I'm sure you all have seen the ads on Twitter, deals on Facebook, Influencers sharing it on Instagram Stories, YouTubers doing plugs of it in their Vlogs... everywhere. You know, the "get $80 off your first month!" HelloFresh ads. I'm not going to lie, I kept ignoring them thinking that I don't need to add another subscription service onto my account, and plus, is it really worth the hype?

Well, I eventually caved, and here are my thoughts.

Hello Fresh Review - my honest thoughts

Hi friends!

If you read my July Monthly wrap-up post last week then you may know that I have started ordering HelloFresh boxes last month to try out. I have been seeing the ad for this meal delivery service everywhere (props to their marketing team, am I right?) for a while now and decided to cave in and try it out for myself. I've done about three boxes now and thought it'd be helpful to give you all my honest reviews of the service.

This is by no means sponsored and I know it would have been helpful for me to get an unbiased insight on the service beforehand. I hope this helps you all out that may be curious about HelloFresh / on the fence about trying it out!


Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Spiced Dijon Salmon with Couscous and Apple Salad

ABOUT HELLOFRESH

If you are not familiar with HelloFresh, Hellofresh is a meal subscription service that delivers ready-to-cook recipes to your doorstep. The main selling point for HelloFresh is that each recipe comes with perfectly portioned ingredients so you eliminate the waste of going out to buy one ingredient for a recipe and never using it again.

When you sign up for the service you begin with choosing what type of meal plan you'd like with your preferences such as meat & veggies, vegetarian, family-friendly, or calorie smart along with the number of people you are feeding and how many recipes per week you'd like to be delivered. You do have the option to make specific dietary preferences such as recipes that are beef-free, gluten-free, etc.

The different plans HelloFresh offer include:

  • Classic plan for two people: three meals for $69, four meals for $84.99, five meals for $99
  • Family plan for four people: two meals for $79.95, three meals for $105 or $8.75 per meal, per person
  • Veggie plan for two people and two meals for $59, four people and three meals for $109

Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Truffled Chive Mashed Potatoes and Lemony Green Beans *gourmet meal*

After you make choose your plan, you are able to choose which meals you'd like to be delivered to you. The service automatically chooses your meals for you, but you have the option to go in and select specific recipes as well. The menu changes every week and you are able to skip weeks if you don't like the menu/don't want the service for that week.

I will say, HelloFresh does offer a nice variety of meals to choose from each week. They have a variety of Asian, Mexican, and American food options as well as calorie smart meals and gourmet meals for an additional cost. They also offer the option to add on additional items such as cookies and garlic bread for an additional cost as well as an option to add an additional recipe to your plan for that week.

HelloFresh does offer an app and I do recommend downloading it as it makes it easier to navigate through picking your meals and when you are ready to cook, there are timers set to each step which makes it convenient.

Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Chimichurri Pork Tenderloin with Honey-Roasted Carrots and Lime Rice

THE GOODS

Now diving into the actual contents of the box. Each box comes filled with insulation and massive ice packs to ensure your food stays fresh. Not going to lie, having to dispose of all of the packaging is kind of a pain, but the ice packs did come in handy when moving my brother out and transferring his food!

Another thing to keep in mind is that the box does not include the cooking basics such as olive oil, salt, pepper, and oil. I will tell you ahead, you will use all of these in pretty much every recipe. I also recommend making sure you have a zester on hand as well. Most of the recipes we chose require some type of lemon or lime to be zested into our dish. 

Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Southwest Tilapia with Charred Corn Salad and Buttery Lime Rice


THE COOKING PROCESS

As for the cooking process, each meal comes with a recipe card with step-by-step instructions and pictures. Everything is pretty easy to follow and according to the recipe card, each recipe should take about 30 minutes to make. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the cooking time, especially if you're cooking by yourself. My boyfriend and I usually do the HelloFresh boxes together as a little date night and it still tends to take a little longer than the recipe cards state that it would take even with the both of us cooking.

*Pro Tip: Save all the recipe cards for the future! I keep mine in a binder and pull them out when we want to recreate the recipe or a sauce from it! 

Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Brown Sugar-Glazed Pork Chops with Garlic Herb Couscous and Roasted Zucchini


REVIEW: PROS

Okay, now for the actual review portion of this post!

1. Conveniently portioned + Easy cooking instructions - First off, being someone who wants to try new recipes and get into cooking more, this box is pretty ideal. I love how each recipe is perfectly portioned out with easy cooking instructions and all of the ingredients have been pretty fresh, as advertised. Also, everything we've made has been delicious which is pretty important for a meal service!

2. Easy to cancel/skip each week - I also love how you can easily skip each week that you're not feeling any of the meals or if you just simply don't want to pay for the service that week. Also, if you realize the service just isn't you or if you want to just put a pause on the service for a while you can easily cancel the membership with a click of a button, unlike many subscription services where you have to call customer service. To reactive it's just as easy, you just have to click a button.

3. Good gateway to try new recipes - We've been there, we pin all of these recipes on Pinterest in hopes that one day we'll recreate them. I tend o get sucked into this recipe rut because I'm always hesitant about trying new recipes that require me to buy an ingredient that I'm not sure if I would ever use again. I will say from this there are several things I would definitely recreate again in the future.


Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with Creamy Tomato Spaghetti

REVIEW: CONS

1. The price - first and foremost, my biggest con with this service is the price. At a little over $60 for three meals for two people, it seems a bit much for me, personally. I guess it's at which perspective you look at it though.  My boyfriend and I use HelloFresh as a date night activity where we get to spend time cooking together and share a bottle of wine. From that perspective then $20 a meal isn't that bad of a deal considering we'd spend more if we were to do date night out at a restaurant. On the flip side, with $60 I'm able to do grocery shopping for a whole week with breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus snacks. Considering I tried HelloFresh with a coupon and was able to get the boxes for about $30 each making it roughly $10/meal it seemed more worth it for me.

2. There's a lot of packaging - I've mentioned earlier that the box comes with a lot of packaging with the ice packs, insulation, individually wrapped ingredients, etc that there's a lot of *stuff* to dispose of. I do understand the purpose of all the packaging, but it is a bit annoying having to dispose of all of it.

3. No option for a single meal plan - The smallest meal plan that HelloFresh offers is two meals for two people. Depending on what meals you pick, this could work out if you wanted to order the service for yourself and have leftovers. This isn't that big of a con, only if you're not into leftover meals!

4. Having to plan time for delivery - for the service, you do have an option to pick which day you'd like your HelloFresh box to be delivered. I work your typical 9 - 5, Monday - Friday, and opt for a Saturday delivery since I'm more likely to be at home to bring the box inside. I will say it can be a little inconvenient having to wait around for the box to be delivered since it doesn't give you a time frame of when it will be dropped off, and even though with the ice packs and insulation it could potentially sit out on your doorstep for a little, the idea of food sitting outside for a period of time doesn't sit well with me. 


Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Amazing Apricot Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes and Green Beans


FINAL VERDICT:

I think it is clear to say that I'm a fan of HelloFresh. I love the convenience of not having to fight the Sunday night grocery crowd trying to figure out what meals I'm going to make for the week and having to lug arm fulls of groceries up three flights of stairs (#truth). I also think it's super fun to step out of your comfort zone and try new recipes and ingredients that you would normally not gravitate towards (who knew that I would like pork chops?!).

My biggest con with the service is the price. From a business standpoint, I get why it costs so much, but I'm not at the point to be comfortable spending $60+ on a box every week for dinner. I did mention that I did do the service on a first-timer $80 off coupon which is why I've been able to do as many boxes as I did. I may consider ordering a box once a month or a special occasion to switch things up for date night or if I especially love the recipe for the week, but definitely don't see this as a regular occurrence, at least for now.  


Gourmet meals, is it worth it? 

Out of all our meals, we did try one gourmet meal, the Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Truffled Chive Mashed Potatoes and Lemony Green Beans (second photo). What made this a *gourmet meal* was the truffle powder included in the mashed potatoes. This was an additional $5.99/person and to be honest, I don't think it was quite worth it. We've yet to try another gourmet meal, but so far none of the recipes that are marked as gourmet seemed to interest me / worth it to me. 


