14 Trader Joe's Foods Customers Complain About The Most

To say that Trader Joe's has a very dedicated customer base is an understatement. The chain does billions-with-a-B in sales each year, and rumors of a new location opening up can make the news. People in metropolitan areas that already have multiple stores will still wish for their own local Trader Joe's. And once people start shopping there, they become very vocal about what they buy. One of the advantages of this is that customers quickly find out which products are must-buys and which are must-avoids, and why.

Regular shoppers at Trader Joe's have some pretty diverse tastes, so most items will have positive and negative comments. It's not unusual to find a few people going against the grain in a discussion about how something tastes, for example. But in most cases, the majority of comments and opinions will trend one way or another, either recommending or dismissing a product. We wanted to know what not to buy, so we browsed through social media to find out which Trader Joe's foods customers complain about the most. Here are 14 that they weren't happy with and that you might think twice about buying.

The Vanilla Cardamom Cold Brew Coffee is a limited product (still available as of mid-March 2026). It's a ready-to-drink blend of Arabica coffee beans with vanilla and cardamom and can be served as-is or with ice, sugar, and/or milk. It sounds like a soothing mix of flavors, but that's not what many Trader Joe's shoppers thought. A few did like it, but the majority were disappointed, if not disgusted. For example, Reddit user u/ratthewmcconaughey was unable to describe the flavor, writing, "It did not taste like vanilla or cardamom, or any other identifiable flavor of this earthly realm." More than one thought the cold brew tasted like dirt, and some wrote that they trashed most of the product after trying it, with u/BrokenBotox claiming on Reddit that the aftertaste was "almost medicinal."

If you're still determined to try this, you might want to buy the Vanilla Cold Foam Creamer along with it. Reddit user u/mackmakc mixed the cold brew with this creamer and reported that it reduced the earthiness of the cold brew's flavor. In another Reddit thread, u/opossomoperson wrote that they mixed the cold brew with a different brand of creamer and liked the combination. But if you're looking for cold brew coffee that you can drink straight, this appears not to be the one.

Trader Joe's recently brought back its Soft Pretzel Stick, which is a single loaf of soft pretzel bread in the form of a small sandwich roll or baguette. Note that this isn't the same as the Soft Pretzel Twists, and that's kind of at the heart of the complaints that people have. The twists come with a packet of chunky salt that you can add to their tops, but the sticks don't have any salt, and that's set off more than a few complaints. The taste and texture of the sticks themselves are apparently fine, but there are customers who aren't buying them because there's no chunky salt. Reddit user u/haley232323 had a practical take: "Who wants a pretzel with no salt??"

On Instagram, @traderjoesairfry reported that they thought the pretzel stick was fine but wouldn't get it again, stating that the flavor was mild and there was no salt. The two comments on the post agreed that the lack of chunky salt was the problem, with one stating that their husband had noted, "It was okay but the no salt made a difference."

The Vegetable Pad Thai frozen entree should have been a winner due to its convenience and affordable price (plus, it's hard to go wrong with noodles). Yet the dish is not a favorite for many customers. A major one is that the mix of ingredients leans heavily toward bean sprouts. In fact, there are so many bean sprouts that one user on Reddit, u/zebradreams07, was able to post a picture showing a sizable heap of bean sprouts next to the rest of the ingredients — and both piles appear to be the same size. They also thought the garlic was overwhelming, too. A reply to their Reddit thread from u/chuhai-drinker said, "I stopped buying the pad thai from there for this reason. They overload every single package with bean sprouts."

Other complaints about the entree were about the flavor and texture. For example, in another Reddit thread, u/Debinthedez wrote, "I had to throw it away. I remember thinking whoever made this didn't taste it." Instagrammer @traderjoesbayarea gave the entree one star out of five, calling the noodles mushy and the sauce overly sweet. (If you ever try to make pad thai, be sure to use tamarind in the sauce for the classic sweet-sour flavor the dish usually has.) Another complaint online noted the flavor was too bland despite the high sodium levels listed on the package.

There were a lot of complaints about the Filipino Style Chicken Adobo frozen meal. Some didn't like the chicken; on Reddit, for example, u/Initial_Savings8733 wrote, "Zero flavor, texture like dog food. Inedible." The same user went on to comment, "It doesn't taste like soy sauce or vinegar it is so confusing." And that was one of the main problems. The adobo just didn't taste like adobo, with people noting how bland it was despite the visible presence of garlic in the rice, for example. Many people commented that the sauce was very watery or soupy, and on TikTok, @hungrycakes2x found some ingredients that shouldn't be in adobo, like mushroom base and celery seed. Many found the rice undercooked or dry, while others thought it was mushy.

