We reviewed the Trader Joe’s Bibimbap Bowl many years ago. In fact, this was among the first Trader Joe’s reviews that we published here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. We’ve recently taken a gander at some of those old reviews and find them to be a little bit embarrassing, and that means we’re looking to have a bit of a do-over. While we’re going to keep the old review up (we’re cringing right now), we decided to take a second look at this frozen meal to see how we feel about it after so many years have passed.
And hey, we remember really enjoying this, so we’re certainly not opposed to writing a fresh review if it means we get to eat it again. We should point out that bibimbap is something that our staffers occasionally go out for (when restaurants are actually open). If you can find a Korean restaurant that serves the stuff, you should definitely try it. Bibimbap is amazing!
As we pointed out in our previous review, this comes with a sauce packet that needs to be thawed separately. Aside from that, however, the cooking instructions are pretty much what you’d expect. Toss this sucker into the microwave for about three minutes and you’re good to go! (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, scroll down to the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
It’s hard to deny that this is a beautiful dish. Just look at how gorgeous it is when it comes out of the microwave!
The beef here is pretty tasty. It’s juicy and rich, though it’s maybe a little bit dry.
That’s nothing the sauce can’t fix, though, and this is an incredibly tasty sauce. Seriously, everything this sauce touches turns to gold! Well, not literally, but this is a very lovely sauce that we think is core to the flavor of this meal. You could certainly choose not to add it, but that would be missing out on the best part of the entire meal. It has a lovely sweetness to it that works well with every single component in this dish, and it’s actually really spicy. This tingled our lips and stung the back of our throats and eventually warmed our bellies. We’re not messing around here; this is one of the spiciest frozen meals we’ve tried in four-plus years of reviewing frozen food.
Aside from the beef and the sauce, you’ve got carrots, spinach, and soybean sprouts on top of a bed of rice. The sprouts have an earthy, nutty flavor that we think is a little bit strange, but that’s probably just because we haven’t had Korean food in a while. All of this still tastes great, and the sauce really seals the deal for us.
If you want to, you could fry an egg and toss that on top of your meal to really make this feel like a restaurant dish, though that’s certainly not necessary.
One of the many things we forgot to talk about last time is the nutritional content of this bowl. This is no low-calorie feast, Joe! Without the sauce, it contains 550 calories, and the sauce adds 50 additional calories on top of that. That comes out to a whopping 600 calories! This also contains 940 mg of sodium, making it a real lunker in the “not-health-food” category! Be warned, folks!
The Trader Joe’s Bibimbap Bowl is still as good as ever, and we’re glad we gave it a second look. This is one of our favorite items in the Trader Joe’s lineup, and reviewing it a second time only reminds us how darn good it is. This meal comes strongly recommended by the Freezer Meal Frenzy crew!
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen Trader Joe’s bowl, check out our package scans below.
