Do you ever miss the rare occasions when your parents would let you grab a box of Lunchables off the shelf? A handful of crackers, plastic cheese and a candy bar wouldn’t satisfy your hunger after a session of monkey bars, but who cares? You were overcome with joy.
For some inexplicable reason, influencers MrBeast, Logan Paul and KSI are attempting to recreate the nostalgia of Lunchables — and it’s a disaster. Lunchly first surfaced last September to push MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate brand and Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime beverage line, while attempting to rival Lunchables by offering meals with less sugar and calories. Despite much controversy surrounding both the influencers and the food, it’s now available at Target.
Currently, there are three types of Lunchly on the market, each retailing for $4.49. If you’re curious to see whether anything can match up to the perfectly mediocre experience of childhood Lunchables — and willing to shell out money for YouTuber food — here’s how they stack up from least to most edible.
3. Turkey Stack ‘Ems

You’d expect it to be impossible to mess up crackers, cheese and deli meat — yet somehow the Turkey Stack ‘Ems managed to be the least appetizing of the three offerings. The meal boasts six measly crackers that look like Ritz Crackers before taking “The Substance” — but without the classic, buttery taste of the real thing. You have the option to make three sandwiches, or Stack ‘Em’s, using the box’s little slices of cheddar cheese and turkey. The prospect of eating deli meat endorsed by a YouTuber is terrifying, but the reality is much worse. The turkey tasted solely like tap water and had the texture of a slimy leather belt. Lunchly loves to tell you that they use real cheese in their meals, but I don’t think any iteration of cheddar cheese is supposed to remind you of a zesty Kraft Single. The meal’s packaging says to “leave no crumbs,” which is impossible since those little crackers clearly weren’t made to withstand anything stronger than a gust of wind.
You can’t escape the off-putting meal by distracting yourself with the Prime Hydration Drink and Feastables it comes with either. The Turkey Stack ‘Ems pack serves the iconic red, white and blue Ice Pop Prime Hydration Drink, which somehow contains 400mg of electrolytes and 0g of added sugar. This is genuinely shocking because taking one sip of the drink feels like sticking your tongue in Fun Dip powder. If I had just run a marathon and a Prime Hydration Drink was the only thing at the finish line, I wouldn’t hesitate to pour it out on the street.
Feastables is already a widely hated chocolate brand, so much so that the brand announced reformulations in Feb. 2024. The little milk chocolate bar tastes like advent calendar candy you’d get at Five Below: waxy, bitter and, for some reason, unable to melt the same way a Hershey’s bar would.
2. Fiesta Nachos

There’s nothing too atrocious about the Fiesta Nachos outside of its name. It’s chips, salsa and queso blanco — definitely not a meal, but also not something that should irreparably damage your digestive tract. It tastes just fine: The salsa is just as watery and flavorless as you’d expect, but you don’t need to brace yourself before taking a bite. The part of the nachos that threw me off the most was the queso blanco, especially since it had a pink tinge. Unlike Paul, I guess I don’t like my cheese drippy, because I lost what little appetite I had as soon as I dipped a chip in the oobleck-textured queso. Luckily, the only flavor you get is plastic cheese, which is something you can overlook rather than outright fear. If you want to subject yourself to any Lunchly, this may be the safest option. However, the small serving size means it’s still not worth the money.
The Fiesta Nachos came with probably the worst Prime drink, and that’s saying a lot because the Ice Pop flavor is practically undrinkable. The strawberry and banana flavors battle harder than Paul and KSI at a boxing match to overpower the drink, making it a thoroughly confusing experience.
1. “The Pizza”

Eating “The Pizza” is like a game of Russian roulette: high risk, high reward. This meal is the sole cause of all of Lunchly’s controversy, specifically surrounding the use of real mozzarella cheese. While Lunchables uses preservatives in their packs to ensure that the ingredients don’t get moldy, Lunchly made it a point to not do that. Surprise, surprise: People found mold, even before its expiration date. If you’re willing to excuse the possibility of green cheese, though, you’ll find a pretty decent Lunchables dupe. The box contains three little pieces of bread to make your mini pizzas on, a packet of fake-tasting sauce and a few slices of pepperoni to top it off. The bread is a little dense and floury-tasting, but the finished pizza was pretty flavorful. The pepperoni is likely responsible since it provides a bit of spice — an anomaly compared to the rest of Lunchly.
“The Pizza” also gives you the most drinkable Prime flavor: Cherry Freeze. Like all Prime drinks, this one is still but overwhelmingly sweet, but has a taste that’s slightly more palatable. Even the Feastables bar offers some excitement, containing puffed rice that makes it comparable to a Crunch Bar.
I can’t in good faith endorse anything relating to Lunchly, but there’s a right and wrong choice when it comes to which box to pick. If MrBeast, Logan Paul and KSI have proved anything with this venture, it’s simply that talking into a camera is not a transferable skill to food services. If you’re looking for a very convenient lunch, though, try a Halal cart or even dollar pizza — Lunchly is a disturbance at best.
Contact Dani Biondi at [email protected].