Premium Ready Meals vs Takeaway: Five Supermarket Dishes Put to the Test

Introduction

High-end ready meals have been quietly taking over supermarket shelves, and the obvious question is whether any of them can actually stand next to a proper takeaway. We put five premium supermarket options head to head with their takeaway equivalents in blind taste tests, scoring each on taste, price, weight and, crucially, satisfaction once the identity and price were revealed.

The takeaway options weren’t anonymous locals either: they included a Neapolitan-accredited pizzeria and a Michelin Bib Gourmand Indian restaurant. The results were surprisingly one-sided in one direction, and genuinely close in another.

How We Tested

Tasters were blindfolded and given two unmarked dishes per category, one from a takeaway and one from a premium supermarket ready meal. They tried to identify which was which, then rated the supermarket option on a satisfaction scale of one to five once the prices and origins were revealed. We also compared weights where relevant, noting that in several rounds the portion sizes were nearly identical.

Pizza: Crosta & Mollica Margherita Sourdough vs Rudy’s

The pizza round pitted the Crosta & Mollica Margherita sourdough pizza against a takeaway Margherita from Rudy’s in Spitalfields, a pizzeria holding the official accredited true Neapolitan pizza award, oven fired in traditional ovens with daily fresh dough and a 4.7 star rating on delivery apps.

The distinction was detectable almost immediately from the crust alone: the smoky, properly oven-baked base versus a very different, softer bottom. The Crosta & Mollica is sourdough, wood fired, topped with mozzarella, tomato sauce and oregano, placed on an Etna lava stone and finished over open flame. It comes in a pack of two smaller pizzas and is genuinely quick and easy after work.

At 6 pounds for 403g versus 10 pounds 90 for the 405g takeaway, the weight difference was negligible, and delivery charges apply to both. The verdict: the ready meal pizza earned a full five out of five for satisfaction, because it does its job, a fast, cheap, delicious dinner, brilliantly. That is simply a different five from what a fresh restaurant pizza delivers, and takeaway pizza degrades so quickly on the journey home that many tasters skip it entirely.

Japanese: Yo! Sushi Korean Style Chicken Donburi vs Yomay

Round two was a Korean barbecue chicken donburi: one from Yo! Sushi, one from Yomay, a family-run Japanese and Korean restaurant scoring 4.7 out of five on delivery apps.

The freshly fried takeaway chicken carried real texture, crunch, sweetness and spice, with pickles that tied the whole bowl together. The supermarket version suffered from an unavoidable problem: fried chicken that sits in sauce and gets reheated in that sauce turns soggy. On looks, the ready meal appeared congealed, with rice that stuck together from reheating rather than quality.

Price-wise the gap was real: the Yo! pack costs 4 pounds 75, about 11.87 per kilo, while the takeaway worked out at roughly 14.71 per kilo including a buy-one-get-one offer. Satisfaction scored a two out of five: it satisfies hunger, but not the craving for proper Korean fried chicken.

Indian: Charlie Bigham’s Butter Chicken vs Gunpowder

This was the toughest round. The takeaway came from Gunpowder in Spitalfields, a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant recognised for phenomenal quality and value, serving an old deli butter chicken made with succulent tandoori chicken kebabs mixed through butter masala sauce, alongside fragrant steamed basmati rice, and rated 4.6 stars on delivery apps.

The supermarket option was Charlie Bigham’s butter chicken curry with pilau rice. In the blind test, the sauce read as too tomato-forward, not buttery or smoky enough, and the ready meal rice lost out badly on fragrance. The takeaway rice, in particular, was the standout item on the table.

To its credit, Charlie Bigham’s is a B Corp food producer with clean labels, scratch cooking at scale, recyclable bamboo oven trays and a net zero commitment by 2040. Every ingredient listed is a real ingredient, which is rarer than it should be in this category. Still, curries are notoriously hard to match at restaurant quality, and many cooks find themselves bulking these out with extra ingredients to bring them to life.

Price: Charlie Bigham’s two portions cost 9 pounds 95, while Gunpowder came to 24 pounds at full price, or about 12 pounds with a buy-one-get-one offer and poppadoms included. The satisfaction score was the lowest of the entire test: a one out of five, not a reflection on Charlie Bigham’s specifically, but on supermarket ready-made curries in general.

