A big thumbs down from me! (Asda Smartprice Ravioli)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	Asda Smartprice Ravioli
Date:	21/05/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Tastes bad

I tend to buy this every now and again but every time I eat I am reminded of the fact that it's cheap rubbish and don't pick it up again for a while. In my opinion this is one of Asda's own brand that really does not cut it which is quite odd for me because I love the smartprice range usually.

It costs around 20p for a tin of this and on the tin it is described as beef ravioli in a tomato sauce. It is obviously only available from Asda but I'm pretty sure most other supermarkets have a cheap alternative too.

When you open the tin you are hit with the smell of the tomatoey sauce and to be honest that is all you can see. The ravioli is no where to be seen at this point. The sauce is quite watery which I was quite surprised at because I find that the baked beans that they produce are fantastic and don't have this problem at all.

The ravioli itself are around one inches by two inches and when you tip the contents from the tin, you will find that they are few and far between. They are made with white pasta so have a creamy colour to them if you scrape off a bit of the sauce.

Heating the ravioli is pretty straight forward in theory. You pop it in a pan and heat on the hob or microwave it for around three minutes. I say 'in theory' because I find that this product doesn't actually heat up all that well. I never heat mine in the microwave anymore because I find that the sauce heats up within seconds and starts to bubble and burn and the ravioli ends up being stone cold. Even when I heat this on the hob I have to do it on the lowest heat so that the ravioli is consistent with the sauce. I also have to keep stiring it through because the parcels stick to the bottom of the pan which is a bit inconvienient for me because I always have things to do!

The parcels are nice and soft and easy to cut open or mash which can be a problem when you are consistently stirring whilst heating it up on the hob. They taste very mediocre but because they are quite soft I find it a nice comforting food; a bit like mash potato. I wouldn't say they taste very 'beefy' but when you do cut them open you can see the meat although there isn't a high percentage of actual meat inside (2.5g).

Like I have already said, the tomato sauce is watery and doesn't taste very tangy or nice. The whole thing looks like a very badly made soup and even if you have it on toast you end up with a plate that is pooling with red stuff.

Over all I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone and through writing this review, I have convinced myself never to go near them again!!!

Summary: Not the best product in the Smartprice range.