I enjoy Home Chef a lot but I only think these services are cost effective if you have a referral or discount from something. The only time I treat myself is when I can talk one of my friends into HC because we both get $35 off! Haha. Otherwise it’s really expensive. But it’s ALWAYS delicious

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I did freshly for a while, delivered to work for lunch. The food was fine but it just got boring after a while.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

We've done Blue Apron for a few years (Also Hello Fresh).
We've found it easy, convenient, and a good way to diversify what we eat.

Food quality was been good, taste is good.

As long as you're OK with paying an up-charge for convenience instead of planning meals / shopping, then it's been great.

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The above poster has eschewed traditional employment and is currently undertaking the ill-conceived task of launching his own hardgoods company. Statements are not made on behalf of nor reflective of anything in any manner... unless they're good, then they count.
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How many portions did you eat?

We do Purple Carrot (vegan) and have really enjoyed it (about 3 months in now). We're not strictly vegan, but try to limit meat so it's been a good forcing factor on that front. Definitely a bit of a premium for not having to think about it, but it's also good for getting some more regular inspiration for other meals to make. We've got a few free boxes we can give away - happy to send if you're interested. Their timing is pretty accurate (generally around the 30-40 minutes mark) and they have a good variety of cuisines even week over week. Their auto selections have been good (we've picked specific things a few times, but haven't been disappointed by the auto picks yet).

We used Hello Fresh for a bit and it was fine. If we get really busy again, I wouldn’t hesitate to opt back in for a few months.

We got one (Plated) as a gift, and liked it OK; quality was decent and a good excuse to try a few different things than we would've picked ourselves. The ultimate killer though was the packaging... Every week another box, including the non-recyclable cold packs, plus all the separate plastic bags for all the different items within. It became this giant stack unto itself in our garage, just an insane amount of waste. Cost might've been reasonable, but I haven't seen any other services really address that issue.

We get Home Chef 3-4 times a week, depending on meals. It all but killed our grocery bill. The small premium was worth having a prepped recipe and meal.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Long time Blue Apron fans here. We get the 3 meal (6 serving) set every week. Alternate weeks we add the "left over" setup - this is a bulk setup designed to be cooked as one big batch and produce 8 meals that go into the fridge for the week.

Regular meals take 20-35 minutes to make. My wife picks the meals, so I can only talk about the meals I see; I don't know what else they offer. Most meals are a sautéed meat, a boiled or roasted starch (potatoes, rice, noodles) and 1 or two vegetables, often with an onion or shallot. There is definitely a sameness to the prep/cook routine. Boil water, slice potatoes & chop veg. Cook meat, cook veg, bring it all together. Somewhere in there you add spices and sauces. BA would have you chop garlic every damn day. We just buy the prepped garlic in the jar; that saves a ton of time each meal.

The "left over" setup is more complicated because it is two proteins and two starches and a mess of vegetables. That all gets put together in tupperware in a mix and match. That process takes 90-100 minutes on a Sunday morning. We usually get 10 meals because of serving sizes.

Occasionally we spring for the Deluxe meal - scallops and such. This is a more complex setup. These are fancy restaurant level meals.

While there is some repetition, we find enough variety for us. We are eating some things we would not normally eat. Purple potatoes, roasted broccoli, bok choy.

My experience, FWIW

I had "GoodFood" for about a year. It was about $65 CAD for 3 dinners of 2 servings per week. Selection was made online, there were usually some decent options including some nicer ones that involved an upcharge.

The food itself reminded me of a mug I saw at the National Art Gallery in DC: "Modern art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn't". I could make the food that they sent each week on my own. It wasn't overly complicated. But....it's nicer than what I normally make. It has more ingredients. The spice blends were good as well. You could do it on your own but it would be way more complicated so I stuck with it.

I have 2 kids (15 and 13) and they enjoyed it as well. I would add another veg and it would be enough for the 3 of us but just barely. We stopped because it was getting repetitive and we were having some dishes for the 3rd time. There's lot of options out there that are all basically the same but different. They usually have a deal where you can do a week for free (or close to it) and I highly recommend that route first.

