Reviews/advice for meal subscription services

[LeafOnTheWind]

I was thinking about signing up for Home Chef or something similar but wanted to get some reviews from people who have tried these. As a single person I find it hard to cook some recipes without getting a lot of excess ingredients. Sometimes I end up eating the same thing for a week. The prepackaged amount I need for 1 serving is appealing.

I am most interested in the following:

1. Variety - I really like to try new things so this is really high on my list of what I'm looking for
2. Plan flexibility - can I cancel a delivery easily or is there a required minimum to purchase?
3. Taste
4. Price

So far I've seen the best reviews for Blue Apron, Home Chef and Hello Fresh. I would welcome some feedback from anyone here who has personal experience with these as well or any others they may recommend.

 

[rfisher]

I've used blue apron. In order the variety is okish. After a while ingredients got a little redundent, but it's partly an issue of using sturdy vegetables that hold up well to shipping. Lots of differemt spices and ive tried a lot of new things. Flexibility the offer several options and cancelling is simple
Taste good. Price more than if you purchased the food locally, especially if there is a farmers market, but you don't have to eat the same food for a week. Don't get the catfish. The recipes for it were awful, but im a southeren catfish purist

 

[hanca]

I am not sure how you end up eating the same food for a week? If I cook too much, I freeze it and have it in a week time rather than eating the whole week the same food.

My father in law used to have his meals delivered. It wasn’t particularly tasty, but I guess at his age he did not want to bother cooking and he never cared too much about his food as long as it was hot.

I am quite a lazy cook, but also quite picky. I have about 20 quick meals that I keep alternating, but I never claim to be a chef and therefore I don’t use any special ingredients; I just keep it simple. If I waste less than 30 minutes of my time with cooking, I am happy. (Obviously, if I do a roast joint, it is in the owen much longer but as I don’t have to spend my time on it, I don’t mind).

 

[mackiecat]

I tried 3 different ones. I liked Hello Fresh the best, but it was the most expensive. I liked it better in the summer when there is better variety. I like trying the new recipes. It is nice to try out new spices and cooking technique. I found a few recipes that I have made over and over
You can skip weeks and there is some choice in the dishes. I found if you cancel, in a month they send you a 40% off upon to come back.

 

[oleada]

I’ve tried all 3 of them, as well as Sun Basket. I think Sun Basket was the least flexible in terms of delivery. I liked their recipes but my husband did not. He is very picky and also has some dietary restrictions due to Crohn’s disease. Hello Fresh was his favorite but I found it too carb heavy. I don’t like having too many carbs at night. I also thought their recipes were the plainest of the bunch. We both liked HomeChef (though we did that a while ago so I can’t remember why we liked it). Blue Apron we had mixed success with - one of the recipes was a total flop! When we did it, there were certain combinations that you could not pick, which was limiting. I think that has changed now.

HelloFresh kept calling me a million times after we cancelled to try to restart.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

My coworker is trying them all and so far their favorite is HomeChef because they really liked the low carb options. I say listen to podcasts and get awesome coupons for them all and try them all - none require a huge commitment. He gives me copies of recipes so I can make them on my own. A favorite was baked tomatoes with herbs and cheese.