The one saving grace was that the dish is apparently very easy to doctor and upgrade. Adding soy sauce, garlic, and vinegar, plus cooking the meal for a few minutes more, managed to make the meal edible. However, if you're buying a frozen dinner, you shouldn't have to spend more time adding ingredients to make it taste good.

Trader Joe's Handheld Chicken Pot Pies are frozen Hot Pocket-style hand pies with chicken pot pie filling wrapped in a crust. The box shows one of the pies cut in half, with ample filling in a thin crust. Unfortunately, that's not what many customers have gotten. While some have liked the pies, others have complained about how dry they are, their lack of filling, and how bland or strange they taste.

On Reddit, u/condimentia remarked that the filling was "bland, sparse, dry, oddly chewy bits, a piece or two of spongy chicken, and thoroughly unpleasant. Not a good value, not a good buy. I didn't finish the first piece, and won't give the second piece a chance." Another Redditor, u/rawzombie26, complained about the lack of filling, writing that the pies were "basically a bread sandwich with the lightest dusting of anything inside of them." Buy these at your own risk.

This next one isn't really Trader Joe's fault, and it's a problem affecting other stores that sell raw chicken. Customers are complaining that the raw chicken they buy is tough and stringy, with some even finding the affected chicken inside pre-made meals. Redditor u/Discount_Mithral described it as looking "like it had been sent through a paper shredder but was still connected by tendons."

There are a few conditions that have been affecting raw chicken over the past few years. One of these is woody breast, in which the chicken breast meat is tough and pale. The condition occurs more in older chickens that were bred for commercial meat sale. The cause of woody chicken breasts isn't fully known yet, but it may have something to do with how fast the affected chickens grew. Another condition is called spaghetti meat, in which the chicken meat is visibly stringy, with the strings almost separated. This happens mainly in broiler chickens, and luckily it isn't that common. But both have been of concern in the poultry industry for a few years now. If you're still willing to take your chances with Trader Joe's chicken breast, here's how to avoid buying woody chicken

The Italian Tiramisu looks like a convenient two-person dessert, but according to a lot of customers, it's got some problems. One is that the texture is really off. People claimed that it was too hard to eat when frozen and too soggy to eat when thawed. The flavor didn't get high marks either, calling it bland and noting how tasteless the ingredients were. Redditor u/stircrazyathome couldn't even finish a serving, saying, "I scraped off and ate a bit of the cream because it was the only decent part of the whole thing."

One more issue is that the tiramisu has a lot of caffeine, which happens when you bake with coffee. The Trader Joe's tiramisu contains real coffee (not just flavoring), so you're getting a large dose of caffeine when you eat one of these things. Reddit user u/spikehiyashi6 contacted the company to ask about how much caffeine was in the dessert. The reply from Trader Joe's Customer Relations department was that the tiramisu has 0.17g of caffeine per serving. That's 170mg, almost as much as you'd get in a 16-oz. grande Caffe Mocha from Starbucks, and too much to have in the evening before going to sleep.

Trader Joe's sells a couple of calamari products. One is a tinned version that gets a lot of compliments. The other is the Crispy Battered Calamari in the freezer case. That one does not get a lot of compliments. A few people do like it, but many say the smell is awful and that the ratio of breading to calamari is way off.

A few people online note that the calamari does best in an air fryer, but others weren't impressed. For example, on Reddit, u/Njtotx3 reported that the air fryer instructions weren't accurate, resulting in soggy or rubbery rings. (They suggested cooking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for seven minutes or so, flipping once.) Many didn't like the texture or flavor overall. Redditor u/Comfortable-Bear3937 put it best when they wrote that the "texture of the squid was not appetizing and had a fishy smell/taste." The odor of the squid during and after cooking was a major problem for a number of people, such as Redditor u/misterpequeno, who wrote, "Made my apartment reek! My partner came home and was overpowered by the smell."

Trader Joe's Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste offers bakers a thicker alternative to vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste is usually a little simpler to measure than liquid extract because it's easier to control as you remove it from its container. But the paste is no good if it doesn't have the right flavor, and many customers say Trader Joe's paste isn't the best product, especially for anything that needs to be baked. In this case, you may want to stick with vanilla extract for baking.

For example, Redditor u/CrotonProton noted that even when they tasted the paste alone, there was no vanilla flavor or fragrance: "The only thing I taste in this is sugar and maybe like a faint alcohol flavor. Doesn't even smell like vanilla." A number of people compared it to an older version of organic vanilla bean paste that Trader Joe's used to sell, remarking that the newer product couldn't hold a candle to the older one. Some also complained that the paste was too thick and sticky to spoon out.

A 2025 survey from refrigerated-meal company Main St Bistro found that 56% of Americans would drop coffee and social media from their lives before giving up macaroni and cheese, according to Grocery Insight magazine. With stats like that, you'd think Trader Joe's Creamy Mac and Cheese would have been an all-around hit.

