Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls review

The comforting allure of Chinese food from the double comfort of my own home, speaks massively to my lazy, oh so lazy nature. Sure I could head out into the world, order delivery or even cook my own from scratch. But ready in minutes from the freezer? Sold!

Or maybe not. Try as I might, I could not enjoy these egg rolls from Tai Pei. This is one of the few products where the last few pieces simply went into the garbage unwanted, uneaten and unloved. Can you tell how disappointed I was yet?

Given their ubiquity at just about every grocery store I frequent I thought there *must* be some secret or trick to these egg rolls. Nope. They’re just plainly poor. Just forget microwaving them right away. The result is a soggy soul destroying mess. Just forget it ok.

This is the result of the egg rolls right out of the oven per the packaging instructions:

As you can see in the lower picture, the interior ingredients are formed in a roll of sorts, and inevitably separate from the exterior shell. Between those two elements, I always found a displeasing mushiness of sorts; presumably from slightly undercooked casing; regardless of my cooking technique this was present in some fashion.

The interior ‘roll’ is a reformed mix of chicken and veggies, and has little to write home about. You’d be hard pressed to know this was chicken closing your eyes. Moreover, the flavor can be described as forgetful at best.

The best texture I could manage was via the air fryer. This the result of the egg rolls air fried at 400F for ten minutes in my Cosori. This method helped to tame some of the interior mushiness, but not entirely. And as you can see from the pictures, I didn’t want to go too much longer as things were starting to burn:

The accompanying sauce doesn’t fare much better. It’s a cloyingly sweet and slightly acidly acrid mix that I took one taste of and consigned to the garbage.

My simple advice would be to skip these egg rolls. If you’re craving Chinese food and in a rush, I’d wager your local favorite restaurant could deliver in not much more time than it takes to cook these in the oven anyway. And if you can’t find a local restaurant that can’t beat these, then we’ve got another problem entirely!

Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls cooking instructions

Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls nutrition and ingredients

Other Tai Pei products

• Tai Pei Chicken Egg Rolls review

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.  I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.

I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years.   I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen.  Follow along on Instagram too!