There are many meal delivery services out there. We have tried several over the years, but we ended up with HelloFresh. Every week we get 5 meals for 2. The other 2 days we either eat out or order take out, give ourselves a little break from cooking.
If you're considering signing up for a meal delivery service, I hope this post will give you the information you need to make an informed decision.
Why meal delivery service is a great idea
There are a few reasons why we use a meal delivery service like HelloFresh:
- Reduces stress. The worst part about cooking is figuring out what to cook. You end up cooking the same things over and over again, getting tired of them, and then just wasting money ordering take-out.
- Introduces new cuisines. Every week the meals are different, from different cuisines. You don't get bored with the same food over and over again. Plus, you get access to cuisines you wouldn't normally go to or think about. For example, a Moroccan-style beef stew.
- Saves money. It might feel like we're spending a lot of money for 5 meals every week ($120 CAD), but we end up saving a lot of money. First, we wasted a lot of money on take-out if we didn't know what we wanted to cook or forgot to defrost meat. Second, we would buy larger quantities of items to cook but then they would end up rotting and going into the compost bin.
- Easy to cook. The instructions are easy to follow (yet I still forget bread in the oven and burn it 😂) and meals take 30-40 minutes.
With work and two kids, this makes our lives a lot easier. One less stressful thing to think about. Plus, our kids love the food, too. Two servings are enough to feed two adults and two little kids. Although we're getting close to needing four servings soon.
Why HelloFress is the best option
This is an opinion, and some will disagree. In our case, after trying Good Food and Cook It, we ended up with HelloFresh in the end. With over 56 boxes later, here's why we continue to use HelloFresh:
- Ingredients. The quality of the ingredients is mostly the same across all three meal delivery services. They all will send rotten and expired ingredients, unfortunately. This was our experience with all of them. You can get credit and refunds for bad ingredients, but don't expect perfection from any of them. HelloFresh, however, will send most of the ingredients you need to cook (other than salt, pepper, butter, and oil). Good Food expected me to have white wine vinegar, which HelloFresh includes.
- Menu quality. The quality of the meals and the number of meals available to choose from is by far the best with HelloFresh. They are larger, so they do have a better selection. This is especially true for vegetarians and vegans, although we're neither one of those. My wife thinks that HelloFresh has tastier meals, which I agree with.
- Easy instructions. This is not a huge issue and might not be an issue for others. However, I find HelloFresh instructions to be much easier to follow and understand. I didn't really like following Good Food or Cook It instructions. The best way I can describe that feeling is the difference between driving on a smooth road versus driving on a road full of potholes and cracks – on Montreal roads, basically.
- Easy credit. As I mentioned, you'll get bad ingredients from time to time with all meal delivery services. With HelloFresh, it's a lot quicker to get credit for the bad ingredients. I will usually message HelloFresh on Facebook Messenger and send a photo of the bad ingredient. They will credit my account $10 for each bad ingredient or the full amount for that meal if the main ingredient (meat) is bad. It happened once, shrimp expired a day before I could cook it on the 6th day. Support is friendly and easy to deal with, so that's a plus. You can report ingredients in the app, but I find Messenger is quicker.
- Price. HelloFresh is pricier than the other two, but it is well worth it. If HelloFresh is too expensive for you, go with Good Food first, and Cook It as a last resort. All services offer heavy discounts and free boxes for new customers.
That's why we use HelloFresh. Better menu, user-friendly instructions, easy to get credit for bad ingredients, and the price is fair for the service albeit higher than others.
If you're thinking of signing up with HelloFresh in Canada, you can get $90 off by following our rewards link or using our promo code during checkout: HS-8343HZCDJ. You'll get $90 off your first meal delivery and we will get a $25 credit on our account. It's a win-win offer.
If you have any questions about our experience with HelloFresh, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
