101 Piece Play Food Assortment Reviews

• I'm not impressed... you get what you pay for I suppose, yet I still feel cheated

  
  By A3R7RE5O61M112 on 2005-12-28
  I love step2 products, my daughter is only 2 yrs old but we already have MANY of their items. We decided to get her the lifestyle deluxe kitchen for the holidays this year & needed to get her some playfood to go along with it, I really wanted wooden sets but after spending over $200 on the kitchen I decided I'd go with the step2 plastic... big mistake! As another reviewer mentioned there is no retail packaging, they come in plastic bags. The plastic pieces are tiny, very thin, and sized strangely (ie a banana is smaller then an egg etc), the "boxes" are a joke, they are smaller and weaker then your typical snack size raisin box... I didn't even dare give them to my toddler as they'd have been ruined in 2 seconds. The "jars" are also very small and instead of interesting as one reviewer said they are just odd, disgusting sounding food items and very boring design. Having nothing else on hand I did give these to my daughter, she seems to like them well enough but I will be buying her some wooden playfoods soon and tossing these up on ebay or a garage sale. Not recommended.
  
  

• very detailed

  
  By A3IA6BJPGHRRAR on 2005-01-21
  My 16 month old loves her new groceries. The produce & sandwich parts are plastic & each piece has a wonderful texture. The canned goods are very interesting to read. They are actually labeled by a supermarket in the UK, so they are a bit different from the groceries you would find in the US. I put the cardboard frozen food items away until she is older. She has been entertained at length because each piece is so intricate. This was a great purchase.
  
  

• Food is Much Smaller Than Anticipated & Poor Quality

  
  By A3S3GGVSMN1BDM on 2005-11-28
  If you are looking for play food that is like little tikes or fisher price, this is not it!! There is a reason you get 101 pieces for 19.99!! These pieces are much smaller and made from a thinner cheaper plastic. Not at all what i expected from a quality company like step 2. To top it off, this set does NOT come in a retail box but is cheaply packaged in plastic bags. I am sure my daughter doesn't mind these are cheaply made or small but i sure as heck do. I could have bought a Kidconnection set from walmart for less money and maybe even of better quality!
  
  

• Not so Great

  
  By A1I5CZYS2Y9H5E on 2006-03-10
  It seems like a nice complete set of playfood, except that the boxes are really flimsy cardboard, and I've thrown most of them out already. It doesn't take much to crush them. There are much nicer sets out there, and there are separate pieces sold on ebay, that are probably used but will stand the test of your kids much better. Not worth the money.
  
  

• Cheaply made! Not what it appears to be!

  
  By A2QPVMTLNKJU8W on 2006-01-05
  I agree with a previous review that you get what you pay for. But in the future I would highly recommend paying more once instead of having to replace this food in a few months or so. We received this as a gift and from the outside it looked like an great choice! I was very happy. But we have had this package of food for about one week and I am already taping boxes with packaging tape to keep them together. Little hands can pull apart the milk, juice and snack boxes in no time. The cans of food are so small that they topple over easily in the play kitchen. The pies, pizza, and such food are all actually hollow underneath. There is no base to them. They tell you 101 pieces but in our kit it counted 8 hotdogs (without buns), 12 individual french fries and the same on potato chips. Not necessary especially since you also get two french fry packets in a french fry container and you get a hot dog in a bun separately. Why would my child want four jalepenos too. So much of this food is not they type of thing a small child would be familiar with. Anyway, in my opinion spend the money on a smaller quantity of higher quality food or go online and find the "vintage" Fisher Price or Little Tikes food. Now those are made to last and of good size for small hands.
  
