I have had so many questions about my thoughts on meal delivery services, so I took it upon myself to try out several different ones and compare them. It must be stated that I have no affiliation with any of these companies and frankly this is just my 2 cents! Read along to see which ones that we will try again!
Some Background Info
I truly enjoyed the ease of these meals. As a dietitian and full on foodie, it was nice to know that I was feeding my family a balanced, healthy meal without the stress of planning and grocery shopping that usually comes with it. In our house some weeks can be super chaotic, and planning and shopping can seem so mundane. These meal services allowed for more family time and less time stressing over meals. Plus, everyone loved helping out! Jess is a great cook, just not a great menu planner. Give him a recipe with instructions and he is good to go. SM loved to help stir or add ingredients to the bowls. My personal favorite part was knowing that I had a plan in place for dinner each night. I would usually turn on music and have a glass of wine while cooking. I know everyone doesn’t feel this way but y’all, that was heaven for me! I was totally 110% in my element!
With each service we did our best to choose meals that sounded good and were healthy, but we kept it within reason considering I have a toddler and a picky husband.
HelloFresh
This was our first delivery service so I honestly had nothing to compare it to. HelloFresh has had my attention since it began because they really promote dietitian guidance with meals. This is important to me, obviously. The nutrition info did not disappoint. The menu options were very realistic for our family’s taste. I absolutely loved the presentation and quality of the food. Each meal came in it’s own bag so that you knew what ingredients went where. The cheese they sent with one of our meals was such great quality, I could not get over it! These meals were delicious and so flavorful. HellloFresh set the bar high for the others!
Plated
I felt like Plated had the largest amount of meal options to choose from per week. Not to mention they offered servings for 3 whereas some others only offered servings for 2 or 4. I appreciated this since there are only 3 of us and a “family” plan can be significantly more expensive. The meals that we received were absolutely delicious. In fact, I loved one so much that I now make the sauce regularly.
Home Chef
Our Home Chef came with a cute binder to neatly keep recipes in. There were several meal options and the food was good with large portion sizes. The problem was that they sent meals that I did not choose. I called customer service to discuss this and the guy I spoke to was beyond rude. I am still stunned over it! I will not be using Home Chef again for that reason alone.
Blue Apron
We weren’t very adventurous with our meal selections from Blue Apron, but I felt like prep time was still sooo long, considering. Also, I was not a huge fan of the way it was packaged and delivered. It was like all the food was just thrown in the box and I could have easily missed something and it gotten ruined! Overall the food was great, I just wasn’t a fan of the presentation compared to the others we tried!
Sun Basket
These meal options were super nontraditional for our household palate. This made it a little bit harder to find 2-3 options that we would all actually agree to eat for that week. Because of that, I caught myself skipping over my Sun Basket order for several weeks. BUT when we finally found a week that had options that sounded good, we were so pleased with how delicious they were! The ingredients were so fresh and the flavors were amazing. In fact, when Jess refers to meal delivery services now, he always mentions Sun Basket as one of his top choices! (If you knew how picky the man can be, this is truly saying something!) I also found Sun Basket to be the best option for those who may have food allergies or restrictions. So many great options!
Who is the winner??
I would say Plated. I just loved the meals we got from them! So fresh, unique and so filling! HelloFresh ran a close second. We will also definitely continue to order Sun Basket when they offer agreeable meals for us. It just seems a little hit or miss for us ‘basic southern folk’ to get weekly. I have two friends who have tried several of these services as well, and one votes Plated as her fave and the other votes HelloFresh!
If you are considering ordering these meal services to change up meal time at home or to have delicious meals without the planing hassle, I say definitely do it! If you don’t like it, it is easy to cancel. We will continue to get these services on weeks that are crazy or that I just don’t feel like planning. To us, it is so worth it!