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No matter your fitness goals — muscle gain, simple maintenance, weight loss, etc. — having your nutrition dialed in is a must. Unfortunately, though, finding the time to shop for your groceries can be harder than your last workout. The best meal delivery services can help, bringing all your ingredients and meals directly to your doorstep for more convenient meal prepping....
The post The 8 Best Meal Delivery Services of 2023 appeared first on BarBend.
No matter your fitness goals — muscle gain, simple maintenance, weight loss, etc. — having your nutrition dialed in is a must. Unfortunately, though, finding the time to shop for your groceries can be harder than your last workout. The best meal delivery services can help, bringing all your ingredients and meals directly to your doorstep for more convenient meal prepping. Additionally, these kits and packages can make it easier to follow along with specific dietary needs like veganism, pescatarianism, keto, and more.
Meal delivery services are extremely popular nowadays, meaning there’s no shortage of options to choose from. This abundance can be great for catering to your specific dietary needs, but makes it difficult to find the ideal service from the start. To help ensure your taste for meal delivery services isn’t spoiled prematurely, we got our hands on over 40 flavorful kits, conducted plenty of research, and consulted with outside customer reviews to determine our eight favorite meal delivery options available today.
The 8 Best Meal Delivery Services of 2023
How We Tested
The BarBend team is made up of competitive athletes, certified personal trainers, and lifelong fitness enthusiasts. We’re constantly looking to make our daily schedules more efficient as we balance work, training, sleep, social lives, and (of course) proper nutrition, so we understand how beneficial a meal delivery service can be.
For this round-up, we tested 42 different platforms, taking a close look at each offered menu as it related to our daily dietary needs. We compared how robust each service’s menu was in terms of offered dishes, because let’s face it — eating the same meal over and over can quickly lead to flavor fatigue. We also examined how supportive these services could be for other dietary restrictions like plant-based or low-carb requirements.
Delivery range and frequency were also researched for this guide. We wanted to ensure that the platforms were capable of keeping our fridges stocked for a week’s worth of eating, and where the meals could actually be sent to our doorsteps in the first place.
Finally, meal delivery services can be more convenient than your typical trip to the grocery store, but that relies on how expensive the service is on a per meal basis. Prices for the average meal were closely compared to help you better weigh the pros and cons associated with this nutritional outlet.
Editor’s note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. It’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor before beginning a new fitness, nutritional, and/or supplement routine.
Best Meal Delivery Service Overall: Home Chef
Home Chef
Home Chef
A nationwide meal kit service with bold flavors, a diverse menu, and easy-to-follow recipes. Meals are also sortable by dietary restrictions and preferences.
Shop Home Chef
Specs
Pros
Cons
Thanks to a robust menu that rotates weekly with new offerings, reasonable prices, and the option to choose both prepared or kit dishes, we think Home Chef is the best meal delivery service out there. Meals start at roughly $10 per serving, according to the brand, and adjust depending on the week’s availability as well as the size of your order.
Plus, Home Chef caters to a number of dietary needs — the company has you pick between preferences such as Vegetarian, Calorie-Conscious, Carb-Conscious, Keto-Friendly, and Gluten-Smart at your initial sign-up. Each recipe also has detailed breakdowns of its nutritional content, which our tester found to be helpful when calculating their macronutrients.
Home Chef Delivery Box
Admittedly, though, determining your macro splits with a given meal can be a challenge, as the nutritional info is only available online. This can make it difficult to choose between your ordered meals when trying to decide on a dish in the moment.
Additionally, the options are more general, so those following strict diets like Paleo or keto may reach the end of their available dishes more easily than others. We were only able to locate six meals across the weekly menu marked as “keto-friendly,” for example.
From a preparation standpoint, we appreciate the simplicity of Home Chef, as there’s an option for almost any schedule. The brand offers classic meal kits that, according to our tester, take between 25 and 30 minutes. There are also “Oven-Ready,” and “Fast and Fresh” meals that take just a few minutes to assemble before being heated up in the oven or microwave. We also appreciate how you can mix in these meals with your weekly order, giving you a little wiggle room to plan your nutrition when you know your upcoming schedule will be hectic or busy.