  
• Awesome Play Food!!!!
  By A1RBQE7HH31KK7 on 2006-01-19
  I did A LOT of research on the Internet regarding play food before I bought this set. This set offers the largest variety of foods, covering all of the food groups, with minimal amount of desserts (I want a healthy eater). This play food set has eggplant, cauliflower, asparagus, chicken, steak, ham, hot dogs, hamburger, bacon, pineapple, lemon, honeydew and musk melons, any many more items - an incredible selection of foods. I received exactly what was shown in the picture on the Internet. The food is very high quality and just the right size for a play kitchen to fit on the play plates. My daughter, husband and I have a great time with this food. She loves making us breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. She also likes to put it in her shopping cart that we had purchased separately and ring the food up with a pretend cash register.
  
  As for comments on the packaging...packaging costs money which is built into the cost of the food. That is why this food doesn't cost a lot, because Step 2 saves money on packaging. Plus most people toss packaging anyways after opening an item. The packaging is clear plastic so you can see all of the items.
  
  This set has a larger variety of food than Little Tikes, Fisher Price, and Just Like Home (I never saw anything about Kid Connection play food during my research). The person who received 8 hot dogs, 12 french fries, etc. should contact Step 2 and ask for a reship. There must have been a mistake made when packaging was done (probably a rush for holidays orders). You should get exactly what is shown on the Internet.
  
  I hope this review helps everyone. Have fun with this food! It is a GREAT buy!!
  
  
  
• My daugter was 2 1/2
  By A297YB8DKP5157 on 2005-10-21
  My daughter was 2 1/2 when I gave this to her. I use it to teach her food groups and to encourage her to taste the real version. Pretend "invisible" food is fun, but for a little one who has a lot to learn about different foods, to touch and to see is worth 1000 words!
  
  
• Fun, Interesting Food
  By A185CY2CVBKRWD on 2007-05-07
  I purchased this set for my 21 month old to accompany the Little Tikes shopping cart. I was looking for a set of play food with variety. I found it interesting that the company for the food products is British, and so there are cans and jars of food that Americans normally would not see or have heard of. Probably why some of it sounded disgusting to another reviewer. My daughter doesn't care. She just sees the photos on the products. It was a great learning tool because as she upacked all of the food (especially the non-boxed and canned foods) she named each item correctly. And learned the names of some new foods, such as asparagus. It provides her with a great variety of foods and she enjoys "cooking" with them. Yes, there is a bottle of "brown sauce", but she thinks it ketchup. I'm certainly not going to correct her. And to compliment the items, I taped up an empty box of butter that we used, an empty Magic Eraser box (she loves Mr. Clean for some reason) and she goes to town. Now I'm looking for the perfect kitchen set and she will be totally equipped for shopping and cooking! I highly recommend this set based on the value for the money and what is currently available. One of the drawbacks is that some of the pieces are small (like single french fries) - you can always put them aside based on the age of your child.
  
  
• Better than we expected
  By AMUUBLX8VWYC4 on 2007-01-10
  We bought this set for our 2-year-old for Christmas to go with her new Little Tykes Shopping Cart and she LOVES it!
  
  My first thought was "Great, like we need 101 pieces of ANYTHING around the house," but she really does love it, and the plastic pieces have helped her learn the names of foods she did not know before like "asparagus."
  
  I do wish the plastic food pieces were a little bigger, as they are quite small, maybe about 2-3" tall as opposed to the 4-5" tall versions we are used to seeing. My daughter has pulled most of the paper labels off of the "cans" and the cardboard boxes were pretty much history the minute they hit the door. The whole point though is to foster the imagination, which they certainly do.
  
  
  
