Vote now! Readers' Choice Awards Best Supermarket Prepared Foods of 2026

You have the cravings. They hit out of nowhere and won’t go away until you get a taste. When someone else who just gets it also says the words “I could go for some [insert the name of your favorite grab-and-go dish]” you’re already grabbing your car keys.

Every family or friend group has a version of this—a dish or item from the supermarket prepared food section that becomes a need on certain occasions. Maybe it’s fried chicken, gumbo, sushi, or an Italian buffet that’s become a shared tradition.

As part of this Readers’ Choice Awards, we picked 16 grocery chains whose prepared foods have earned loyalty from readers like yours. We want to know what yours is and hear all about what makes it special.

Voting period ends on Sept. 9, 2026. We'll announce the winners on Sept. 17.

Vote for the best supermarket prepared foods!

Nominee #1: Bashas'

Southwestern comfort food is the specialty our team kept coming back to at Bashas', the Arizona grocer that Eddie Basha's family opened as a single store back in 1932 and has since grown to more than 100 locations statewide. The chain has stayed true to its regional roots, building its prepared foods program around scratch-made items and, in some markets, partnerships with local Mexican restaurants to stock ready-to-eat dishes.

Several panelists specifically called out the commitment to Southwestern staples like tamales and green chile pork as the reason Bashas' earns a spot most national chains can't compete with on regional authenticity.

Nominee #2: Erewhon

Long before it became a celebrity magnet, Erewhon started in Boston in 1966 as a macrobiotic health food store founded by Michio and Aveline Kushi. It has since relocated entirely to Los Angeles and become almost synonymous with L.A. food culture. The 13 locations (and four more slated for the coming months) showcase what our experts described as a reputation for chef-prepared hot dishes, tonic bars, and heat-and-eat meals built on organic ingredients. The Fairfax District store, open since 1969, remains the chain's flagship and the clearest link to its original wellness-first mission. It isn't cheap, our panel was quick to add, but their high standards for ingredients are exactly why reviewers keep putting it on best-of lists despite the price tag.

Nominee #3: The Fresh Market

Grab-and-go has new meaning at The Fresh Market. Founded in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1982, its "Little Big Meal" program pairs a rotating selection of an entree plus bistro-style sides for a full family dinner, an idea our reviewers say has helped the chain build a reputation well beyond its East Coast roots as it's expanded into new markets nationwide.

Panelists ranked The Fresh Market near the top for prepared meals across the board, and the consensus was that the format's reliability matters just as much as the taste.

Nominee #4: Fresh Thyme Market

Clean-label eating extends straight into the prepared foods case at Fresh Thyme Market, the Midwest chain Chris Sherrell launched in 2014 with its first store in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Fresh Thyme has grown to roughly 70 stores across 10 Midwestern states, and our team noted that its heat-and-eat meals and rotisserie options lean into the same natural-foods positioning that defines the rest of the store. That alignment between the shelves and the prepared case is what caught our reviewers' attention when they discussed why Fresh Thyme made the cut.

Nominee #5: Gelson's Markets

Gelson's doesn't do anything halfway. The Southern California chain, which Eugene and Bernie Gelson opened in Burbank back in 1951, has built a reputation for gourmet hot bars and chef-crafted dinner entrees across its 27 stores.

According to our experts, the sushi bar quality here rivals dedicated restaurants rather than a standard supermarket counter, a combination of scale and quality our experts called out specifically, especially given how curated the section feels compared to bigger national grocers.

Nominee #6: H-E-B

H-E-B has stacked up more prepared foods sub-brands than most chains manage in a lifetime, including Meal Simple, Sushiya, and True Texas BBQ. The Texas grocer, which dates back to Florence Butt's 1905 Kerrville, Texas store, offers hundreds of chef-inspired heat-and-eat options alongside sushi counters made fresh daily and full smokehouses serving genuine brisket inside select locations.

Our reviewers were struck by the range—a five-minute microwave meal and an actual barbecue joint under the same roof—and several panelists said that diversity alone was reason enough to nominate H-E-B.

Nominee #7: Hy-Vee

Picture a grocery store with its own restaurant row, and you've basically drawn Hy-Vee. Flagship locations of the Midwest chain, started by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in a small Iowa building in 1930, now house a genuine dining lineup under one roof—HyChi for Asian cuisine, Nori Sushi, and the chain's own Market Grille among them.

Our team has watched that business model earn Hy-Vee consistent press for reinventing what a grocery store's food section can look like, and the ambition behind it is what our experts cited as the clearest reason it belongs on this list.

Nominee #8: Lowe's Foods

Watching your food get made is half the fun at Lowes Foods. The North Carolina chain, which has grown from a single 1954 store in North Wilkesboro to nearly 80 locations across the Carolinas and Georgia, overhauled its stores in 2013 with concept stations like Chicken Kitchen, SausageWorks, and a dedicated smokehouse. That build-in-front-of-you energy, our reviewers say, is exactly what regulars have come to expect, and several panelists thought it has made Lowes Foods a regional draw rather than just a place to grab a rotisserie chicken.

Nominee #9: Lunds & Byerlys

There's a reason the Twin Cities treat Lunds & Byerlys feels more like a culinary institution than a grocery store. Formed when Russell T. Lund III's family business acquired Byerly's in 1997 and fully unified under one name in 2015, the Minnesota chain built its prepared foods case around self-serve soup and salad bars, fresh sushi, and a "Ready to Heat" line of restaurant-quality meals.

