Things I love:
- Good deals.
- Surprises.
- Food.
As a result of these three loves, I am OBSESSED with the app TooGoodToGo. I promise, this is not a paid endorsement. It’s just one of my favorite things to use on a layover.
Basically, it’s an app where you can pay to get leftover food from restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores.
It’s amazing for a traveler who wants to try local cuisine but also wants to save money. (ME! It’s MEEEE!)
Basically the app will search by location and tell you what restaurants have “surprise bags” available in the next day or so. Often it will give you some clue of what to expect (such as “bread and pastries,” and you can filter the results to show you only meals, only bread and pastries, or only groceries.
It’s so fun!
Typically you’ll pay about 33% of the regular price for the food you get.
Users can rate their experience, so as a result it’s pretty easy to make sure you have a great experience. I personally try to stick with surprise bags with a rating of 4.5+. I typically get huge amounts of food (typically if it’s a “meal” bag it’s enough for two meals) for $5-6, and it’s good food!
TooGoodToGo is best to use in larger liberal “foodie” cities. (New York, San Francisco, etc). In smaller and more conservative areas you won’t find as many businesses that use ToGoodToGo.
The app is fantastic for flight attendants, with one HUGE caveat: The app uses the time zone that you are in while you’re using it! Twice now I’ve forgotten this, ordered food for the next day while on the west coast, and then been surprised when I got to the east coast and my food wasn’t ready when I thought it would be.
TooGoodToGo is best for people who eat a wide variety of foods and who don’t have dietary restrictions. You can filter for vegetarian options, but I don’t believe there is much for people with allergies or other food sensitivities.
I like to take my TooGoodToGo meals and enjoy them in a nice little local park.
Here’s some examples of recent TooGoodToGo scores:
In Chicago, I got a small pizza, medium Greek salad, and medium fruit salad all for $5. The best part? The park I ate it in had a Chicago Dog kiosk nearby and I noticed that I could have spent $6.50 for ONE hotdog, but I spent less and got a huge amount, good quality, and good variety of food!
In Hoboken, I got two huge Indian meals with rice, lentils/chickpeas, and chicken/beef. In this case, the cashier messed up and accidentally prepared me two boxes when I ordered one, but I sure was happy to get all that for $5!
In New York and New Jersey you can typically get a dozen bagels for $4, and sometimes they’ll even come with a little topping (usually not cream cheese, since it has a good shelf life! Think more like spicy tuna!).
So go…start using the TooGoodToGo app and enjoying fabulous local food at a discounted price!
Adventure Fam 
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