Home Chef is a subscription service, so be prepared to routinely check your orders before your meals get sent out. This may be less ideal for some budgets, especially if you’re forgetful when it comes to managing upcoming orders. Thankfully, though, our tester noted that you can skip weekly purchases easily when needed.
Read our full Home Chef Review.
Best Meal Kit Delivery Service: Sunbasket
Sunbasket
Sunbasket
Sunbasket’s meal delivery service can be excellent for a wide range of dietary needs, including Paleo, vegetarian, Mediterranean, diabetes-friendly, and more. Meal kits and prepared dishes are available with the platform, allowing you to cater your prep time to your schedule with ease.
Shop Sunbasket
Specs
Pros
Cons
Sunbasket earns its spot within this round-up thanks to its impressive meal variety of roughly 20 weekly offerings. We appreciate the robust menu that caters to a wide range of diets, too, including gluten-free and diabetes-friendly. According to our tester, the individual ingredients are packaged neatly, and the pre-portioned makeup makes getting into a recipe a breeze. With an average cooking time of roughly 30 minutes, meals can go from doorstep to dinner table quickly.
We also appreciate how Sunbasket offers “Fresh and Ready” meals as well as pre-portioned kits. These can be great solutions for those time-crunched evenings when you don’t have time to prepare a hearty dish. These meal options can also be great for athletes that have fewer kitchen tools at their disposal — normal meal kits will require some common essentials like bowls, cutting boards, knives, spatulas, and other kitchenware.
Taste wise, our tester noted that the Sunbasket meals were solid but not fantastic. They often needed to doctor their servings with added spices and sauces. Of course, every palette is different, so take our feedback with a grain of salt (or maybe have some tableside in case of emergency).
Sunbasket Appearance
The one callout we do have, though, relates to the portion size. Sunbasket’s meals are smaller than others our tester had at their disposal. The portions left them still hungry post-meal on a handful of occasions. This can be a problem for high-intensity athletes that need a high caloric count to fuel their training and performance.
Additionally, your orders are capped at four meals per week, so if you need the extra intake, you may need to add some extra servings or choose from the brand’s a la carte offerings of breakfast, snacks, grab-and-go lunch options, and specialty meats. Both of these alternatives will up your final price, though, so be sure your budget is able to accommodate.
Read our full Sunbasket Review.
Best Meal Delivery Service for Families: Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh
This meal delivery service can be great for families thanks to over 100 rotating meal and market offerings as well as the ability to receive up to eight meals per week. Recipes are simple to follow, and cleanup is typically kept to just a handful of kitchenware.
Shop Hello Fresh
Specs
Pros
Cons
If you’re looking for a meal delivery service that caters to your entire family, we recommend Hello Fresh. The weekly offerings total over 100 meal and market items, which is great for pleasing every palette in your house. Additionally, we love how simple and intuitive the recipe cards are during preparation — they’re so easy, according to our tester, that even your children can get in on the cooking without difficulty.
Hello Fresh also earns our praise because of the limited cleanup we experienced in testing. Our tester noted that most meals required just a bowl or two (and some minimal kitchenware) for prep, which kept more time post-meal reserved for family engagement.
Despite the name, though, our tester did state that freshness wasn’t as consistent as they’d prefer. While no issues arose with dairy or meat ingredients, produce was sometimes lackluster with soft bits or wilted leaves. Plus, some meal kits arrived with melted ice packs and crumpled boxes, but we attribute this more so to the delivery services that vary from area to area.
Hello Fresh Meal Prepared
Hello Fresh has multiple meal kit subscriptions, allowing you to order up to eight meals per week. You have a handful of options for plant-based and seafood-rich dishes, but athletes needing more restricted plates, like those catering to gluten or soy allergies, may be left with less variety. Additionally, our tester noted that portion sizes can seem small in some dishes leading to some lingering post-meal hunger, but their stomach adjusted to the sizing over time. They attributed this to their tendency for over-eating before starting with the service, as well.