Chinese: M&S Chinese Favourites Takeaway Box vs Oriental Chinese Takeaway

The Chinese round was a full feast on both sides: beef and black bean sauce, vegetable chow mein, chilli sweet chilli chicken, egg fried rice, chicken balls and spring rolls. The takeaway was Oriental Chinese takeaway in Dalston, a long-standing local favourite with a 4.5 star rating and reviewers who have been going there for decades.

This was the only round where a taster guessed wrong, comparing spring rolls across both plates rather than the equivalent mains. The differences that mattered: the takeaway beef was noticeably tender and succulent, with distinct pepper, onion and sauce flavours, while the ready meal components blurred together. The ready meal’s chicken balls resembled reconstituted chicken nuggets, and its fried rice lacked the dark wok character of the takeaway version, appearing more like a chopped omelette.

The M&S Chinese favourites takeaway box for two costs 12 pounds 75, while the Oriental feast totalled 50 pounds but comfortably feeds four, working out to roughly 12 pounds 50 per head. Satisfaction scores were polarised: a zero from one taster who finds Anglo-Chinese food unsatisfying, and a five from the other who loved it. A two seems like a fair middle ground for the range overall.

Thai: Cook Thai Red Chicken Curry vs Love Bike Thai Kitchen

The final round featured the Cook Thai red chicken curry with coconut and lime leaf rice against the red curry from Love Bike Thai Kitchen in Newington Green, a B Corp takeaway rated 4.8 stars, known for good welfare chicken, a Great Taste award, bamboo shoot, sweet basil, aubergine and peppers in a coconut milk base.

In the blind test the Cook version announced itself with a heavy hit of lemongrass that made it hard to pick out anything else, and the chicken gave way quickly. The takeaway offered a more nuanced sauce with crunchy, sweet red peppers and genuinely tender, falling-apart chicken.

Notably, Cook is the only frozen brand in the test, the rest being fresh and reheated, which gives it a much longer shelf life and the flexibility to cook from frozen whenever needed. Pricing was the closest of all five rounds: the Cook curry at 10 pounds 75 plus 3 pounds for the rice comes to 13 pounds 50 for two, versus 11 pounds 95 plus 3 pounds 75 for the takeaway’s 15 pounds 70 total, though the takeaway portion for two is noticeably more generous.

Satisfaction landed at a three to four out of five: a good job, but not something tasters would rush out to buy again the next day. Supporting a local independent also keeps more of your money in the community.

Overall Buying Advice

Five rounds, five correct identifications: the tasters could spot the ready meal every time, but that is not the same as saying the takeaways always won. The clear lesson is that category matters enormously.

Pizza is the standout ready meal success: at five out of five satisfaction and a 6 pound price against 10 pounds 90, the Crosta & Mollica is arguably the best ready meal pizza available and does a different, legitimate job from a fresh takeaway pie. The Thai curry from Cook is a solid mid-table option with frozen convenience on its side and near-identical pricing to the takeaway. The M&S Chinese box is decent value per head if you are a fan of Anglo-Chinese classics, but texture suffers against fresh wok cooking.

The weakest links are the donburi and, above all, the curry. Saucy fried chicken and restaurant-quality curry are the two things reheating simply cannot preserve, and the one-out-of-five curry score says it all: if a proper curry is what you want, find a good local takeaway and stick with it.

The wider takeaway from the test is worth acting on wherever you live. Spending a little time finding a reliable local takeaway in a cuisine you love pays off, and premium ready meals have come a very long way, but scratch cooking remains an option too. Match the product to the job: convenience on a weeknight, or the full takeaway experience.

Conclusion

Premium supermarket ready meals are no longer a compromise in every category, but they are not a universal replacement either. The sourdough pizza earns its place as a genuine five-out-of-five convenience win, the Thai curry holds its own on price, and the Chinese box divides opinion cleanly. Meanwhile, saucy fried chicken and butter chicken remain firmly in takeaway territory, where fresh frying, fragrance and depth of flavour still rule. Know which job you are buying for, and both options can earn a place in your weekly rotation.