Grab your popcorn because this one is wordy. lol This was SUCH a fun review for us to do. I think it’s because Dustin was doing them with me and I was able to have confirmation on how I felt about each of them! We tried five different meal delivery services over the last six weeks and let’s just say we have some thoughts. Some were really good, some..one.. was REALLY not that great. I feel like there are only a couple that are out there that are commonly talked about but there are a TON to choose from and even then we decided to choose just five.
Gluten free info: Only one of these meal delivery services was gluten free and it was actually our least favorite but I will get into that in a minute. Some delivery services made it easy for me to modify things to make them gf, others didn’t. If they sent burgers I would just use my own bread. If they sent pasta, I would use my own noodles. It is something that is normal in my life so I just never thought anything of it!
I am going to list them from our least favorite to our favorite!
Freshly - This was sadly our least favorite but we REALLY wanted to like it because it is SO convenient and all of the meals we chose were gluten free! The whole gimmick with this meal delivery service is that all of the food is microwaveable. There is no cooling required. The meals weren’t horrible but they definitely were still microwaved and we could definitely tell. We even plated the meals on plates after they cooked to get the effect that they didn’t just come out of a microwave which didn’t really help. Another downside was they pretty much offered the same meals each week with maybe switching up a few. It was fine for one week but not something we could ever do for weeks at a time in a row. It was also weird because we both ate something different every night. We got Freshly delivered on Saturday. After the promotional sign up cost would have expired, we would be paying around $50 plus shipping for 3 meals.
Hello Fresh - This was the meal service that got this whole review started. I signed up for Hello Fresh before I realized that I was signing up for Hello Fresh. Lol I was trying to look at their meal options and thought I was just setting up my account {my mistake, I should have known when I entered my card} but I had actually been setting up my first order. So watch out for that! The second thing about this service is that they have a ton of options but the really good meals are an additional cost! Which is frustrating, I would rather pay for a higher level subscription than pay an additional $5.99 per SERVING. Besides that hidden fees, we did enjoy the meals! But it was pretty expensive. Like VERY expensive. We paid $79.91 for 4 meals for two people. Safe to say we canceled that as soon as we got the meals. We couldn’t justify the price for what we were getting.
Blue Apron - It was a good meal delivery service. Honestly the meals were either really simple and its something we already knew how to make or really extravagant and wasn’t something we would enjoy eating. The food was good and it was really fresh! The meals were easy to make but it’s not something I would continue to pay $60 a week for. After the promotional sign up cost would have expired, we would be paying around $59 plus shipping for 3 meals. Blue Apron will deliver based on your area but for us it was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. One plus with this service is that you don’t pay shipping with this one. But the other services are less a week with shipping.
Home Chef - So this service was really good. I had a hard time choosing if I thought Blue Apron or Home Chef was better and they really were neck and neck. With this one, I don’t really know how to put this but the meals were just kind of …blah. Like really nothing exciting or life changing. Another thing was that the week that we got meals from Home Chef, we were kind of hungry after our meal. For example one of our meals was a chicken breast and a corn/peppers mixture and we were both hungry about an hour later. I guess to sum that up, they were just lighter meals. Another con, we were going to give it another try so we ordered a second week and only one of the meals showed up which really sucked because we hadn’t gone grocery shopping for dinners. After the promotional sign up cost would have expired, we would be paying around $59.70 plus shipping for 3 meals. They don’t charge for shipping though which is a plus! This was another service though were the meals weren’t revolutionary lol like chicken breast and corn/peppers, steak tacos, nothing crazy.
Every Plate - This was hands down our favorite. We actually got it two times. We loved that these meals were easy for us to make gluten free for myself while Dustin could still eat the normal meal! Now I’m not saying that they are gluten free but they were just easier to make gf! If they sent burgers I would just use my own bread. If they sent pasta I used my own pasta and Dustin used what was sent and then we would actually have leftovers! It was nice though because they would use gf soy sauce. It wasn’t like they went out of there way to add gluten tp things. There was plenty of food for us with each meal and we felt great about it because there was no waste at the end of the meal! We liked that you could choose the delivery date. You get to choose to have them deliver on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.. tons of options! This was also the most bang for our buck so to speak. We pay $48.91 for 4 meals for two people. This was the best deal for us! Plus we have the option of getting 5 meals a week! If you want to try Every Plate you can get $20 off your first box here!
Have you guys tried any of these services? I would love to know your thoughts and opinions on them! If you guys have any further questions on any of the meal services shoot me an email and I can answer them for you! I am an open book and always want to help you! You can email me at tarynintotravel@gmail.com or you. can comment below!