Lastly, Hello Fresh is a subscription-based service, so you’ll need to plan for weekly check-ins with your orders. You do have the option to skip shipments weekly, and swapping out certain proteins or adding meals is fairly easy. Overall, Hello Fresh can be a great way to keep your entire family’s nutrition in-check as they learn to enjoy the benefits of a home-cooked meal. (1)
Read our full Hello Fresh Review.
Best Value Meal Delivery Service: Dinnerly
Dinnerly
Dinnerly
With meals starting at just $4.99 per serving, Dinnerly can be a great meal delivery service for athletes on a budget. Preparation is kept simple with five-step recipes, and there are even ready-made options for those particularly time-crunched evenings.
Shop Dinnerly
Specs
Pros
Cons
Meal delivery services can often be more affordable than your weekly trips to the grocery store, especially when you factor in the time savings. However, certain platforms really lean into that budget-friendly aesthetic, including Dinnerly. Meals can start at just $4.99 and fluctuate according to your tastes and meal quantities per week. Plus, there are options for meal kits and prepared meals alike, giving you a little variety when it comes to actually getting your dishes to the dinner table.
We also appreciate how Dinnerly keeps preparation simple with its recipes. According to the brand, the instructions routinely house just five steps — a great option for those less versed in cooking or those routinely on a time crunch. Our tester did note, though, that the meal kits don’t come with physical recipe cards, so you’ll need to have your laptop or smartphone handy to follow along with the instructions during prep.
Dinnerly’s menu has a wide array of options with over 100 recipes to choose from on a weekly basis. We enjoyed this variety in testing, and especially liked how the brand offers meals that cater to specific dietary restrictions. We were able to find gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-calorie options when building out our weekly orders.
Speaking of shipping, our tester had no issues with packaging, but did note that ingredients aren’t separated as neatly as other meal delivery services. The meats and dairy items were individually wrapped, but produce was sort of placed into the box without any rhyme or reason. It wasn’t a big issue in testing, but it does require a little more attention when unboxing your kit before dinner.
Lastly, the tastes of Dinnerly meals range from good to mediocre, according to our tester. The fresh ingredients cooked up nicely for a flavorful end result, but the prepared meals seemed to resemble that of a TV dinner more often than not. Edible, yes, but not the most flavor-packed offering we found during our...
Click here to view the article.
The post The 8 Best Meal Delivery Services of 2023 appeared first on BarBend.
No matter your fitness goals — muscle gain, simple maintenance, weight loss, etc. — having your nutrition dialed in is a must. Unfortunately, though, finding the time to shop for your groceries can be harder than your last workout. The best meal delivery services can help, bringing all your ingredients and meals directly to your doorstep for more convenient meal prepping. Additionally, these kits and packages can make it easier to follow along with specific dietary needs like veganism, pescatarianism, keto, and more.
Meal delivery services are extremely popular nowadays, meaning there’s no shortage of options to choose from. This abundance can be great for catering to your specific dietary needs, but makes it difficult to find the ideal service from the start. To help ensure your taste for meal delivery services isn’t spoiled prematurely, we got our hands on over 40 flavorful kits, conducted plenty of research, and consulted with outside customer reviews to determine our eight favorite meal delivery options available today.
The 8 Best Meal Delivery Services of 2023
- Best Meal Delivery Service Overall: Home Chef
- Best Meal Kit Delivery Service: Sunbasket
- Best Meal Delivery Service for Families: Hello Fresh
- Best Value Meal Delivery Service: Dinnerly
- Best Meal Delivery Service for Variety: Sunbasket
- Best Organic Meal Delivery Service: Green Chef
- Best Meal Delivery Service for Weight Loss: Factor 75
- Best Vegan Meal Delivery Service: Purple Carrot
How We Tested
The BarBend team is made up of competitive athletes, certified personal trainers, and lifelong fitness enthusiasts. We’re constantly looking to make our daily schedules more efficient as we balance work, training, sleep, social lives, and (of course) proper nutrition, so we understand how beneficial a meal delivery service can be.