Tldr; it's nicer food that you would make on a weekday, convenient and usually starts with a free/cheap week to get you into it so try it out.

We use Hello Fresh, 3 meals per week x 4 portions. They state 5-10 minutes prep time but with 2 of us slicing and dicing I would put it at 30 minutes. As mentioned above, make sure you have a promo code or coupon and they all have a huge discount to get you started. Conceptually the grocery store is cheaper but there is little to no waste. EVERY step says to season with salt and pepper, which of course you don't have to do.

We did Blue Apron for a while, but cancelled after a string of missing or spoiled ingredients (at least 1 meal messed up for 5 or 6 weeks in a row). I'm fine paying extra for convenience, but when I pay extra and still have to go to the store, I'm out.

Hi,

The best service I've found is Sprinly.

It's a plant based food company.

The food is incredibly tasty and their customer service is stellar.

The minimum bi-weekly order is 6 meals. The meals don't freeze well, so be prepared to scarf them down quickly or have someone go in on the meals with you.

Thank you,

Mark

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My meal service takeaway was to be disgusted by the single use plastic and packaging waste. While the services claim to have less food waste (both pre and post delivery) than shopping for yourself at the grocery store, every week you get a box filled with single use plastic, freezer packs etc. In my estimation careful meal planning (even using a meal planning service) and grocery shopping are better for my family. More info:

https://www.greenamerica.org/...recipes-fun-or-waste

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I think we are currently trying Green Chef. They promote themselves as healthy, however that is mainly based on the fact they try to use organic ingredients. The calorie counts, sodium, etc of the meals are in line with simply ordering out from a restaurant. We cut the butter, oil, etc recs in half or less to try to bring that down some.

The food has been very good and it is nice to not have to come up with something two nights a week, but the price plus questionable "healthy" nature of the meals means we won't likely continue it beyond this trial deal.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

My wife and I have been using services like this for a very long time. I think at least two years while in Boston and then now the four years we've been in London. With our busy schedules we find it to be a great way to eat a range of food/recipes and the prep/cook time is always minimal, and we'll save the longer prep times ones for a Friday or weekend. I will say I've found the options in the UK to be way better than the ones in the USA (I found blue apron to be a lot of 'cooked salad') though I can honestly think of maybe 2-3 meals over the last 6 years that I would never eat again. The majority of the packaging for our box is recyclable and we dont have wasted food at the end of the week which is a big plus. Sure we could eat 'cheaper' but we would 100% eat the same thing over and over as we simply dont have the bandwidth to put thought into creative weekday meals. We actively plan 'big' or special meals every couple of weeks (I love to BBQ and use my green egg) so we're not against doing the work, programs like this just suit our life really, really well.

We've always found the portions (with all the providers) to be right sized and I've never been hungry after them (eat during huge IM prep weeks) and had good workouts the next day. I highly recommend.

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Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

We used Hello Fresh and Goodfood for a little while in Canada. About $70 for 3 meals x 2 servings.
The issue we had was that more often than not some of the veggies, and sometimes the protein, arrived spoiled.
Other times out of the three meals, we'd only end up liking maybe one or two of them.
So the value really wasn't there for us.

What would you do if a vegetable or protein was spoiled.

A coworker recently mentioned Hello Fresh. Just my opinion buy why do this when I can make my own fresh and for 1/3 the cost? I kind of see it as perhaps the laziest thing ever.

We didn't like any of the true 'meal' services, however we recently discovered CrowdCow for meat delivery and it is AMAZEBALLS! Best pork chops ever, best bone in chicken thighs ever - and those are usually pretty boring cuts in my experience. They have basically every kind of meat you can think of, including bison, boar, venison, etc.

I did Hello Fresh briefly and it was a pain in the ass. Sure they give you the ingredients but the meals were not quick to prepare, not difficult, just somewhat time consuming for simple meals.

Currently using Sunbasket for 2-3 meals per week. Lots of meal variety plus they offer a range of prep time choices. We can look at the coming week's life schedule and adjust meal prep time accordingly. Would also give their website a nod for simplicity.

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"This ain't no wedding dance, get moving" - SS