• Play food is my second favourite kind of toy!
  By AZ0REUZUQZND4 on 2006-04-11
  Yum...play food! This is a great set. I will buy it as soon as I find it. This is a great set! Lots of cans (good for storage), ice cream, boxed treats, cookies, (yummy), and of course, much more. And who could resist the spaghetti with meatballs? And is that chocolate chips on the ice cream? Oh my gosh, it's better than I thought.
  You might think that to have a good time, your child needs 40 dollar Melissa and Doug wooden play food with real cutting noises and a Fisher Price 100 dollar kitchen for imaginative play. Bullpies, I say. I have tons of dollar-store food. I have ultra-realistic foam food from a kitchen set I got. I prefer the dollar store food. Dollar store food is better because it has more in one package, looks real, is cheap, pretty durable, and looks nice. I have a really silly play food set that came with a stovetop (small, but the knobs turn!), a pink and purple propane tank, a can of "barracuda" (seriously), and a can of "barracuda hash" which included barracuda, ham and eggs, chicken, turkey, potpie, and more eggs. But the logo has spam and a hotdog, and the front of it has beans, turkey, fish, sausage, and lots of weird meat. But it says "Eatable, 100% dainty, Present!, Daintiness, Dainty". Just wanted to let you know.
  So, bottom line is, dollar store play food is much better than you think it is. It comes with lots of things that the expensive companies would never have dreamed of.
  
  
• save your money
  By A3JWQI5FJNLZE9 on 2006-12-22
  This food set was very disappointing. I ordered this online and was very disappointed with how the pictures of this product do not look at all like what you get. I sent the product back before even opening it, as it would never hold up to children's play and would be a waste of money.
  
  
• 101 Piece food set
  By AVD48SACWKMC5 on 2006-03-08
  My daughter is just learning the foods, which is very educational. She loves to pretend to cook and names the food as she goes etc. The only thing that isnt durable are the cardboard pieces/boxes. She likes to chew them and the dogs...well- hope you dont have any puppys!
  
  
• Amazon photo outdated, good play food set
  By AZ3XHO12PAASS on 2007-12-04
  The photo in the Amazon product description is outdated. The Step2 web site shows the current product (no cans/boxes, more plastic food) with an explanation that the items in the set have changed. I like the change - my 2 year old son would have destroyed the boxes and can labels in a matter of minutes. This gives him more food. Some of the items are things he doesn't normally encounter (sushi, shrimp) and we're having fun learning new foods. I was a little disappointed in the size of the food items - they're rather small. It works out better because he can fit most of a "balanced" meal on one of his platic plates and storage space isn't an issue. I just didn't expect all 101 pieces to fit in the equivalent to a standard women's size 8 shoe box. Overall, I think it was a good deal for the price.
  
  
• Do not buy if you have children under 3 at home!
  By A2CA32B3C1B069 on 2008-05-03
  I bought this set for my son when he turned 2 and while it has a really wide assortment of fruits and vegetables and he had fun learning about some that he'd never seen before, it's really cheaply made and not at all durable. My 2 yr old put several pieces in his mouth and pretended to bite them (a logical step in playing "let's pretend to make lunch", I think) and after a few times they actually cracked (the banana is the one I remember clearly) and I threw them away. I also threw out the individual french fries and a couple of other smaller pieces as I think they're choking hazards. Well, today my 10 mth old got hold of one of the tomato slices and managed to wedge it wholly in his mouth. So I've just gone through all our play food and thrown away ALL of the items that came with this set. They're simply too small and cheaply made to be safe around any child that will put them in his/her mouth whether it's part of pretending or teething.
  
  
• labels that are familiar
  By A1NDEE8EBPCUNS on 2007-01-11
  This play food set has cans and boxes with labels that are real brands that your child could be familiar with. The boxes are a pretty heavy cardboard, pretty durable unless you have a child that likes to chew cardboard. Luckily my son does not, but his little friend does, so I put clear tape around all the labels on the cans to keep them a little more secure. The food is great, although some of the sizes just don't match up (orange the same size as a head of lettuce). I would recomend this set to others.
  
  
• Wonderful starter food set
  By A1M95HS813CQG4 on 2007-05-20
  This was a great buy. My 2 year old son loves cooking and he really got into this food. The baby ate all the paper off the little jar food so that was not so great. I also removed all the little paper boxes from the get go. So really, they are only playing with about 1/2 the set but it is durable and fun.
  
