Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Feel Good Foods Mu Shu Chicken

Pad See Ew and Mu Shu Chicken

Gluten free frozen meals are a lot more common now. We do notice that new brands seem to come and go, and given that we don't travel around the country to purchase for our reviews, we like to try out new brands as much as possible. The Feel Good Foods brand seems like a winner from their name and the variety looks pretty good. The nutrition facts aren't so hot (we'll get to that in a minute), but given that there is still some challenge finding tasty options for folks with gluten sensitivity we thought that they would be worth a try.

We started with the Pad See Ew, (rice noodles with chicken and Chinese broccoli). The first taste was, WOW! (but not in a good way). This is one of the saltiest tasting dishes in a long time. It does contain 650 milligrams of sodium and the tasting panel was willing to overlook that given the challenge of finding gluten free options. You can taste every single milligram and one taster said "this tastes like it has MSG in it." It doesn't, but everything else about this dish screams "Chinese take out."

Yes, this is exactly as if you went down the street to the worst Chinese restaurant you could find - right down to the dry, chewy chicken, the sticky oiliness, the mouth-burning saltiness and the sheen of the cornstarch-laden sauce.

Pad See Ew. How appropriate, but the Feel Good Foods version should be Pad See Ewwwwwww.

Next up was the Mu Shu Chicken.

Granted, we didn't go into this dish with high hopes after our experience with the Pad See Ewwwwwww, and just figuring out the directions fulfilled those expectations. You have to take the pancakes out of the frozen dish - but they are frozen to the filling - and then they break apart - and then you microwave them for a few moments in a paper towel, then you microwave the filling, and FINALLY you load each pancake with the cabbage and not-so-very-chicken filling and then top that with the Mu Shu sauce.

That's not worth the effort. Trust us. This is one of the most disgusting dishes we have had in years. It doesn't even come up to the level of going down the street for Chinese take out. This is worse than vending machine food. The filling is 95% overcooked, stringy cabbage, the sauce (I can't imagine using all of it) is terrible and the pancakes tough and chewy.

Just. Plain. Awful.

In the United Kingdom, where they have strict rules about false advertising, they would be forced to change their name to Feel Bad Foods (you knew that was coming). The only thing you can feel good about is avoiding them.

First posted: March 13, 2015