Profits over Usability
One can easily perceive the genuine excitement that went into the development of this product line, as it was brought from concept to market. It’s truly an inspired implementation of the best of what IOT tech can deliver. But just as evident is the (needless) decision to sacrifice powerful features in favor of increased revenue. Nowhere is that more apparent than the Oven segment of the app.
When I clicked on this centrally located button, with it’s clever heads-up live countdown timer “baked into” the button itself, i was expecting to be greeted with a digital version of the physical ovens interface; a live read-out of cook mode, temperature, timer, water level, *beep volume control* and perhaps the name & details of the meal being prepared. How naïve. This isn’t some “dream oven come true!” No. This is real life. Its an instrument for capturing market share for producer / partners! So instead of useful information, controls, alerts & preferences that would actually be what the user needs, wants expects & really should have… we get ads! Yes advertising… lazy scrolling miles of additional entrees available for purchase through the subscription… yada bada nope. Great move mahogany row at (parent co. of Tovala). Once again, the free market sits on it’s own nu…
When I clicked on this centrally located button, with it’s clever heads-up live countdown timer “baked into” the button itself, i was expecting to be greeted with a digital version of the physical ovens interface; a live read-out of cook mode, temperature, timer, water level, *beep volume control* and perhaps the name & details of the meal being prepared. How naïve. This isn’t some “dream oven come true!” No. This is real life. Its an instrument for capturing market share for producer / partners! So instead of useful information, controls, alerts & preferences that would actually be what the user needs, wants expects & really should have… we get ads! Yes advertising… lazy scrolling miles of additional entrees available for purchase through the subscription… yada bada nope. Great move mahogany row at (parent co. of Tovala). Once again, the free market sits on it’s own nu…
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Great, but…
I love the food I’ve tried a lot of different meal services and this one is the most delicious hands down with the least amount of effort! Oven cooks quick and for the time it takes to prep and cook I feel it flies by. Only thing keeping me from giving this 5 stars is the amount of updates the app needs on a weekly basis sometimes 3x since I purchased it don’t get me wrong not that it’s so bad! But recently I could not even cook my meals and had the worst time trying to get everything working had to not only reboot my phone but reboot the oven almost a dozen times due to having to sign out and reset everything only to run into the same problem and than talk to someone completely different about the same problem and get the same advise. Frustrating! Eventually got it to work but not what you want when your hungry!
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Response from developer
Hey Erica! Sorry about that, it's been a tough bug week this week and we've been shipping more updates than normal. I hear you though, the prompts are annoying. Version 1.9.91 will make them appear less often, and we'll be moving away from the prompt all together here shortly. If you don't mind, reach out to support so we can get some more information about your cooking issues. Thanks.
The oven is great, the app is horrible and bugged
Creating custom cooking times, it takes every step I put in and replaces it with steam. Also cannot edit cooking times without the app bugging out. Needs to “update” cooking times from V1 to V2 but it can’t do that again, because it takes every step and replaces it with steam. The app also doesn’t have sound notifications so when the oven is done cooking you’d better hope you’re looking at your phone or you’ll miss the notification. Can’t tell you how annoyed I am with this, how hard is it to make an app this simple work properly?
Edit: To the developer, the custom cook times that change themselves to steam only steam. The oven doesn’t cook the way it’s supposed to when it does that, and the incredibly runny eggs that come out of the oven when it does big out are proof.
Also the app keeps crashing when trying to adjust cook times for Tovala-provided recipes. The Jasmine rice should cook a few minutes less but when I try to adjust it, it crashes. Every. Single. Time.
Edit: To the developer, the custom cook times that change themselves to steam only steam. The oven doesn’t cook the way it’s supposed to when it does that, and the incredibly runny eggs that come out of the oven when it does big out are proof.
Also the app keeps crashing when trying to adjust cook times for Tovala-provided recipes. The Jasmine rice should cook a few minutes less but when I try to adjust it, it crashes. Every. Single. Time.
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Response from developer
Hey there, it's not great, but the all steam steps that you're seeing is actually the intended behavior. The converter that we've written to move Gen 1 recipes over to work on Gen 2 ovens utilizes varying levels of steam. All of the steps show up as "Steam", but they're more like "10% Steam", or "75% Stream". It's not ideal, especially if you're converting over a bunch of old recipes, but your food will cook correctly. If you have any questions please reach out to our Support team and we'll help out. Update: Hey, thanks for the response. I want to take a closer look at your account to investigate the crash, but I need you to chat in to our Support folks. Otherwise there's no way for me to look up your account. Let them know you've been corresponding via an app review and they'll get you over to me. Thanks.
Game Changer
I have tried everything under the sun to focus on eating out less and eating healthier. Meal prep, meal kits, fully prepared meals for the fridge, you name it I’ve tried it. This is the first thing that has stuck. So easy and quick to prepare your meal and the food is phenomenal - especially the pasta dishes. This has also helped me a ton with portion control. Also no clean up! As a single person who is very busy this has changed the game for me - I’m sold forever!
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Best decision we ever made!
