This is the conclusion of a series offering reviews of the top meal delivery services, plus tips and tricks on how to get these subscriptions shipped straight to your kitchen for a fraction of the advertised price.  Posts include A Low Price for Plated, How to Hack Hello Fresh, Home Chef Coupons and Cash Back, and Save Big on Blue Apron.  Here’s how these competitors compared:

Best value:  The pre-discounted advertised price for Blue Apron’s two person, three meal per week plan is $59.94.  Through Ebates I was able to redeem a $30 off coupon and a $7.50 cash back rebate, for an adjusted total cost of $22.44 or $3.74 per meal.

Honorable mentions:  The pre-discounted advertised price for Home Chef’s two person, three meal per week plan is $59.70.  But after redeeming a generous 20% cash back rebate from MrRebates.com, plus an automatic $30 credit for first time customers, my adjusted cost was $23.76 or $3.96 per meal.

The pre-discounted advertised price for Hello Fresh’s two person, three meal per week plan is $59.94.  I scored $25 off through MrRebates.com by using the coupon code FRESHNEW50HF, which is advertised as $50 off your first two orders but still worked for this single purchase.  After my coupon redemption and a $5.94 cash back rebate, my adjusted total cost was $29 or less than $4.84 per meal.

Worst value:  The pre-discounted advertised price for Plated’s two person, three meal per week plan was the highest at $72.  I was unable to find a cash back rebate through Ebates or MrRebates.com, or points and miles for purchasing through any other shopping portal. I used Google to find a $30 off coupon code, which is better than their advertised offer of your first night free, valued at $24. After coupon redemption, my total cost was $42 or $7 per meal.

Most family size and number of meal per week options:  Home Chef offers plans for two, four or six people.  Any of those family sizes can pick between two and six meals delivered per week.

Honorable mention: Plated offers two, three or four meal per week plans for families of two, three or four.

Least family size and number of meal per week options:   Blue Apron’s only two-person plan includes three meals per week.  For a family of four, you have the choice of receiving two or four meals per week.

For two people, Hello Fresh offers plans that include three, four or five meals per week. But, families of four only have the option of three meals per week.  And if you choose their vegetarian plan, regardless of whether you’re ordering for two or four people, you are limited to three meals per week.

Best menu options:  With Plated, each week you can pick between eleven different meals, seven unique to that week, as well as four “Encore Recipes,” top-rated customer picks available all month.

Home Chef offers ten different recipe choices per week, and you are able to select meals by dietary preference (low-calorie and low-carb) as well as choose to avoid foods that may contain common allergens or aren’t permissible for consumption by certain faiths (soy, nuts, gluten, dairy, mushrooms, red meat, pork and shellfish).

Honorable mention:  There are six Hello Fresh meal options from which to choose every week and you are given complete freedom when it comes to choosing your menu.

Worst menu options:   With Blue Apron, you have six options, but aren’t given complete freedom when it comes to choosing your menu.  Based on your initial selection some second and third choice options may be blocked, which I assume is to keep the customer from choosing the three meals with the costliest ingredients.

Most delivery dates available:  Hello Fresh delivers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Honorable mentions:  You can choose Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (residential only) delivery options for Blue Apron.

Home Chef can arrive on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Fewest delivery dates available:  Plated only delivers on Wednesday and Saturday.

When you looking strictly at the cost, Blue Apron was the clear winner.  But they didn’t offer the flexibility of Hello Fresh, Home Chef and Plated, when it came to menu selection, delivery dates or family size.  If  you’re thinking about committing beyond the introductory period, those benefits may be just as important.  Bon appétit!

All opinions are exclusively my own.  Prices and available discounts in these posts are current as of their publication date.  I personally paid for all meal delivery service shipments referenced, and all opinions are unbiased and completely my own.  I may receive a commission if you sign-up for these services, as well as Ebates or MrRebates.com using my embedded referral links.  (Please and thank you!)

This is part of a series offering reviews of the top meal delivery services, plus tips and tricks on how to get these subscriptions shipped straight to your kitchen for a fraction of the advertised price.   Other posts include A Low Price for Plated, How to Hack Hello Fresh, and Save Big on Blue Apron.

Home Chef

Cost:  Regularly advertised price for the three meals per week plan for two people is $59.70.  But after redeeming a generous 20% cash back rebate from MrRebates.com, plus an automatic $30 credit for first time Home Chef customers, my adjusted cost was $23.76 or $3.96 per meal.

Delivery dates available:  Wednesday, Thursday or Friday

Meal choices:  Home Chef offers plans for two, four or six people.  Any family size can pick between two and six meals delivered per week.  They offer ten different recipe choices per week, and you are able to select meals by dietary preference (low-calorie and low-carb) as well as choose to avoid foods that may contain common allergens or aren’t permissible for consumption by certain faiths (soy, nuts, gluten, dairy, mushrooms, red meat, pork and shellfish).

