The Best Frozen Dinner Brand On The Market Likely Makes Your Favorite Pasta Sauce

While you may not think of frozen meals as anything other than a fast, convenient alternative to cooking, there are actually some brands that elevate the concept significantly. To find out which box to reach for the next time you're in the freezer aisle of your local grocery store, Tasting Table tested and ranked 18 frozen dinner brands from worst to best. The overall winner is a brand name you may recognize as responsible for your favorite pasta sauce. 

Rao's Made for Home dinners earned top marks in our taste-test, beating out 17 other highly recognizable brands. You may not know that Rao's makes frozen meals, as most people are familiar with the brand primarily for its incredibly flavorful jarred pasta sauces. Yet the company is also behind a range of frozen Italian food staples, including meat lasagna, chicken parmesan, five-cheese pizza, and meatballs and sauce. Its products are elevated by a foundation of rich, savory, and flavorful sauces that are perfectly seasoned. Though the portions are smaller than other frozen dinner brands, the quality is so far ahead of the curve that it's more than worth trying one for yourself. 

In a Tasting Table ranking of all of Rao's frozen entrées, we placed its penne arrabbiata at the top of the list. It was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, and the fact that it was reheated from frozen did nothing to diminish the taste and quality of the sauce or the texture of the penne pasta. Plus, it was made even better with its spicy sausage and high-quality, creamy mozzarella cheese. 

Rao's frozen meals can be found at Target, Stop & Shop, and Whole Foods. On Amazon, certain frozen dinners available via Whole Foods have ratings between 4.2 and 4.5 stars. However, some people have noticed a decline in quality since Rao's was purchased by Campbell soup for nearly $3 billion. Sovos Brands, the company that makes Rao's products, was bought by Campbell Soup in 2023. Despite the fact that Campbell stated it wouldn't make any changes to the ingredients or recipes, some customers claim that Rao's sauce has changed after Campbell's bought it. Whether that is because they were anticipating a difference post-acquisition or the recipes were actually altered by Campbell's in an effort to decrease production costs, it's impossible to say.

In a review of Rao's Chicken Parmesan posted to the subreddit r/frozendinners in August 2025, a customer rated the product six out of 10 and asked, "Has anyone else noticed a decline in quality recently?" One person responded, "Campbell's kills everything. Several of my coworkers come from Pacific Foods and they all left after the acquisition." Another commenter added, "Ahh that's why their spaghetti carbonara was so awful." 

Yet in a different review of Rao's frozen dinners posted to r/frozendinners in November 2024, a customer rated Rao's meat lasagna a nine out of 10. One Redditor commented, "[Rao's] has some excellent frozen meals. My favorite is the cheese ravioli," and another chimed in to say, "Definitely the best frozen lasagna you can get." All in all, it's worth trying Rao's for yourself to see if you like any of the meals as much as we did.