  
• Nice
  By A35JREUR3TWGMJ on 2007-05-23
  My Daughter loves these toys! Everything looks like it came out of my kitchen cabinet, but miniaturized. She uses everything with her play kitchen, and play shopping cart. I enjoyed looking at everything too!!!! I felt like a kid again. : )
  
  
• Not what I expected
  By A3CS7GHSJKW41P on 2007-07-24
  Beware. You do not get the pieces shown in the picture!! I received no canned goods or boxed goods, only 1 bottle of soy sauce. Some pieces you can't tell what they are supposed to be. Sizes and colors are off on many of the items. As soon as I opened the box that contained 2 plastic bags (with the only marking being "made in China", no company name...nada) and took a look at the items, I immediately decided to return this product. This is the first time ever that I've made a return to Amazon. This alone says alot since I purchase all kinds of things from them, and have been for years.
  
  
• Don't believe what you see
  By A6OTD7UTD6R16 on 2007-08-24
  This toy was not at all like the picture depicts or the description states. I bought this for my preschool class because there were containers and packages in the picture and the description. When it arrived, there was food and only one "packaged food" which was soy sauce. If you are looking for something besides the standard plastic food, don't buy this.
  
  
• Item not as pictured, but still fun! (No cans, no boxes but has sushi!)
  By A3LR8X6M14MZ1V on 2007-09-08
  My son loves his play food - especially the ice cream cones. Please note, however, that the photos of this set show cans and boxed food. Neither is included in the set. We ordered two sets in hopes of getting the cans and boxes, but neither had them. That said, there are over a hundred varied pieces from sushi to tacos. They're well made enough to withstand a toddler, but not indestructible. Most of ours have teeth marks in them. We put one set in "baby's cupboard" to entertain him while I cook and another in the playroom with his Step 2 kitchen. Both get a lot of play. We're using them to help with language skills by encouraging our son to talk about the food. Great imitative and imaginative play, too!
  
  
• fair quality play food for the price
  By AWSG5DCUAV744 on 2007-11-30
  I couldn't decide which play food set to get for my son. I wanted to make sure that the food I bought him to play with in his play kitchen would fit in the small pots and pans that came with his playset. I ordered these, made by Step 2, because I figured if Step 2 also made his kitchen then the food would be the right scale to fit on the plats and in the bowls that came with his set. I received only plastic food items in the set, no small plastic cans or flimsy boxes, but I knew that I would only receive these things because some research led me to find that amazon was just using an old picture. Step 2 has the picture of just food on their website. I am pleased with the quality of the food, though there are a couple of things that I am not sure what they are. There are a couple of "scale" problems, but that's because the people that make these toys have to make them small enough to fit into little hands and easy to fit into the plates and bowls that come with childrens' kitchen sets. For example, the bunches of grapes are about as big as the banana, which is about the same size as the hamburger. I don't really care, though. My son will know what the items are and learn about items that he might not be familiar with. There are burritos, tacos, sushi (which I thought was cool), spaghetti with little "sauces" you can put on top of them. There are also parts to make a hamburger, there were 2 different kinds of fried eggs, some bacon, 2 "pringles" type chips, 4 french fries, 3 tortilla chips, and 2 onion rings. I don't think any of these are small enough to be a choking hazard for my 3-year-old son, so I am not concerned for the safety of my son. There were also fried shrimp included, a bottle of soy sauce, parts to make flat tortillas, a pizza with 4 pieces, some doughnuts, and a bunch of vegetables. Some of the fruits and vegetables were made of a thinner plastic, but I tried crushing them and couldn't so I don't think they're as flimsy as some reviewers stated. I think this is a good set for the money, compared to others that are out there. I looked and looked for an alternative, but wasn't happy with the prices and quality of others on the market. These are a good bet if you're looking for some food to add to your child's play kitchen.
  
  
• Made In China with NO information on lead level safety
  By AM626HDP9S5YN on 2007-12-09
  I ordered this product with knowledge that there are no canned goods or food boxes with the other food items, thanks to the prior customer comments. The description should be changed. The packaging is very plain, including two plastic bags with the toy food items, then enclosed within a plain, white, small box. There was no attempt to make the toy display-worthy. I ordered it through Wal-Mart to be shipped to one of their stores for pick-up, but since there was an option to have it sent to my house, I assume all orders come in this unattractive packaging.
  
