Weeknight Winner: Is Trader Joe’s Ginger Shrimp Lo Mein Worth the Hype?

Trader Joe's Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein
Trader Joe’s Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein

Trader Joe’s, the place where culinary dreams and frozen nightmares coexist. Today’s contender in the frozen food Thunderdome is the new Ginger Shrimp Lo Mein. It claims to bring restaurant-quality Asian flavors to your dinner table, but let’s be real—how many of these frozen delights actually deliver on that promise? Is this the quick dinner solution we’ve all been waiting for, or just another soggy, ginger-scented disappointment? Let’s find out.

Trader Joe’s has introduced its new Frozen Ginger Shrimp Lo Mein, a dish that promises to bring the vibrant flavors of your favorite takeout directly to your dinner table, without the hassle of dialing for delivery. Marketed as a quick and convenient meal solution, this frozen entrée aims to combine tender shrimp, savory lo mein noodles, and a hint of ginger to create an Asian-inspired feast—all in the time it takes to reheat your microwave. But does it really deliver that restaurant level experience, or is it just another frozen folly?

Trader Joe's Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein bags
Trader Joe’s Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein bags

First Impressions

I really like the packaging of this product. It’s bright and colorful and vibrant. It’s clean and the image on the front is representative of what you will get in your bowl after you make it. Sometimes Trader Joe’s packaging is funky and it is hard to figure out what you’ll get after you make the dish, but not this one.

The food comes in two bags inside the main bag (Trader Joe’s loves their plastic packaging!). One bag holds the shrimp and ginger sauce and the other holds the noodles and veggies. The shrimp is raw so make sure you cook this one all the way through until the shrimp is opaque. It looks appetizing coming out of the bag and lots of brightly colored vegetables.

Trader Joe's Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein directions
Trader Joe’s Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein directions

Taste Test

There is only one way to make this on the bag of the bag and that is in an skillet or wok. Basically, you cook the noodles for a while and then at the shrimp package for a few more minutes until everything is completely done.

While I was cooking it, I was struck by how nice the the ginger aromas were coming out of the pan. This dish only takes a maximum of nine minutes to make. Everything came together quite nicely. I would not try to make this in a microwave, you would not get things to cook properly and it would probably take just as long.

Trader Joe's Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein nutrition
Trader Joe’s Shrimp and Ginger Lo Mein nutrition

There is three “servings” in this bag supposedly. Each one is 160 calories which I would hardly call a serving. 160 calories is a snack in my book. But when you add all three together, it’s 480 calories which is still a little on the light side, but for a smaller person it might be a full meal. At $5.99 for the full bag, that’s a decent price for a bunch of shrimp and noodles. I might buy two if you are sharing with someone or split it and supplement with something like Chicken Fried Rice or some Soup Dumplings

As you can see in the above picture, it is a quite attractive looking dish of noodles. The shrimp and veggies really stand out. I felt there was enough shrimp but there didn’t seem to be all that much vegetable matter. I might throw in a handful of Trader Joe’s Stir Fry Vegetables when I started to cook this.

The sauce is nice and thick and there isn’t too much, which is a common complaint for some Trader Joe’s dishes in the fact that your food sometimes is swimming in a sauce. The sauce clings to the noodles and shrimp in a nice way. It smells heavenly of ginger, garlic and shrimp.

I was skeptical that Trader Joe’s could pull this off, but I think they did a pretty good job. The sauce is full of ginger flavor and is a rich dark color that complements all the shrimp. The noodles seemed a little limp, but frozen noodles are never going to be a great thing.

Also, there is no heat to speak of so if you want to kick this into the hot territory, you’ll need some hot sauce like Sriracha.

Final Verdict

In the end, Trader Joe’s Frozen Ginger Shrimp Lo Mein isn’t a total bust, but it’s not winning any culinary awards either. The sauce is pleasantly flavorful, with just the right amount of ginger kick to keep things interesting, and the shrimp, while not spectacular, does its job well enough. However, the noodles lean on the softer side, and the glaring lack of vegetables leaves the dish feeling a bit one-dimensional. It’s a decent option for a quick, no-fuss meal, but it could definitely use a bit more crunch and variety to break up the monotony. Overall, it earns a solid 7 out of 10—worth a try, but don’t expect it to knock your socks off.

Trader Joe’s Ginger Shrimp Lo Mein

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *