Blue Apron vs Hello Fresh vs Plated vs Home Chef – March 2016

Sooo disappointed in Home Chef. I just cancelled my subscription. It’s okay if you don’t need customer service. It’s okay if you never want to cancel your subscription. If you do they still send it and still charge you.

I like Hello Fresh, but I haven’t tried the others. I always skip a month in advance and then review the meals weekly and only order when I find three meals that sound really yummy and/or fun to make. (This also ensures I don’t accidentally get an unexpected order.) i peruse every recipe card in advance to look at all of the ingredients and to decide if I’m feeling up to any cooking challenges I might face. I like that Hello Fresh gives me an opportunity to experiment, as my personal meal repetoire is pretty limited, without requiring me to buy a bunch of ingredients that I’ll never use again. The proteins are always really good, and I like that all their weekly meal choices each represent different proteins and one vegetarian option. For anyone trying a box for the first time, I always tell people to go ahead and skip the next week as soon as you sign up, so you don’t get that second box until you’be had a chance to try all your meals.

I’ve tried Blue Apron n Home Chef. Preparation time is lengthy n fresh herbs tend to be half dried up. Think I will try Simply Fresh n Plated next

Just FYI for anyone considering this CRAP MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE…I received my first order on a Wednesday at approximately 5 pm. I didn’t have time to cook that evening or the next. They charged my debit card for the next shipment FRIDAY AT NOON CENTRAL TIME. I hadn’t even had a chance to try anything at that point and had received it less than 48 hours prior.

They didn’t exactly make this clear and they never even sent me a receipt or notification that I had been charged and would be receiving anything at all. I assumed I would have until at least Saturday morning to cancel. I don’t think it was unreasonable to expect I’d have an opportunity to try the food before being billed for more. The only reason I caught it is because I saw the transaction on my bank’s website. I emailed them immediately and they didn’t bother to respond until – conveniently – they said the order had been processed. Then they treated me like an idiot who doesn’t know how subscription services work.

You’ve been warned. Oh, and the food from the first order was nothing great. If I’d paid $20 for that for two at a café, I would have been disappointed. Let alone $20 to make it and clean up myself. The morons also sent me flat leaf parsley instead of cilantro.

Blue Apron is much better than Plated IF you do not mind getting your food the day before and storing it until needed. They both use Laser Ship. When my Laser Ship Driver came late and I wanted to refuse the delivery he said he would just take it home for himself. So a late delivery = a free box of food. Also Plated’s food is very weak. They are as or more expensive than carry out NOT Worth It!!!

I’ve been loving Hello Fresh – we’re vegetarian (my husband and myself) and they do a box specifically for veggie folks. I love cooking – it’s fun! And the food has been fantastic – sometimes really good, sometimes amazing. There is something revolutionary about the fact that we’re cooking at home now at least 3x/week and making tasty, healthy food. I’m also sort of using Hello Fresh as a diet technique – their meals are well-designed nutrition-wise, so I’m losing weight – and it’s nice looking forward to a memorable home-cooked meal.

I love the comparison review! Thank you for sharing your insight! I just started with Hello Chef this week, and loved it! so convenient and the quality of the ingredients was really good! I think I’ll try these others as well for some variety down the line! 🙂

I find Blue Apron to taste better, offer a better selection, actually have side dishes, and have less problems than HelloFresh, but HelloFresh is easier to prepare for a person who doesn’t have time to spend 30 minutes washing and cutting stuff every night. I wish they had a service that had side dishes (I shouldn’t have to add food when I’m spending $10/person already), had some food prepared (washed greens, chopped garlic, etc), didn’t need garnishes but sometimes prepared needed sauces, and could help me get dinner from door to table in 30 minutes. I have not yet heard of a service that is that easy. I’ve been using Blue Apron for about 5 months and HelloFresh for 2.

I use both Blue Apron (arrives Saturday) and Hello Fresh (arrives Wednesday) for almost two years now. Yep. Six meals a week, then we eat out one night. I try to order the fish option, one red meat (maybe) one chicken and the rest veggie. So I can relate to ALL these comments.

My thoughts?
Yes, Hello Fresh quality was poor for a week or two recently, but they seem to have fixed that. (And for two weeks they experimented with powdered garlic rather than fresh..yuck..but that ended.. I thought they might be having money issues?).

