Enjoy great food, low prices and fight food waste with the Too Good To Go app.
The popular app is a great way of rescuing food that would otherwise go to waste, meaning you can sample tasty food from local shops and businesses at discount prices.
Whether you want to learn how to save money on food, do good for the planet, or explore eateries in your area, discover how to use the app with our guide.
What is Too Good To Go?
More than one-third of all food goes to waste; the Too Good To Go app aims to save surplus food and tackle this statistic. And it's making its mark because the app has already spread to 17 countries.
The food-saving company teams consumers up with all kinds of businesses to sell their unused food at discount rates. These businesses include supermarkets, grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, hotels, and bakeries.
Instead of their unsold food being thrown away at the end of the day, app users in the area can pick items up at a great price. It’s a win-win for both businesses and users who can get a great deal while also rescuing excess food from landfill.
It's an easy and fun way to save money on food and there are so many options when it comes to picking up a surprise bag. You’ll be told exactly how much carbon and cash you’ve saved with each one. Become a regular user and you’ll run up a tally of your savings as a waste warrior.
How to use Too Good To Go
Download the app on your smartphone and register with your email and basic details. Select your local area from the map and drop the pin on where you’ll be picking up your surprise bags – whether that’s home or work.
Choose whatever distance you’d be willing to travel, depending on what transport you have available. As you zoom in, you’ll get an idea of how many Too Good To Go locations are near you, indicated by small green dots.
Taking a trip to a new city for a few days? Adjust your location within the app to see what variety of food options they have. This can be particularly lucrative in bigger and more populated cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham, where you’ll have a wealth of different options.
You’ll be automatically directed to the Discover tab when you open the app, where you can browse the options available in your area. These will be grouped in categories like Supermarkets, Meals, Baked goods, Groceries, Save before it's too late, Collect now and Collect for dinner.
Scroll through to see what’s available and click 'see all' to expand the options within a category. Here you’ll see how much you can save with each surprise bag, with prices usually around £2–£6, saving at least 30% on every order.
Each listing will give you a bit of information about the café, supermarket, or restaurant. You’ll see the distance from your dropped pin, the average rating out of five stars by other users, the collection times, and the price of the bag. It will also give you an idea of how many surprise bags are left at the location.
Head to the Browse tab and use the filter toggle to customise what you see. You can view surprise bags available for collection today or tomorrow and use the slider to adjust the collection window. This can be particularly useful if you’re a shift worker as you can take advantage of off-peak times.
There's also an option to show only vegan and vegetarian products and the type of bag you want: meals, bread & pastries, or groceries. Once the results come up you can sort by relevance, distance, price, and rating using the dropdown arrow at the top.
View your filtered preferences as a list or as a map to get a visual of where your local surprise bags are. Add or remove filters along the top and scroll across the listings at the bottom. As you scroll through, each location will be highlighted on the map.
Save your favourites by tapping the heart in the corner of the listing. These can be local shops you already visit and like, or places you’ve had good pick-ups with in the past. Find your favourites along the bar at the bottom to browse the places you love quicker.
Once you’ve decided what you want to pick up, simply click the Reserve button. If you haven’t already added a payment method, you’ll be asked to put in your details, otherwise you’ll simply need to confirm your reservation. Within minutes, you’ll get an email confirming your order (as well as an invoice) and a time window for your collection.
Pick up from the shop or restaurant within your collection time (usually a window of one to two hours), swipe the button on your order via the app and show it to a staff member. That’s it!
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What can you expect?
Too Good To Go UK feature a wide range of food suppliers and businesses. You can even discover new locations when you’re out and about – just look for the Too Good To Go sticker on the door of a restaurant or shop.
The selection of places to choose from will entirely depend on where you live or where you’re searching. As a general rule, the most popular places sell out quickly, often early in the morning for breakfast and lunch bags. The more popular a place, the more regularly you’ll want to check the app to be in with a chance of snagging a Too Good To Go surprise bag.
Restaurants & hotels
Too Good To Go UK is especially useful for discovering new local restaurants without splashing out on something you’re unsure about.
Although less common, you’ll sometimes find hotels listing food on Too Good To Go. Some of the chain hotels include Ibis and Holiday Inn, although you might also have local hotels offering up a discounted breakfast bag.
Supermarkets & shops
You’ll find local convenience shops like Londis, Spar, One Stop and Co-op to pick up surprise bags that can be handy for a quick snack or meal. These Too Good To Go surprise bags can include a variety of fruit and veg, ready meals, snacks, sandwiches, pastries and cakes.
As well as convenience shops, you can also find bigger supermarket chains like Morrisons, Little Waitrose, Aldi, and M&S Simply Food. These tend to be particularly popular for quality food at massively reduced prices, so you’ll have to be quick to get them.
Bakeries & cafes
Baked goods are fast sellers on the Too Good To Go app, with Greggs a particular favourite. You’ll also find other chains like Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Pret a Manger as well as local independent places. With a range of sandwiches, salads, soups, baked goods and other treats, you’ll often find the nicest food and best deals at these locations.
Who is it best for?
We found that Too Good To Go surprise bags were great for sharing between two or more people. Bear in mind that you’re rescuing food from being thrown away so what you’re picking up needs to be eaten quite quickly.
TopCashback staff member Lauren said: “My boyfriend’s brother gets them from Greggs often and gets loads of things (a baguette, donuts, three or four pastries, for example), so the bag can be shared by at least four people.”
If you’re getting a surprise bag that includes vegetables rather than snacks and ready meals, it might be a case of figuring out a meal you can make to include them. This can make it more difficult to use up certain ingredients in your surprise bag and require some creativity in reducing food waste.
Living in a less populated city can also make it more difficult for anyone with dietary restrictions such as vegan or vegetarian diets. We found that in smaller cities, once you applied a vegetarian or vegan filter, there were no surprise bags that matched these preferences.
So unless there’s a restaurant or café that specifically serves plant-based food, it might be difficult to find something that fits your specifications.
While many of the bags may contain food that you can eat, if there are items you don’t eat, it can be useful to have people you can share it with. Having neighbours, family, friends or colleagues to share unwanted items with can be a great way to use the app to reduce waste.
TopCashback staff member Grace said: “I am rather fussy so found that there was a lot of food that I didn’t like. I guess that’s the risk you have to be aware of when getting a mystery bag! I did live with eight other people at the time though, so anything I didn’t like was eaten by someone else.”
You should also consider that you might not get what you want if you’re trying to stick to eating a healthy diet.
Shelly at TopCashback pointed out: “I thought it would be nice to use it to reduce food waste, but I was put off from using it all the time, mainly because of putting on weight. It was a good price for the amount, but too many sugary items.”
How much can you save?
Most of the Too Good To Go bags you pick up will be priced between £2 and £6, although you’ll find some priced at £6+, depending on your location and the business. In general, you can expect to save at least 30% on your discounted food.
Some examples of big discounts from our staff members include:
Alex bought a Greggs bag in Stoke for £3 and received: four sausage rolls, a chicken & bacon baguette, a ham salad sandwich, and a Belgian bun.
Lauren bought an Auntie Anne’s surprise bag from Solihull for £5 and received three large pretzels, usually priced at £14 total.
Shelly bought a £5.75 Starbucks surprise bag from Uttoxeter and got: a ham and cheese croissant, a plant-based tomato melt toastie, a Cuban style panini, two caramel and pecan swirls, two cookies muffins, two banana loaves, two carrot cake slices, and a lemon muffin.
Too Good To Go tips
The food-saving app doesn’t actually save food (or money) if you end up not liking and throwing away what you’ve paid for. This is why there’s more to this than just knowing how to use Too Good To Go. Here are some of our top tips to help you reduce waste, enjoy great food and save money.
Use filters
There’s really no way to know what you’re going to get, so if you have restrictions on what you can eat, filters are your friend. This can be an advantage in narrowing down your search in a big city or a drawback in a smaller city where you may not have anything that matches your preferences.
Share with others
If you have dietary restrictions but still want to enjoy good food at low prices, have a plan to share with others what you can’t use. This can be anyone from others in your household, friends, family, neighbours or colleagues. Let them know before you collect so they’re ready to rescue surplus food.
The Too Good To Go app can be particularly helpful for students who want to save money and TopCashback staff member Grace said it was very useful to share anything she didn’t want with her flatmates.
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Save your favourites
If you’ve got a bakery you drive past on your way to work or a local supermarket that always has goodies, pop them in your favourites.
You can access your favourites quickly from the bar along the bottom and see how many surprise bags are left at your main locations.
Be flexible
Using Too Good To Go isn’t like picking up a normal food shop. The best way to enjoy the app is not to have expectations of what you’re going to get. Being flexible on the contents of your surprise bag and the time you’re able to go is a great way to get the most out of your experience.