Home Chef offered a range of options, from traditional to adventurous.  Selections the week I ordered included steak and potatoes, burger and fries, mushroom flatbread, quinoa and arugula salad, and parsley and pistachio fettuccine.  The three meals I opted for were “calorie conscious” choices (ranging from 402-538 calories per serving) but you never would have known, as they were all filling and far from lacking in flavor.

Packaging and ingredients:  My Home Chef box and its contents, insulated with a thick padded liner, were still cold when I arrived home from work.  While I couldn’t think of a reason to store and way to re-purpose it, this paper-based insulation was easy to recycle.  Produce, spices, starches and other ingredients were divided by meal and situated at the top of the box, with the proteins at the bottom.  Also included in the box were my three recipe cards, a booklet with information on food safety, cooking tips and kitchen tool basics, and a plastic binder were these and future recipes could be kept.

Recipes and instructions:  Our menu for the week included blue cheese, smoked almond and chive-crusted pork chops with honey-roasted carrots, steelhead trout niçoise with warm potato and spinach salad, and mojito lime chicken with roasted cauliflower and blistered tomato-jalapeño relish.

The recipe cards include a suggested cook by date on them.  The fish was recommended to be cooked within three days, so the trout niçoise was the first meal I made.  I’ve always been wary of warm potatoes and string beans on a salad of leafy greens, but I gave it a go.  And while I don’t think it’ll become a diet mainstay, I did enjoy trying it.

Although the trout was among the best fish we had from any of the meal delivery services, the chicken was another story.  When I opened the package for the mojito lime chicken, one of the filets seemed a little off, both in color and texture.  As much as I hate waste, I maintain an “if in doubt, throw it out” philosophy when it comes to meat, so I discarded both and instead defrosted two chicken breasts that were in my freezer.

The pork chops were the last meal I made.  Like the trout, the pork chops were fresh, juicy and delicious.

Level of difficulty:  Two of the meals did start on the cook-top and then required transfer to the oven, which meant more dishes to do than usual, but otherwise, all three of the recipes were quick to prepare and easy to make.

Ease of cancellation:  I was able to cancel future orders online the same day my box arrived without issue.  Customer support and subscription information were included in the booklet that came inside the box, indicating that “You can make change to your weekly menus anytime before Friday at noon CST.  You are always able to skip weeks in advance, pause your account or cancel our service if necessary.”

Overall impression:  My biggest, and only, disappointment was the questionable meat.  I was very pleased with Home Chef’s introductory cost, the menu variety ranging from home-style to hipster, the option of up to six meals per week (!!!) and the transparency and ease of cancellation.

I’m also impressed with Home Chef’s cause marketing efforts, partnering most recently with Heifer International, an international economic development charity.  During the month of February, if customers select the one meal each week marked with the Heifer logo, Home Chef will make a donation to help Heifer International fight world hunger.

Stayed tuned for one last post in this series – a final analysis and comparison of the cost, quality and convenience of Plated, Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and Home Chef.

This is part of a series offering reviews of the top meal delivery services, plus tips and tricks on how to get these subscriptions shipped straight to your kitchen for a fraction of the advertised price.  Other posts include A Low Price for Plated, Save Big on Blue Apron, and Home Chef Coupons and Cash Back.

Hello Fresh

Cost:  Regular list price for the three meal per week plan is $59.94.  I scored $25 off through MrRebates.com by using the coupon code FRESHNEW50HF, which is advertised as $50 off your first two orders but still worked for this single purchase.  After my coupon redemption and a $5.94 cash back rebate, my adjusted total cost was $29 or less than $4.84 per meal.

Delivery dates available:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Meal choices:  For two people, Hello Fresh offers plans that include three, four or five meals per week.  (Families of four only have the option of three meals per week.)  There are six meal options from which to choose every week and you are given complete freedom when it comes to choosing your menu.

Packaging and ingredients:  An insulated liner and several large ice packs helped keep the Hello Fresh box contents cold.  The proteins were located at the bottom of the box.  Separated from the meat by an ice pack, the produce, spices, starches and other ingredients were divided by meal into separate boxes.  I appreciated this help to keep my fridge tidy (ha!), as well as not needing to hunt for each night’s ingredients.

Recipes and instructions:  The choices I made for the week were Crispy Shrimp Tacos, Cherry-Drizzled Pork Chops and Quick Sausage Bolognese.   In addition to the recipe cards for the three meals selected, Hello Fresh provides a booklet that includes all six of the week’s recipes with ingredient lists and step-by-step instructions with photos.

Another added value was the portion size.  While we polished off all the shrimp, I had enough tangy red cabbage and carrot slaw, tortillas and sour cream for lunch the next day.  And the same was said for the Bolognese.  Bonus points to Hello Fresh for enough leftovers for two extra meals!