My husband and I have very demanding jobs and a lot of times we do not get home until late in the evening. Tovala is so easy! Just pop it in the oven and dinner is ready in 20 minutes(sometimes leas than 20 minutes) we began this service when Covid started in 2020 and we look forward to our delivery every week. I especially like that they now have breakfast choices. We have tried them all and we were happy with each of them.
I got my mother started with Tovala. I just recommended Tovala to my coworker for her daughter in college so she would have quick healthy meals to eat instead of fast food.
I got my mother started with Tovala. I just recommended Tovala to my coworker for her daughter in college so she would have quick healthy meals to eat instead of fast food.
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Travel nurse review
I’ve been a travel nurse for 3 years. I’m a 40yr male that doesn’t like to cook. I’ve tried some of the other meal services. Nothing has tasted as good nor filled me up as much as Tovala IS DOING. I just sat down to a 17:30 cook time meal. Pork chop and potatoes. I feel like I’m eating in a fine dining restaurant that only opens after 5 pm. Everything was cooked to perfection and the potatoes which I didn’t think I would like the slaw vinaigrette dressing is absolutely amazing!!!! Try Tovala people!!!! Only thing I wish they did was have meals that I can microwave at work like pre packaged boxes. But I guess I could cook at home and take to work. Either way this is the best food I’ve had while traveling. Even down here in New Orleans
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a life saver!
I a nurse that works long 12 hour shifts. I wanted to eat a bit healthier but not hate the process and cut down on my fast food intake. This food is good enough to drive home for, in just a few weeks I've cut down my fast food dramatically. But it's more than that, these work for me as a picky eater. I pick the meals I want. The ingredients are individually wrapped in a neat little box so I can easily leave off onions because I hate onions. I can try new foods in a low pressure setting. I don't have to learn how to cook salmon myself, or go to a restaurant to try it and risk not liking it and either going hungry or sending it back (never, I've worked that job). It's excellent and I get excited for my deliveries every week. The portions don't seem large but they are actually perfect, the food is filling and delicious. And just like that without even trying I've lost a couple pounds but I don't feel like I've sacrificed anything.
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Pausing Meal Delivery until Forced Double Meal Order Changed
The customer experience has completely gone down the drain. I normally order 4 meals a week, exactly what can fit in my refrigerator. Lately though on select items (often the meals I want) they are forcing you to order TWO of them and marketing is as a savings (but they label it as a single meal). They don’t even give you the chance to order just one. So now if I want to get the meal I want I have to order two and throw one out because of being forced to overfill my fridge. This is a horrible experience because that food could go to someone hungry and it is also harming the environment with waste. Tovala needs to immediately let us pick if we want a single serving of a meal or choose the double meal option with savings. Now I have to order a 3 meal delivery that really is 5 with the two forced double orders and pay shipping which is completely unfair and unreasonable and a horrible experience. And then throw away a meal because I have no space to freeze it, which is their excuse they give you. I will be pausing all orders until this forced double meal ordering experience is changed.
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Response from developer
Hey there, we're not forcing double meal ordering, you can turn that on or off in your Meal Plan preferences. If you're talking about the new meals that include two servings, they come in the same size as a single meal, it's just that both trays are a full meal, so no extra space in your fridge needed.
LoveLoveLove
*We LOVE our Tovala meals! Only drawback is that there is no option for "family" meals, only individual meals limiting us in most cases to not being able to cook for more than 2 people at a time.
*We LOVE the recipes feature on the app, but the app DOES need work. There is an option to mark and save "favorite" recipes but they don't keep for some reason and the "favorites" section will be empty the next time we return to the app.
*We LOVE our Tovala oven, but wish it were at least a little bit bigger ... Honestly if I could get a residential sized Tovala oven with an induction cooktop on it for my kitchen I would be in 7th heaven!!!
Would be 5 stars if the app were fully functional, there were family meal options and the oven were larger.
*We LOVE the recipes feature on the app, but the app DOES need work. There is an option to mark and save "favorite" recipes but they don't keep for some reason and the "favorites" section will be empty the next time we return to the app.
*We LOVE our Tovala oven, but wish it were at least a little bit bigger ... Honestly if I could get a residential sized Tovala oven with an induction cooktop on it for my kitchen I would be in 7th heaven!!!
Would be 5 stars if the app were fully functional, there were family meal options and the oven were larger.
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Would not recommend
I was excited to try this product because a family friend swears by it. Unfortunately, my experience has been terrible. Let’s start with the oven itself. I got it on sale for $99. The site says it’s normally $299, but I never would have paid that for a glorified toaster oven. Easy to set up, and in theory saved me some counter space because it toasts (but does it???). The food: some good flavor, and a few options we really didn’t like. The cost per meal is too high. The food delivery: 3 weeks in a row, their delivery service mishandled our weekly shipment and delayed delivery 2-3 days beyond food safety windows. That meant that all that food had to be discarded and we had to scramble to meal plan after deciding to go with Tovala meals. They credited us in “Tovala credit” but after the 3rd botched delivery, it was pretty obvious we wouldn’t be doing this long term. In addition to that, the oven started leaking water. Spoke with customer service, and they canceled my meal plan. Later that day, I received a notification saying my order had shipped. When I reached back out, they told me it was too late to cancel. What a mess.
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