TooGoodToGo

The TooGoodToGo app was created to avoid food waste. It allows restaurants to sell leftover food at the end of the day instead of letting it go to waste.

You simply pick how many bags you want to pick up the next day, or if there is any left, today. Some places are incredibly popular and their bags get snapped up in seconds.

I found that if they have a pickup window of 6pm-7pm, start checking shortly after 7 and keep on refreshing and you might get lucky. New deals seem to get posted 15 minutes after the end of the pickup window.

I think this is my best deal yet. It's from Neillios Catering in Lexington. Chicken Marsala with two sides. The app promised $15 for $4.99 and the dinners normally sell for $14.95. The chicken was cooked as well as it could be and was almost pink inside. The mushrooms were super fresh and not the black shriveled-up stuff you see in so many Chinese restaurants. Generous servings of the tasty sides.

Also from Neillios was a fruit salad and a big piece of grilled salmon. The salmon sells for $9.95, so this was also good value. Unfortunately, all the melon pieces were unripe, so they were only partly edible. The salmon was cooked perfectly.

Another bag I really liked was a Biryani from Hot Breads in Woburn. I thought they didn't serve Indian food anymore, since the website doesn't mention cooked food at all. The Chicken Biryani was gigantic, and it was easily 3-4 meals. Not bad for $3.99. This is just the top of the container and what was in the cover. Even after removing all this, the container still looks full. I managed to stop them from microwaving the bowl since I could do that at home. Be aware that there are bones and bone splinters involved.

My first bag was from Carol's Cafe in Wakefield, and the crispy chicken rollup was fine, but the homefries were terrible. Burnt and with thick black skins left on. Since they cook the food to order, the next time I asked for fries instead, and they were excellent. They have a pickup window of 1-2, but she said that you could stop in earlier if you wanted.

DeliWorks in Stoneham will give you 3 (big) slices of pizza for $3.99. A slice sells for $2.69 so you get $8 worth of food. A little bit short of the promised $12 but still 50% off. 

There is a FB Group where people post pics of what they got. I found it really useful, and they are also very helpful if you have questions.

If it says nothing today, well nothing today. If it says Check back later, start checking at 4:30. Iggy's will post either at 4:30 or 4:45:00 and sell out fairly quickly. Not as quick as Butternut, I have now tried for several days, but they sell out in seconds. You can also suggest places to add to them in the app. Overall, I'm very pleased with the app and think the concept is brilliant.