Too Good To Go reviews: we analyzed 1,000+ ratings — here's the real problem

Splitting reviews by merchant category and looking at the share of negative mentions in each one reveals a clear pattern:

At first glance, restaurant and bakery look similar. The key difference is in the type of complaint:

• •Bakery complaints are bounded. Worst case: yesterday's roll — annoying, not a health risk. Almost every negative bakery review says "hard," "dry," or "not enough." Nobody writes "I was afraid to eat it."
• •Supermarket complaints aren't. This is where the angriest reviews in the entire dataset live: moldy fruit, expired fresh goods, the feeling of paying to dispose of someone else's trash. These are the experiences that make people delete the app.

The single biggest finding from 1,000+ reviews: there is no such thing as "the Too Good To Go experience." There are only experiences with individual stores.

The same app reliably delivers full bags at one bakery for months — and regular disappointment at one supermarket. The average across all stores looks fine. But as a user you don't experience an average, you experience a lottery: which store you pick decides everything.

Too Good To Go itself frames this as part of the concept — the "surprise bag" is, after all, a surprise. That's an honest description of the model. But for users who get a bad bag, "surprise" starts to feel like an excuse. The reviews repeat some version of the same sentence over and over: "I want to rescue food — not pay to dispose of trash."

Notably, the most disappointed reviews don't come from bargain hunters — they come from people who genuinely care about the mission. Someone who wants to rescue food out of conviction, then finds mold in the bag, doesn't just feel underserved. They feel deceived.

If you use Too Good To Go or are thinking about it, the data suggests some concrete rules:

1. 1.Favor bakeries. The category with the most predictable downside — worst case, yesterday's rolls, still fine toasted.
2. 2.Be cautious with supermarket bags containing fresh produce. This is where variance is highest and the worst case is the most unpleasant.
3. 3.Stick with stores that have delivered before. The variance is between stores, not within one — a store that's been good three times usually is the fourth time too.
4. 4.Check the bag at pickup. If something's inedible, you can request a refund through the in-app help center — with a photo as evidence it usually works, per reviews, but takes time.
5. 5.Buy during off-peak hours. Popular stores sell out fast; you get the best selection right when bags unlock.

These rules make Too Good To Go noticeably more reliable. But honestly — it's still work that the platform itself should really be doing.

This analysis wasn't an academic exercise. It's the reason We The Food exists — and why we deliberately do two things differently:

• 1.Curated sellers instead of maximum selection. We deliberately favor categories with predictable downside — bakeries above all — and only work with sellers who keep one promise: edible, and fairly filled. Sellers who break that promise get removed. Less selection, no lottery.
• 2.A bag with a money-back guarantee. With us, you choose: the cheaper standard price — or a slightly higher price with a money-back guarantee if the bag doesn't deliver what it promised. Like adding travel insurance to a flight. If you like the surprise, you pay less. If you want reliability, you get it guaranteed.

We're small and new — we say that openly. If you want maximum restaurant selection, Too Good To Go is still the right app. If you want to rescue food for free, check out foodsharing.de. But if you love the idea and you're tired of the lottery: that's exactly why we built We The Food.