New Trader Joe’s Garlic Gondolas Won’t Float Your Boat

I’m sure you’ve seen little bread-shaped loaves of bread before. The Greeks have peinirli, which are doughy little canoes absolutely stuffed with cheese and toppings. And in Georgia (the country, not the state), there’s khachapuri, aka bread boats filled with several gooey cheeses and a couple of sunny-side-up eggs. Both iterations are cute, incredibly tasty, and, dare I say, more practical than a traditional pizza.

Unfortunately, those delicious cheese-filled marvels may have set up Trader Joe’s Garlic Gondolas for a loss. These new bread boats, which come in two-packs in the frozen aisle, don’t come stuffed with stuff—there’s a “sprinkle” of grated cheese inside, along with a “gloriously garlicky, buttery sauce.” Seriously, “sprinkle” is generous compared to the actual amount of cheese in the gondolas. Even though the instructions tell you to bake them in the oven until the “cheese is melted and bubbly,” there’s no cheese to be found—and that’s just one problem. Here’s what we thought of the Trader Joe’s Garlic Gondolas.

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Trader Joe’s Garlic Gondolas

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Pros: I think these Garlic Gondolas would make an adequate foundation for a dish with more going on. If you were to add in a bit of pizza sauce, a handful of cubed pepperoni, and a bunch of shredded mozzarella, you might get a satisfying meal out of these bread boats. At the very least, you’d get some cheese out of the deal.

Cons: Well, we’ve already discussed the lack of cheese, but these Garlic Gondolas have other issues, too. The bread, which is sort of like pizza dough, is tough and dry and hard to bite through. The garlic flavor is bitter like raw garlic. If you want to make a pizza boat, buy a loaf of squishy, delicious, well-seasoned garlic bread and use that instead.

Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s

Rating:

4/10

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