Banquet Mac & Cheese Review

Banquet Mac & Cheese

It’s no secret that those of us on the Freezer Meal Frenzy crew tend to be fans of mac and cheese. We’ve reviewed no small amount of the stuff in the past, and we’re always happy to check out new versions of this American classic. Today, we’re interested in seeing what the Banquet take on the stuff is, with the Banquet Mac & Cheese.

Now, to be fair, we’ve actually had Banquet’s macaroni before, but as a side in the Fish Sticks with Mac & Cheese and the Chicken Fingers with Mac & Cheese. We thought it was a flawed-but-still-decent addition to both meals. We also tried the Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese, which we thought was okay (though we weren’t fans of the chicken). So now we’re finally going to put this stuff through its paces with a pure dish of macaroni.

But first, of course, we must cook it up. Doing so is super easy: Just pop it into the microwave for three minutes, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for another 60 to 90 seconds. If you really want to, you can instead cook it in the oven, but who’s got time for that these days? (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the back of the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

Banquet Mac & Cheese

The size of the tray is a little bit weird, as it’s really wide but not very deep. In fact, we’d say this is barely more than a single macaroni piece deep, which means you’ll be scraping the bottom pretty quickly. This meal isn’t as big as it looks.

That’s not a problem though. A much worse sin, in our book, is that this is kind of watery, which leads to a really bland-tasting dish. The whole time we were eating this, we were wishing it were both richer and thicker. The noodles don’t commit any sins of their own, but the basic flavor of the pasta isn’t enough to carry this dish. We needed a creamy, flavorful cheese sauce to really sell this to us, and we didn’t get that here.

We were surprised to learn that this meal only contains 360 calories. That’s not bad at all for a frozen macaroni dish. Of course, it’s the sodium that’ll get you here, as this comes with 1,220 mg of sodium. That actually is pretty high for this meal.

The Banquet Mac & Cheese is disappointingly bland. You could doctor it up with some salt and pepper, or add more cheese of your own, but taken as is, this is something of a disappointment. There are much better mac and cheese dishes in the freezer aisle (from classic brands like Stouffer’s and Amy’s Kitchen), so there’s no real reason to settle for this one. Even if price is an issue, Michelina’s makes a better macaroni for super, super cheap.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen mac and cheese, check out our package scans below.

Banquet Mac & Cheese
Banquet Mac & Cheese
Banquet Mac & Cheese
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