Our panel pointed to that program specifically, and more than one reviewer brought up the 143-seat in-store restaurant and bar the chain once ran at its Wayzata location as proof of just how far its culinary ambition extends.

Nominee #10: Market District

Full bars. Chef-led cooking stations. An actual dining room. Market District has never treated "grocery store food" as a compromise. Giant Eagle launched the upscale banner in 2006 with its first two stores near Pittsburgh, and the chain now operates 21 locations, several of which include full in-store restaurants alongside an extensive prepared foods department.

Reviewers were impressed by that restaurant-grade approach, calling it a gem in a region with plenty of grocery competition, and our panel's consensus was that Market District's willingness to build full dining concepts within its stores earns it a spot here.

Nominee #11: Meijer

Hypermarket scale doesn't usually come with culinary ambition attached, but Meijer is the exception. Hendrik Meijer founded the Midwest chain in Greenville, Michigan, in 1934, and it later pioneered one of the first true American hypermarket formats. Its Frederik's by Meijer line offers an elevated take on prepared meals across the deli, and select stores have added in-store sushi and craft beer bars through a partnership with Hissho Sushi. Our team flagged both everyday scale and an upgraded prepared foods option as Meijer's edge over other big-box grocers.

Nominee #12: Publix Super Markets

Fried chicken built Publix a following all on its own. The employee-owned chain, founded by George W. Jenkins in Winter Haven, Florida, in 1930, spent decades evolving its deli from simple lunch meats in the 1950s into a full prepared foods program. Customized sandwiches arrived in 1992, with companywide fried chicken following soon after, both becoming instant favorites according to our reviewers. Today the case pairs that chicken with rotisserie meats, Southern hot sides, sushi, and pre-packaged family dinners, and our panel was unanimous that this steady, decades-long build-out is why the prepared foods section feels so dialed in.

Nominee #13: Rouses Markets

Jambalaya, gumbo, and boiled seafood—this is not a supermarket hot bar phoning it in. Rouses Markets, the Louisiana chain Anthony J. Rouse Sr. founded in Houma in 1960 on the back of a family grocery business dating to 1923, has leaned hard into Cajun and Creole cooking across its 76 stores in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It even opened a location with its own drive-thru fried chicken concept, Houma da Chicken, in 2023. Regional specificity stood out to our reviewers most, and it's why we ranked Rouses as the Gulf Coast's clearest standout.

Nominee #14: Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace

Roughly 1,000 scratch-made items come out of the kitchen at Uncle Giuseppe's Marketplace every single day. Brothers Carl and Philip DelPrete and partner Tom Barresi opened the first location in 2001 after running East Meadow Farms since 1998. And the chain—now a dozen stores across Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey—built its identity entirely around Italian cooking: baked pasta classics, chicken parmigiana and francese, and family-size trays meant for reheating at home.

Our team of experts was won over by that sheer number of house-made dishes, earning Uncle Giuseppe's its nomination.

Nominee #15: Wegmans Food Markets

The "food hall" label gets thrown around loosely these days, but Wegmans earns it. Brothers John and Walter Wegman started selling produce from a cart in Rochester, New York, in 1916; today, the Market Café anchors many of the chain's 114 stores with chef-driven stations, extensive hot and cold buffets, and in-house sushi. Longtime fans consistently describe it as their go-to stop on road trips, our reviewers found, citing the bakery and dessert selection alongside the prepared foods as reasons to detour.

Nominee #16: Whole Foods Market

Hot and salad bars are everywhere in grocery stores now, but Whole Foods Market is pretty much the reason they exist at all. John Mackey and Renee Lawson opened the first Austin, Texas, natural foods store in 1978, long before it grew into the roughly 500-store chain Amazon acquired in 2017, and the prepared foods section has stayed true to that original clean-ingredient focus ever since. Shoppers consistently rank the hot bar and sushi as the best in the business, and our reviewers agreed.

Vote for the best supermarket prepared foods!

Our Experts

BethEllen Clausen

Clausen is a freelance writer with a heavy emphasis on art and culture. She is a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the LA Wine Writers, and she writes for Food, Wine and Travel Magazine, the Napa Valley Wine Academy, and Costco Connection. You can read more about Clausen's experiences at her website, Organic Wine Travel.

Susan Lanier-Graham

Lanier-Graham is an award-winning food, wine, and travel writer with more than three decades of experience exploring destinations around the world. She has visited luxury resorts, boutique properties, and hidden gems across six continents, bringing a discerning eye to every stay. As publisher of Wander With Wonder, she leads an award-winning digital publication that inspires readers to discover exceptional travel experiences. Her work blends firsthand insight with a passion for storytelling, offering trusted recommendations on where to stay, dine, and explore. Susan’s expertise helps travelers confidently choose destinations that transform trips into unforgettable, experience-rich journeys.

Reviewed Editors & Experts

Reviewed editors and experts have hard-earned insight from a broad range of backgrounds, and our nomination panel includes independent researchers, subject matter experts, and editorial team members. We provide unbiased, experiential editorial coverage on products, brands, and companies across the U.S.