Hello Fresh Review
Pictured: Pulled Pork Fiesta Bowls with Tomato Salsa, Bell Pepper, and Monterey Jack Cheese

So, now I'm throwing it to you guys! What do you think? Have you tried HelloFresh or any similar meal delivery service? If so let me know your thoughts down below! I think it is a cool concept and a fun way to learn new recipes, but I am interested in trying out the other meal services to compare. Leave me your suggestions down below and as always, thank you for reading!

*Non-sponsored plug: if you want to try HelloFresh, you can use my code: AMYLIM6 for $40 off your first box! 
xoxo,
Amy

16 comments:

  1. why do you need a meal delivery service for chicken, potato and beans. Even an 8 year old could pick the ingredients and cook that.

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  2. That apricot chicken looks so good! Completely agree about the price. You end up paying premium for convenience. The variety was nice, and I did discover an all-time favorite recipe thanks to HelloFresh. I never upgraded to the gourmet meals, but I'm glad I skipped on that after reading your thoughts. Price and the amount of packaging waste was the main reason for ending my subscription!

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  3. This is excellent information which is shared by you. This information is meaningful and magnificent for us to increase our knowledge about it. Home Delivery Meals for seniors

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  4. I love the service because it actually saves me money. When I grocery shop I do a lot of impulse buying because I always seem to be shopping when I’m hungry. This delivery service keeps me out of the grocery store! 👍

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  5. My husband and i just completed our first week with HelloFresh and we're in love! He is not overjoyed with the price, but loves the time we spend in the kitchen together making the meals. The flavors are amazing and I find myself looking forward to trying recipes I would never have tried otherwise. The article is spot on, but the only thing not addressed are the "free boxes" we give to friends and family... do we pay for those or are they really"free"?

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  6. When I just got my first order from hello fresh my 2 hamburger packages had a whole in both of them leaking blood everywhere. They did give me a credit for that but I can’t use it because my 2nd box already had 20% off which I have 4 people! It’s stupid because it was their fault so why would I keep this subscription and can’t use some money I was reimbursed on my 2nd box! Naw I told them that and unsubscribed tonight! I can’t trust them after that!

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    Replies
    1. Had a similar experience with spoiled pack of chicken. So ending up having to go out for new food anyways.. so more of a headache then a help!

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    2. I had a similar situation, then I called the next morning and they actually did provide me a free box in credit. So I stuck with it and haven't had another issue yet, thankfully.

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  7. We really enjoy most of the meals, but the bombarding ads and upselling is soooo annoying, and the deals are rather misleading.

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  8. I have not tried hello fresh, but my most recent two that I tried was green Chef (same. Company) and dinnerly. My main complaint is that our family has 3 adults, and I have to pay extra for a 4 person meal, just to feed our family. Cost of a 4 person, without deals is $105 for 3 nights meals. That's $35 a meal and a bit hefty. On the whole Green Chef was so superior to Dinnerly. Green Chef basically has a whole meal, meat, veggie, grain, whereas Dinnerly was basically meat and veggie, with me having to add a grain to make it a whole meal. Both allow me to select gluten free which is a "must" in my family. So, I kind of like Green Chef but not the pricing. After summer is over, we might go back and try again, but like you, it won't be a weekly thing.

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  9. I get the two plan fot two people and I find it is too little food in it, considering my husband is a sport man and would it twice I do, but even for me, I think it wouldn't give me two meals for myself. But haven't see others complaining about it, so maybe it's just me?

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  10. How do you spend only $60 for an entire week’s worth of food for two people? I go through a $15 bag of coffee beans every week. You’re saying you can feed two people breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a whole week in just $60???

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  11. Hi ! Thank you for this comment, i was really interesting !

    I'm studying hello fresh and i've created a survey about it, can you please respond?

    Thank you so much !

    https://survey.smith.queensu.ca/jfe/form/SV_29RSoq4GMLR1riC

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  12. I wonder if post-pandemic and as a result of inflation the prices aren’t more worth it. When I go grocery shopping for a meal for two now it comes up to 60$ REALLY fast.

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  13. The amount of waste in packaging is horrendous.

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