After four weeks of deliveries and 13 recipes tried, I have some thoughts on my experience with HelloFresh. Unfortunately, I only really got to photograph five of the meals, because well, I was hungry and photoshoots take time. Regardless, this HelloFresh review should still give you an insight to whether you should try it or not.
I actually tried HelloFresh before back in 2017, but I only had to feed myself, and I don’t eat a lot, so it ended up not being worth it. However, now that I’m married, and my husband is 6’6″ tall, I thought it would be good to revisit meal delivery services. My work life can be extremely busy and there may be 12-hr or 16-hr days, so sometimes I’m either too tired or not have enough time to think of a nice, balanced meal to make. I decided to try different types of meal kit subscription services to see which ones would be best for our situation that can help supplement our usual meal plans.
This is not a sponsored post. However, if you are interested in trying HelloFresh, you can use my referral link here to get $100 off (spread out in a few deliveries), and I get a $10 credit.
Overview
HelloFresh is a meal kit subscription service where you choose a meal plan that works for you, and they send you what you need every week. You decide how many meals per week and for how many people. Besides the recipe cards with the cooking instructions, you also receive the ingredients pre-portioned in brown baggies and delivered in an insulated box. The only thing they assume you have on hand are salt, pepper, sugar, oil, and butter.
You can choose about 2-5 meals per week, and you can skip a week if you feel like you don’t need it.
The Meals
You can choose from the following preferences:
- Calorie Smart Preference: marketed as “wholesome, nutritionally dense, and balanced meals,” these are three featured meals that are around 650 calories per serving
- Quick Preference: simple meals that take 30 minutes or less to make
- Family Friendly Preference: meals that have recipes they think kids might enjoy
You also have an option to customize your meal plans based on these protein-specific preferences: beef-free, pork-free, seafood-free, and veggie. They do not offer gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, keto, paleo, or vegan options. However, you can always leave out certain ingredients if you feel like they don’t align with your meal preferences.
I’ve liked almost all the recipes I’ve received so far. The balance has been good, and I like the use of ingredients in each meal. Some may seem a bit simple, but to be honest, I do appreciate not having to deal with too many ingredients each meal. The instructions are fairly clear as well, and even though they say they limit it to only six steps, there are mini steps in each of those that add up to more than six, but that’s a minor thing. I’m also a fan of them minimizing the number of tools, pans, etc. you need in a meal. And if you’re following their instructions, which forces you to multitask, most of the meals really did take only 30 minutes or less.
My one complaint about the meals is that the servings have good portions for me, but probably a bit small for my husband. Granted, he’s never complained about the portions, but I did double up my order for certain recipes to make sure he can have seconds.
The Pricing
In general, you can probably expect around $8-$12 per serving, not including any potential shipping costs.
For transparency, I do want to point out that I used a discount for HelloFresh, which also included a shipping discount. As a returning customer, they offered some amount to be taken out of the price spread out across four deliveries. I chose their Classic plan of 5 meals for two people. The normal price is $99.90 a week, which is about $9.99 per serving. Not too shabby considering the convenience of having a service like this. It takes the thinking out of the equation, and the pre-portioned ingredients they send you minimize waste.
For my particular deliveries, here’s the breakdown of cost:
- Delivery 1 – total: $49.85 ($99.90 – $50.05); $5.00 per meal per person
- Delivered to the wrong address. This was my fault, but they were kind enough to refund me when I contacted customer service. However, I was not able to use the discount for another delivery.
- Delivery 2 – total paid: $58.22 ($99.90 – $41.68); $5.82 per meal per person
- Beef meatballs with bulgogi sauce
- Oven-baked parmesan chicken
- Caramelized onion Swissburgs
- Seared steak with demi reduction (ordered 4 servings instead of 2)
- Delivery 3 – total paid: $78.92 ($99.90 – $20.98); $7.89 per meal per person
- Cheesy smothered mushroom chicken
- Chicken and biscuit pot pie
- Sheet pan walnut-crusted chicken
- Lemon cream chicken cutlets
- Sheet pan turkey meatball flatbreads
- Delivery 4 – total paid: $84.91 ($99.90 – $14.99); $8.49 per meal per person
- Crunchy Italian chicken sheet pan bake
- Miso apricot salmon (ordered 4 servings instead of 2)
- Chicken sausage and spinach ricotta ravioli
- Creamy lemon butter chicken
The Verdict
I probably won’t mind restarting my subscription for certain weeks even without a discount. They have great-tasting recipes that don’t take much time nor extra stuff to make. Comparing this to eating out, I feel like $9.99 per person per meal is not bad at all. Grocery-shopping is still probably more cost-effective in the long run, but taking the convenience of thinking about what to cook all the time and having this as an option is nice to have.
I still want to evaluate other companies though so I can see what options are out there. I’m very excited to actually try different services. Next up, Marley Spoon!
Wanna Try HelloFresh?
This is not a sponsored post. However, if you are interested in trying HelloFresh, you can use my referral link below to get $100 off (spread out in a few deliveries), and I get a $10 credit.