  There were many different items within food groups, but many items were not formed on all sides, but rather looked nice on one side and flattened on the other, which cheaped the appearance. (As if a vegatable was cut in half the long way.)
  
  There was one huge problem for me, which caused me to return to item on the spot at the Wal-Mart pick-up: This toy is made in CHINA and the plain box had no consumer information, no telephone number to the company, no assurance of safety and no address. Since it is toy food, kids will naturally pretend to "taste" it, and with lead used often in Chinese toy manufacturing, this item is a risk to use, especially for younger kids who are most likely to put it in their mouths. I have since found many similar toy food sets in local chain stores and they have not been recalled, so I am glad I did not keep this product.
  
  
• Interesting Selection of Food
  By A20RXOLC3GV2NN on 2008-04-02
  I agree the packaging was not the greatest, consisted of two plastic bags with parts inside, but if not giving for a gift, it didn't really matter. My shipment did not have any canned goods, but that was ok. Some of the foods were an interesting variety, (explain to a 2 year old what sushi is) and a couple of the items I'm still not sure what they are....but overall she loves it and we have spent many hours playing restaurant. Her stuffed animals have a nightly feast of an interesting combination of foods. Great imaaginative play!
  
  
• Fun food
  By A2X4J5ZZ6TN3YJ on 2008-04-10
  I bought this for my two year old son to go along with his new kitchen. He absolutely loves to play with the food and pretend to eat it. It has been fairly educational as well because he is asking me what each food is so he is learning about different foods. The only down side to this product is that they are kinda small pieces however, I think they are perfect for little hands. I would recommend this to any of my friends with small kids.
  
  
• Impressive selection of items
  By A1ZBOE647DH5JA on 2007-01-09
  I purchased this item for my granddaughters and I was delighted with the excellence of the product. I was very impressed with the variety and quality of the "food" items. I'm sure the girls will have many hours of fun playing with this veritable grocery store.
  
  
• took too long to ship
  By AG01ZCVYXYF3Q on 2007-01-09
  the product was awesome, but, it took very long to ship for some reason. But, it got here just in time for christmas. Thanks so much.
  
  
• YummyYummy
  By AOR0O2WNMGIK7 on 2007-01-31
  Can not count on my hands the number of times I have had my [...],[...], and [...]kids prepare their gourmet meals with this toy. Realistic, contains foods not generally found in make believe foods. Really perfect size for little hands.
  
  
• Lots of food
  By A1FJX113B09NR8 on 2007-03-16
  There are tons of food items in this assortment. My son loves playing with these. There is a huge variety and I am sure he will enjoy these for years to come.
  
  
• Fine toy for the price
  By AGOMWF1IFZM1E on 2007-07-26
  These food items are fairly realistic and the ones with labels (like canned items) even have nutritional information, which I find interesting and educational.
  
  As with any small plastic toys, a few bites here and there can tear them up kind of easily, but that is to be expected. The only real drawback I see are the tiny cardboard boxes representing crackers, cereal, etc. I find them to be useless and easy to destroy.
  
  Overall, I'd recommend this toy for any youngster with a kitchen play set. There is a wide variety of food items, and they are a good value at under $20.
  
  
• Food Assortment
  By A3IMAHMO886ZMN on 2007-08-05
  I had received a play kitchen from a friend when I was pregnant with my daughter. It didn't have the food to go with it, so I got online and picked this as it has so many pieces. I read all the reviews, and I must agree with a lot of them. The basics are there, they are not all sized right. The strawberry is much bigger than the egg, and the only thing that we got that was not the actual "food" was a jar of soy sauce. However, my daughter, now 15 months old, loves all the food. She plays with her kitchen for hours. I would like to have received more of what the picture showed, but at least she's happy.
  
  

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