Level of difficulty:  All three of the meals were relatively easy (thanks in large part to the chopping attachment that came with my Cuisinart Smart Stick, which is pretty much the best kitchen tool in my arsenal), and delicious.  I’d never in a million years considered making my own pasta sauce, but after being introduced to Bolognese (a great way to sneak veggies into my carnivore of a husband’s diet), I could easily replicate it.  And the slaw for the tacos… better than any restaurant.

Again, the only negative was my lack of non-stick cookware.  My stainless-steel skillet left most of the crispy from the shrimp stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Nonetheless, they were still devour-able.

Ease of cancelation:  You can modify, pause or cancel your delivery before midnight five business days before your next delivery.  I appreciated this information being clearly stated in my order confirmation, and had no problem logging-in to my online account and stopping any additional shipments.   Shortly after deactivating my account, I received a confirmation indicating my subscription had been cancelled.  Five days later, I received an email offering me a $5 incentive to give Hello Fresh another go.

Overall impression:  Compared to several of the other meal delivery services I tried during this experiment, I seemed to get a little more with Hello Fresh.  They provided more upfront options, extra delivery days, better packaging, additional recipes, and two brown bag lunches.  Hopefully, they’ll send me a coupon for more than $5, so I can justify a second order!  If they do, I’ll let you know.

We struggle with getting healthy, balanced meals on the table for dinner every night.  After long days in the office, it’s hard to come home to more work in the kitchen.  To make meals more exciting, regain some semblance of portion control, and introduce vegetables into my husband’s meat and potatoes diet, I challenged myself to see how cheaply I could get a week’s worth of dinner from four of the most popular meal delivery services.  Here’s how I did:

Blue Apron

Cost:  Regular price is $59.94 for the two person, three meals per week plan.  Through Ebates I was able to redeem a $30 off coupon and a $7.50 cash back rebate, for an adjusted total cost of $22.44 or incredible $3.74 per meal.

Delivery dates available:  Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (residential only)

Meal choices:  Blue Apron’s two-person plan includes three meals per week.  (For a family of four, you have the choice of receiving two or four meals per week.)  There are six meal options from which to choose every week when on the two-person plan.  However, you aren’t given complete freedom when it comes to choosing your menu.  Based on your initial selection some options may be blocked, which I assume is to keep the customer from choosing the three meals with the costliest ingredients.

Packaging and ingredients:  All the meat and produce received was fresh and delicious.  It was kept cold thanks to an insulated liner inside the box and two large ice packs.  The proteins were located on the bottom of the box and the produce, “knick knacks” like sauces, spices and starches for all three of the dishes were intermingled but separated from the meat by one of the two ice packs.

The box is recyclable, but I kept the insulated bag for summer Costco trips and put the ice packs in my deep freeze for future road trips and tailgates.  Knowing the shrimp should be the first to be used, I made that dish the same evening the box arrived.  When I went to cook them, the shrimp were still somewhat frozen.

Recipes and instructions:  The choices I made for the week were Spicy Shrimp and Korean Rice Cakes, Guacamole Burgers, and Seared Chicken and Couscous.  All were delicious and the recipe instructions easy to follow.  Even my husband, who during the course of our marriage has refused to eat anything containing chlorophyll, ate and enjoyed the shrimp dish which contained a healthy amount of cabbage and several other ingredients he considers “exotic.”

Level of difficulty:  All three of the meals were quick to prepare and easy to make.  They would have been even easier if I had a non-stick skillet.  Using the stainless-steel cookware set I bought just after college meant I had to keep a closer eye on the temperature and amount of oil in the pan.  While I made do with a standard cheese grater, another tool I wished I had was a zester, as I’ve encountered multiple meal delivery service dishes during this challenge that call for lemon zest.

Ease of cancellation:  I was very easily able to stop any additional shipments by logging-in to my Blue Apron online account the day after my first box was received.  Shortly after adjusting my account settings, I received an email confirmation indicating my subscription had been cancelled with a link to restart my deliveries should I choose.

Overall impression:  I was very pleased with the introductory cost, which was one of the lowest I encountered, as well as the freshness and quality of the ingredients, the simplicity of preparation, and the ease of cancellation.  Compared to several of the other meal delivery services I tried during this challenge, I would have appreciated more meal choices and options on the date of delivery (I get why Monday is out, but Tuesday would be better than Wednesday).

Follow-up:  Shortly after cancellation, I received an email coupon offering me $30 off if I reactivated my Blue Apron account.  I elected to redeem that great deal, taking a gamble by signing-up through Ebates again to try and redeem that stellar $7.50 rebate.  It’s yet to post, but once it does – or doesn’t – I’ll report back to confirm whether it’s only available for first time orders.  Otherwise, you could try for 550 Southwest Rapid Reward or 400 United miles.

This is the first post in a series offering reviews of the top meal delivery services, and tips and tricks on how to get these shipped straight to your kitchen for a fraction of the advertised price.  Other posts include A Low Price for Plated, How to Hack Hello Fresh, and Home Chef Coupons and Cash Back.