Know your times
Popular surprise bags get reserved quickly, so keep in mind what times you need to check the app each day. Chains like Starbucks and Costa, as well as breakfast and lunch bags, often sell out before 9am. It’s still worth checking the app at all times of the day, though, as sometimes breakfast bags will become available the night before.
Rate and review
Each listing features a rating system out of five stars, which gives you an idea of what other users thought of their surprise bags. Rate and review your experience every time you collect to give other users in your area an understanding of what they can expect from a store or restaurant.
Stick to your collection slot
One of the great things about the Too Good To Go app is how easy it is to use. After you’ve reserved a bag, you’ll be sent an email and will have an order status within the app to let you know what time you need to collect. Make sure you stick to this time so your bag is ready and the shop is still open.
Cancel in plenty of time
Sometimes, your plans might change and you’ll need to cancel a reservation. Cancelling a Too Good To Go surprise bag is completely fine as long as you do it at least two hours before your collection time. Simply head to your receipt within the app to cancel your order so the shop can re-allocate your bag.
Use in other locations
Even if your hometown is a little low on options, it can be worth using the app anytime you’re away. Whether it’s a day trip to London, a weekend in Edinburgh or even a holiday abroad, open the app to see what’s available.
Too Good To Go is available in 17 countries, meaning you could not only save money on food but also discover new restaurants when you’re on holiday.
Turn on push notifications
On the rare occasion you’ve ordered a surprise bag and the shop sells out, you’ll be notified via push notification.
Bring your own bag
While most of the stores will provide packaging for your collection, why not reduce waste by bringing your own carrier? When you show your swiped receipt at pick-up, let them know you’ve brought your own bag so they don’t need to provide one.
Look, smell, taste
You might find a new label on your Too Good To Go bags, reminding you to ‘Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t waste’. Food packaging often comes with Best Before and Use By labels to determine shelf life, but they aren’t always 100% accurate. If you use your own judgement and follow this motto, you’ll get a better indication of whether your food is still okay to be eaten.
Our final thoughts
When we asked our staff members at TopCashback, we got plenty of feedback from people who use and love the Too Good To Go app. Many of them said they had never had a bad experience, while others mentioned that there were too many drawbacks to use it on a regular basis.
Too Good To Go UK is, overall, a great way to save money on food. Staff member Neil said his niece used it to eat cheaply in London and plenty of people mentioned the cost of living as their reason for using it.
Saving money on food doesn’t necessarily mean buying cheap, poor-quality foods and the app provides a great way to get quality food at huge discounts.
Too Good To Go can also be a fantastic way to discover new restaurants in your area, like staff member Alex who picked up two yummy meals from his local Thai place.
Have you used the Too Good To Go app? Whether it was to save money, save food or try something new, let us know your thoughts on the free app and your favourite reasons for using it.
i dont like waste i want to join
Hi Carole,
Hopefully you’ve found some good tips in this article. To join Too Good To Go, you’ll need to download the app on your smartphone then set your location and preferences. Make sure to use our advice and tips to make the most of it 🙂
~Amy
good for helping people
We definitely agree!
~Amy
How long before collection time can the store cancel the order
Hi there,
Sometimes the store can run out of the stock they had listed. If this is the case, they can cancel up until two hours before the beginning of the collection window.
~Amy
Hi I have overall had good experiences with the app. Sometimes the stores have had me wait 20-30 mins past when bags were meant to be ready, on other occasions I arrived to collect hot food for my children and the staff were rude telling us to go away there wasn’t anything but no cancellation was sent out ( in fairness the staff member was being rude to many people). On another occasion at a different store I was given three items none of which I could eat however my parents were able to utilise.
On the positive side I like the surprise element, usually staff are friendly, I help stop waste, we can try new things without wasting lots of money, some bags are really worth the money, some places cook the food fresh whilst you are stood there (it should be one of their selling points). I promote the app to others.
I have a query. I introduced my parents to too good to go, now they get a free bag for every 9 they buy; I have never had a free bag n all the time I’ve been with you. Is there a reason they get a free bag but I don’t please? Thanks
Hi Jayne,
We’re glad you like using the app! Sorry to hear about the bad experiences at select stores, it seems like that’s more an issue with store management and customer service than how the Too Good To Go app works? It’s a good idea to review your experience with every pick up to let others know what to expect, both good and bad.
Too Good To Go is definitely great for reducing waste and, like you said, you can share with others if you get items you don’t like 🙂 We’ve never heard of any free bag systems unfortunately! You can contact the company directly to find out more, as we don’t have any information on this.
Hope this helps and thanks for your comment.
~Amy