However, that's not how it turned out. Some do like the product, of course, but many have issues with the sauce. Multiple people reported that it was much too thin and soupy. Redditor u/latestnightowl said letting the dish sit for a couple of minutes after cooking would allow the sauce to thicken, but it's unclear if this would have made a difference. People likely aren't eating everything in the container in less than two minutes, which means the remaining sauce would still have time to thicken up. But even those who didn't think the sauce was thin had issues with it. Redditor u/RedUser2024 wrote, "I felt like I was eating a thick cheese soup with some macaroni in it." The flavor isn't a favorite, either. Redditor u/PotatoRoyale8 lamented that the dish tasted "like plastic-y glue, and I even heated it in a glass container."

The Turkish Inspired Stuffed Eggplant got more than a few complaints from shoppers, too. Some found it to be very bitter and disappointing. Once you select the perfect eggplant, there are ways to process it to remove much of the vegetable's innate bitterness, so a bitter, pre-made dish points to issues at the manufacturer's facility. Others found the eggplant's flavor to be seriously lacking. On Reddit, u/JGDC wrote, "This was so bland, it was actually impressively underwhelming."

Some shoppers complained that the cooking instructions left the food undercooked, and one Redditor said it was like "eating a tough sponge." Redditor u/chiizus, however, managed to make the eggplant very tender by completely disregarding the instructions on the box. One other complaint was that the product developed mold prematurely. This is a refrigerated dish and not a frozen one, so if you decide to buy it and store the second eggplant in the package for later, don't wait too long before eating it.

Opinions about the Furikake Snack Mix are all over the map. Some adore the mix, others hate it, and there seems to be no consensus on whether it's good or bad overall. But many complaints focused on a few specific items. The overall impression on the negative side was that the flavor was off. Some thought the flavor was too sweet, while others thought it wasn't sweet enough; more than one person compared the flavor to breakfast cereal. Redditor u/orange-orange-grape compared the mix to "a watered-down version of the Frosted Flakes." Others noted an odd maple flavor, which is not what you'd expect at all with rice crackers and furikake.

Another complaint was that the mix of pieces was unbalanced. People found a ton of mochi pieces, which is great if you like them, but not great if you were hoping for a balanced mix of different crackers. The amount of mochi was so huge that Redditor u/AuntDeadly referred to it as "an endless sea of mochi."

Trader Joe's used to sell an uncured pepperoni pizza that was very popular, but it has since been discontinued. The company eventually released a new version, and unfortunately, this one isn't getting the same compliments. The new Uncured Pepperoni Pizza has been described as having a weird taste, being overly greasy, and having inaccurate cooking instructions.

For example, on Reddit, u/alaskalady1 wrote that after cooking the pizza for 15 minutes, "there was a huge oil soaked middle that was basically soup." They also noted that the crust tasted sour. In another Reddit thread, u/jenjengg noted that following the instructions would leave the pizza undercooked, writing, "the middle of the pizza is still raw and a gloopy mess."

There are some who prefer this new item over the old one. One Instagrammer, @alexissokson, called the new pizza "WAY better than the old one" and wrote that he was very happy with the new recipe, but the overall consensus seems to be that this product is a miss.

Finally, there's the Creamy Dreamy Hummus, which achieves its creamy texture through the addition of more tahini. While some customers liked it, others found the taste of the tahini to be overwhelming. A reply from @lil.opal in the comments on an Instagram reel about the hummus noted the product tastes overwhelmingly of tahini.

On Reddit, the opinions weren't much better. Overall, the replies were mixed, with some saying they actually preferred the creamy version. But others like u/Party-Comfortable574 disliked the hummus, stating, "I don't know how they dropped the ball so hard on this compared to the original." Additional posters thought the taste was bland and weird. This product seems to be one of the more divisive, though, so those who really like tahini may want to give it a try and see what they think. One person on Reddit, u/olavbander, noted that they disliked it at first but then grew to love it.

Customers of Trader Joe's regularly take to social media to share their opinions on products, so we looked at Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok to find out what wasn't worth our money. We looked only at comments going back to March 2025, so these focus on the products as they are now, and not as they were during a previous seasonal release or incarnation. The company does want feedback, so the 2024 version of an item could be very different from the 2025 or 2026 version.

We also made sure to find reactions that stated why an item wasn't good. It wasn't enough for someone to say they didn't like something or that XYZ was gross. We wanted to find out if it had to do with the flavor, texture, or something else specific, such as the lack of a salt packet with the otherwise passable Soft Pretzel Stick. We also made sure to find multiple complaints. Even if the overall reaction to a food or drink was mixed, if multiple people called out something about that product, then we knew that they were addressing a real issue. Now you know what to expect if you still want to try them.