Over the past several months, I have tried several of the meal box delivery services that ship ingredients directly to your door. It started out as a way to meal plan and have healthy meals without a real investment of time. I have been pleasantly surprised and happy with all of the companies that I’ve tried. All of the companies allow you to pause your shipments and skip weeks. They are all no obligation to continue, and you can cancel at any time. Each company offers a selection of meals that you can choose from each week. The links are provided for your convenience, and I am not compensated if you decide to try any of them. These are just merely my honest thoughts and comparisons between the companies.
Since my daughter doesn’t eat anything but pizza and quesadillas, I opted for the 2 servings per meal size for each company. I also tried the classic/meat and potatoes menus from each.
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh was the first company I ordered from. Hello Fresh offers 4 different meal plans with options for 2-4 servings. Each meal comes with all the ingredients separated out by meal in brown paper bags. The meat always comes separate and is shipped packed with some cold packs to ensure its still good when you get it. You can choose your meals from a pretty good list of meals each week. You can also add on additional meals each week if you want. I stayed with Hello Fresh for two months, so I feel that I have a pretty good feel for the meals this company offers.
Pros: Out of all the companies I tried, Hello Fresh was tied for the most vegetables per meal. I started this to eat healthier, so for me, this a big plus. All of the meals I tried were good. I love the fact that this company uses paper bags! I can recycle those easily. Most of the meals were very good and enjoyable. Several, I would order again if given the option. You get full-color recipe cards with detailed instructions. The customer service was quick and excellent. I forgot to change my address when I restarted this service, and the first two boxes were shipped to my old address. Customer service credited my account for those boxes and was super friendly and helpful.
Cons: I really have nothing negative to say about this company. Since it was the first company I tried, it became my baseline of comparison.
Price: Meals range from $7.99-$8.99 per serving for the base plans. Some of the meals you can choose from can run as high as $11.99 per serving, but those are optional. Shipping is $7.99 for your box.
Difficulty: Since this was the first company I tried, it became my baseline for comparing all of the companies. You have to wash and chop veggies for every meal.
Home Chef
Home Chef was the next service I tried, and they offer a wide variety of options for 2-4 servings. Each meal comes with all the ingredients separated out in plastic bags. The meat always comes separate and is shipped packed with some cold packs to ensure its still good when you get it. You can choose your meals from a pretty good list of meals each week. You can also add on additional meals each week if you want.
Home Chef offers some options that Hello Fresh did not. There were some “oven-ready” options where all I had to do was mix the ingredients in a little pan they sent with the meal and bake it. They also offered dinner/meal salads and slow cooker meals as some of the meals you could choose from. Again some of the optional meals were a higher price than the base meals.
Pros: Some of the veggies were pre-chopped, and a few times, the meat was precooked and shredded. You get full-color recipe cards with detailed instructions. I had no need to contact customer service with this company, and so I have no review of their customer service.
Cons: Very few of the meals “wowed” me. They were good, but nothing that made me want to reorder that particular meal again. There were fewer meal choices with fresh vegetables to choose from and more dishes with potatoes as the side. The meals came packaged in plastic bags. Yes, recyclable, but I prefer paper. The meat again came separate and wrapped in cold packs.
Price: Meals ranged from $6.99-$8.99 per serving for the base plans. Again some of the optional meals were a little more.
Difficulty: Overall, these recipes seemed to require less work to prepare, especially since sometimes the veggies were precut.
Martha and Marley Spoon
I tried this company because Martha Stewart was in the company name. I wanted to try recipes that she might recommend. Usually, her recipes in magazines are too involved for me, but I decided to take a chance and see how these were.
Pros: I enjoyed these meals. In fact, they might be my favorite meals out of all the companies that I’ve tried. A good selection of dishes with veggie sides; they tied with Hello Fresh as having the most options. You can choose meals that, with other companies, would be an upcharge like steak dinners. All the meal options here are the same price. You get full-color recipe cards with detailed instructions.
Cons: This company also seemed to have a more extensive list of ingredients it expected you to have on hand compared to the other companies (like eggs and butter). I had everything I needed, though, and never had to buy extra ingredients.
This is the only company that I had delivery issues with. My first box was missing a meat and my second box had a meat substituted or mispacked. Customer service was extremely slow (it took a week for them to respond), and the response was less than satisfactory. They offered a refund of less than the meal price. [I was subscribed to this company during the COVID-19 pandemic time period, and this may have impacted their customer service response time.] After receiving my second box and it again not being correct, I canceled my membership. When I canceled, there was a survey I could fill out about my experience. I did receive an email from someone higher up in the customer service food chain. She sincerely apologized for my experience and refunded the cost of both of my boxes to me promptly. She then offered a free box if I would give them another chance. I am now signed back up with them and will update this post after I receive my next box.
Price: These meals ran $8.99 per serving, and shipping was $8.99. Yes, on the surface, this seems higher than the other companies. Still, in reality, my bill was about the same as the other companies because, with them, I choose some of the higher-priced meals.
Difficulty: Overall, there were the most “difficult” recipes to prepare. Not really difficult, but usually involved more steps than the other companies. So they ended up taking a little longer to cook.
Dinnerly
Dinnerly was the least expensive company I tried. After I signed up for them, I found out that they are owned the same parent company as Martha and Marley Spoon. The meals were fine. Some were good, and some were okay. The portions seemed a bit smaller than the other companies, but the cost was about half. I have had no issues with this service and have not had to contact customer service.
Pros: Meals range from $4.50-$4.99 per serving.
Cons: No recipe cards. You have to print them off yourself or use your phone/tablet to access the online instructions. Also, nothing is separated out. You get one box filled with all the ingredients for every meal. Some of the ingredients you might need for more than one meal, so check before you toss the leftover ingredient in the trash. (Okay, I might have tossed a few things and then found later in the week I need it.) Also, again, there were fewer meals with veggie side options. (I’m not a big fan of potatoes.)
Price: $4.50-$4.99 per serving plus $8.99 shipping.
Difficulty: Average difficulty. You had to chop veggies and such.
Final thoughts
Out of these companies, I think I would continue with Hello Fresh long term. If my Martha and Marley Spoon experience improves with my next few boxes, then they might move into first place.
Which company is right for you? This really depends on what you are looking for out of a meal box service. As I stated earlier, I wanted healthy meals without having to meal plan. Now that I’ve tried several companies, I’m enjoying learning new ways to cook familiar things.
I think at some point I will stop all meal boxes and just start meal planning with my new cooking skills. Yeah sometime…later…but not today.
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