items from TJ's, use this guide to know which wraps are flavorful enough to be worth your time and which you're better off skipping.

This orange-as-the-sun wrap is composed of white chicken meat, Buffalo style sauce, and diced celery folded into a pale-red tomato tortilla with a to-go sauce container of blue cheese dressing on the side.

For the wing-fanatic who loves Buffalo sauce and chicken, the flavor is great. I have mixed feelings about the diced celery inside. On the one hand, it has leached some water into the mix and made the consistency a bit soggy. On the other hand, it adds a nice crunch and cuts through the heat of the Buffalo sauce.

Were I to return to Trader Joe's looking for something pre-made to eat, this would be one of my top picks for one primary reason: There's a great quantity of meat filling out the tortilla. It irks me when you have several layers of tortilla needlessly hanging out on the outside of your wrap and overwhelming each bite with cold, chewy blandness — but that's not the case with the Buffalo chicken wrap. As an added bonus, the blue cheese dip is ripe with that stinky (in a good way) smell and will make your wrap even more flavorful.

The turkey apple cheddar sandwich is just like its name. It has thick and generous slices of turkey breast, sliced apples that are just the right size, sharp cheddar cheese, baby arugula, and Dijon and mayo spread on a multigrain roll.

For a pre-made sandwich you can conveniently grab at the grocery store, it's pretty great. The quantities are solid, with enough turkey to go in each bite. The bun is the perfect thickness to hold everything together without crumbling under the pressure, but it's not so thick as to dry out your mouth. The apple and cheese (a classic flavor pairing that's even better in pie form) are delicious, and there's just enough arugula and mustard to round everything out.

Perhaps my only complaint would be that the apple isn't evenly distributed throughout the sandwich and is instead stacked awkwardly in the middle — but this is easily remedied by a quick rearrange. Overall, this sandwich is a great solution to your errand-running munchies.

Fresh basil is one of my favorite smells on planet earth, so you better believe I'm a huge fan of pesto — and this wrap doesn't disappoint. The diced chicken breast inside is mixed with a combination of pesto, ricotta, and feta cheese and combined with zucchini and sun-dried tomatoes. Just in case you didn't get enough pesto on the inside, there's a side ramekin of pesto vinaigrette that is as fresh as a summer day with a vinegar zing to wake everything up.

After you've given the vinaigrette a good shake, it works great as a dipping sauce to add flavor to extra lengths of tortilla and bring more herbaceousness to the whole wrap. It's so good as a vinaigrette, you don't even need to add olive oil to freshen up the pesto. The filling is fresh and creamy with cheese. I wish there was a bit more filling or perhaps a bit less tortilla as it does wrap around a few times, but the flavor holds its own, and there's certainly enough that you won't finish hungry.

Tuna salad may be controversial, and those who don't enjoy it probably wouldn't consider buying this wrap in the first place. Unfortunately, I'm a huge fan of tuna salad, and I wouldn't buy this wrap again.

It's made with a long list of ingredients, but the most noticeable are split peas, carrots, tomatoes, egg, and mayo. The tuna salads I crave are typically made with brightening ingredients like dill and parsley, celery, mustard for a bit of spice, and onions for a bite. They're still fishy, yes, but with plenty of acid, herbs, and mayo to also be creamy and craveable. The Trader Joe's version is none of this. I cannot fathom why anyone would add hard-boiled egg to an already controversial-smelling dip that is packaged in a container and left in a cold case. The split peas are simply out of place. The seasoning and balance of flavors just isn't there.

The one thing this wrap has going for it is that the proportion of filling to tortilla is good, but the disappointing ingredient choices and bland taste are enough to make me say I wouldn't recommend this wrap to anyone.

The Italian style wrap is made with a generous portion of uncured smoked ham, genoa salami, and a few layers of provolone cheese all wrapped up in a wheat tortilla served with a mayo and mustard spread on the side.

When I'm in a pinch on what to order or buy, I find that these Italian style wraps or sandwiches are usually a safe bet, and that remains true for the Trader Joe's version. They're a safe bet because the cold cuts that go on an Italian sub come cured and already pack some flavor, which means you don't have to worry as much about them going bad or being drastically under seasoned. 

Similar to the Buffalo wrap, the biggest draw to this grab-and-go item is the quantity of meat. You won't be left with a mouthful of dry tortilla wondering what exactly you paid for. Secondarily, it tastes pretty good, and the creamy mustard dip helps deal with any dryness. If you're looking for a quick and easy snack, you'll get exactly what you expect with the Italian style wrap.

The chicken and cheddar sandwich may sound basic by name, but it's got a secret ingredient that takes it to another level: a cranberry aioli sweetened with maple syrup. Perfect for the holiday season, the cranberry flavor continues in the seeded bread, which is made with a variety of flours, sunflower seeds, and poppy seeds.

The bread does get a bit crumbly and mushy as the aioli soaks in — don't let this one sit in your fridge for too long — but the flavors are fantastic: a little sweet, a little tart, sharp, meaty, and filling. I do enjoy when fruit flavors are paired with savory ingredients such as chicken and cheese, and Trader Joe's has done a great job of doing so in both of the sandwiches on this list. Opt for this one if you're a fan of cranberry, but reach for the turkey and apple if you're looking for a bread that will hold its own.

I had the highest hopes for the spicy lentil wrap, which features a filling of lentil and bulgar wheat with shredded cabbage and red pepper paste folded up in a lavash wrap. Lavash is a thin, flatbread-esque wrap that may resemble a tortilla but tastes a bit different. You might have seen them holding your lamb shawarma together at the halal truck. They also work quite well as an easy replacement for quiche crust.

Despite the lovely taste, I didn't enjoy digging through the layers of lavash in this wrap to reach the measly portion of filling inside. The lentil filling does have a delightful heat from the red pepper paste that zings the mid palate — but where's the rest of it?

The wrap also comes with a spicy tahini sauce, which adds to the heat and nuttiness of the wrap, but isn't delicious enough to make up for the skimpy portion. Despite the fact that I enjoyed the flavor of the filling, if I was looking for a snack, I would be more interested in one that has more to offer.

Perhaps the corporate chefs at Trader Joe's got wind of Ina Garten's favorite herb to use in chicken salad because the tarragon chicken salad wrap is definitely taken up a notch by the presence of the refreshing, licorice-hinted herb. Like many great chicken salad recipes, it starts with white chicken meat, diced celery, sliced almonds, and parsley, first wrapped in lettuce, followed by a flour tortilla. It was clever to wrap the mix in the lettuce first, as it helps prevent the tortilla from absorbing all that moisture and turning into a pile of mush.

Don't buy this wrap expecting a lot of flavor — the whole thing is pretty mild — but the almonds add a nice crunch, and there's a good portion of filling to go around. The ingredients all work together, and you can eat this wrap one-handed if need be since there's no dipping sauce to go with it. It's a great snack if you enjoy chicken salad.

Trader Joe's has quite a variety of ready-to-eat foods, including a few other flavors of wraps. For this list, I chose to try the ones that seemed more unique or interesting, as compared to others such as the chicken Caesar wrap, which is fairly self-explanatory.

These sandwiches and wraps are all about the same price, so cost wasn't a factor in this recommendation so much as the flavor and the amount of filling. If I'm looking for a quick bite, I want something that has enough protein to tide me over until the next meal. The wraps that were lacking in the filling department are the ones I recommend avoiding, just for the sake of your wallet.