Blue Apron sometimes is quite complicated..veggie burgers? Delicious, but my kitchen was a mess. But I love it, some times the work is easy, other nights I really feel like I’m cooking. Yes, the Blue Apron limits on selection are extremely limiting! Let me choose 3 out of the 5 (like Hello Fresh–3 out of 6!!). I avoid the risotto recipes, anyone who knows how to make risotto will not like the short cut version. But I always order the Hello Fresh pizza…there fresh pizza dough ( whole wheat from Brooklyn) is phenomenally good…and I can’t buy it any where. Oh and when Hello Fresh has steak…I order it, the quality and tenderness is top notch. Finally a comment on the fish. I am usually amazed at how good and fresh the fish is ( once it was sushi grade tuna…wow, I know how much THAT costs.). But, after one try, I avoid the catfish from Blue Apron. Very meh.
As to calories? Well we usually split the meals 3 ways…sometimes I have to add some rice, or a little more pasta, but it works really well. We have found that the portions are way to big. This is the best way to do portion control, you never overeat with these services. ( the proof? My husband has list 60 lbs while on the service, and his weight has now stabilized.)

My one big complaint, that no one has mentioned, is the paucity of vegetables. I usually supplement with a green salad or roasted green veggie. When they do have side veggies, the quantity is quite small. Eight spears of Asparagus for two people is not enough! So we always have extra arugula, some tomatoes, onions, and then some veggies in the fridge. For example, if they have me roasting sweet potatoes, I might add some Brussels sprouts to the pan, no more work, but more veggies.

My grocery trips are very short and focused. We waste almost nothing. Everything in the fridge gets eaten and I love the variety of the six meals. I actually think I am saving money because there is no frivolous purchases, no waste, and we are eating way healthier. ( okay,both services could probably do more brown rice and whole wheat, but they are trying)

We have no plans to quit or switch. ( though I am tempted to try The Purple Carrot)

Thanks for this! I’ve been using Hello Fresh for about a year. The last 3 boxes had problems. The last box had almost nothing usable except the meat. 85% of the produce was moldy. They even forgot to include the recipe cards!! I absolutely loved their meals until now. I’m not sure whats happened to their quality lately, but they have lost me as customer. I am switching service in the next few weeks and was curious about Blue Apron & Plated.

I’ve been Hello Fresh-ing for a while now. I love it. Love the quality, and they are mostly 30 to 45 minutes total. I’m trying Blue Apron this week for the first time, but Hello Fresh’s recipes seem a lot more appealing to me.

We alternate between Home Chef, Plated and Hello Fresh. I think the best produce quality is Hello Fresh, easiest to prepare is Home Chef, and closest to restaurant quality is Plated.

Have you found any services that offer multiple meal choices per week that are low carb/low calorie? I have recently started a diabetic/low carb diet and would love to try a meal service. Unfortunately, most either exceed 500+calories per serving or are very high in carbohydrates.

Yay, love the comparison review!

We’ve been using Plated for about a year and have discovered many new, delicious recipes. I love that I don’t have to think about what to cook twice a week and that we can try new recipes without buying full size ingredients we may never use again. I’m vegetarian and my boyfriend isn’t. There is usually at least one dish for each of us on the weekly menu but sometimes I skip because nothing looks good. I’m a picky eater and sometimes there are ingredients featured that I just don’t like. We have had a few misses, but overall have been happy enough that I think about trying another service so we can have delivery more than once a week.

I love Plated! I find myself making many of the dishes again myself with the recipe cards. I like the fact that you can choose your meals out of a list.

I haven’t tried any of these but those photos are cookbook-worthy!!

We love Home Chef in our house! We’ve never made anything with crusts, but everything we’ve had has been great. It’s been super easy to recreate meals, and you get access to all of their recipes. Customer service has been pretty awesome as well. Great review!

We’ve tried Plated and Home Chef, and found Plated to be the best. We’ve learned new methods and have had the chance to try new ingredients and flavors. There have been a few dishes we weren’t crazy about, but the far majority have been restaurant quality. Home Chef meals weren’t bad but they were mostly bland and were not restuarant quality.

Great review! Loved seeing a real side by side comparison.

We have been plated customers for a couple of years now and they truly never disappoint. Their recipes are always so delicious (of course we like some more than others) and we recreate the ones we really like because the ingredients and preparation is not ridiculous. We’ve recently tried Home Chef and it’s comparable.. maybe just not AS tasty as the Plated recipes. Blue Apron was a big strike out with us, I don’t like that they practically choose your meals!

I recently just cancelled Blue Apron after about a year. I found the food to be delicious! But it took way too long to prepare, IMO. Sometimes at the end, I’d realize I went through all the work for a sauce to drizzle on top, which seemed a bit much.
Which service did you think was the easiest to prepare?