For this round-up, we tested 42 different platforms, taking a close look at each offered menu as it related to our daily dietary needs. We compared how robust each service’s menu was in terms of offered dishes, because let’s face it — eating the same meal over and over can quickly lead to flavor fatigue. We also examined how supportive these services could be for other dietary restrictions like plant-based or low-carb requirements.
Delivery range and frequency were also researched for this guide. We wanted to ensure that the platforms were capable of keeping our fridges stocked for a week’s worth of eating, and where the meals could actually be sent to our doorsteps in the first place.
Finally, meal delivery services can be more convenient than your typical trip to the grocery store, but that relies on how expensive the service is on a per meal basis. Prices for the average meal were closely compared to help you better weigh the pros and cons associated with this nutritional outlet.
Editor’s note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. It’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor before beginning a new fitness, nutritional, and/or supplement routine.
Best Meal Delivery Service Overall: Home Chef
Home Chef
Home Chef
A nationwide meal kit service with bold flavors, a diverse menu, and easy-to-follow recipes. Meals are also sortable by dietary restrictions and preferences.
Shop Home Chef
Specs
- Price Per Meal: Starting at $9.99
- Type: Meal Kit or Prepared
- Meals Per Week: Up to Six
- Delivery Range: Contiguous United States
- Diets Available: Vegetarian, Calorie-Conscious, Carb-Conscious, Keto-Friendly, Gluten-Smart
Pros
- The menu updates weekly with new meal options to prevent flavor fatigue.
- Home Chef boasts multiple meal styles from full prep kits to microwave-ready dishes.
- Orders can accommodate up to six people, which can be great for families.
Cons
- Meal options may be too limited for athletes with strict dietary needs.
- The subscription-based service isn’t for all athletes, but you can skip or cancel anytime.
- Our tester noted occasional issues with produce freshness.
Thanks to a robust menu that rotates weekly with new offerings, reasonable prices, and the option to choose both prepared or kit dishes, we think Home Chef is the best meal delivery service out there. Meals start at roughly $10 per serving, according to the brand, and adjust depending on the week’s availability as well as the size of your order.
Plus, Home Chef caters to a number of dietary needs — the company has you pick between preferences such as Vegetarian, Calorie-Conscious, Carb-Conscious, Keto-Friendly, and Gluten-Smart at your initial sign-up. Each recipe also has detailed breakdowns of its nutritional content, which our tester found to be helpful when calculating their macronutrients.
Home Chef Delivery Box
Admittedly, though, determining your macro splits with a given meal can be a challenge, as the nutritional info is only available online. This can make it difficult to choose between your ordered meals when trying to decide on a dish in the moment.
Additionally, the options are more general, so those following strict diets like Paleo or keto may reach the end of their available dishes more easily than others. We were only able to locate six meals across the weekly menu marked as “keto-friendly,” for example.
From a preparation standpoint, we appreciate the simplicity of Home Chef, as there’s an option for almost any schedule. The brand offers classic meal kits that, according to our tester, take between 25 and 30 minutes. There are also “Oven-Ready,” and “Fast and Fresh” meals that take just a few minutes to assemble before being heated up in the oven or microwave. We also appreciate how you can mix in these meals with your weekly order, giving you a little wiggle room to plan your nutrition when you know your upcoming schedule will be hectic or busy.
Home Chef is a subscription service, so be prepared to routinely check your orders before your meals get sent out. This may be less ideal for some budgets, especially if you’re forgetful when it comes to managing upcoming orders. Thankfully, though, our tester noted that you can skip weekly purchases easily when needed.
Read our full Home Chef Review.
Best Meal Kit Delivery Service: Sunbasket
Sunbasket
Sunbasket
Sunbasket’s meal delivery service can be excellent for a wide range of dietary needs, including Paleo, vegetarian, Mediterranean, diabetes-friendly, and more. Meal kits and prepared dishes are available with the platform, allowing you to cater your prep time to your schedule with ease.
Shop Sunbasket
Specs
- Price Per Meal: Starting at $10
- Type: Meal Kit or Prepared
- Meals Per Week: Four
- Delivery Range: Contiguous United States excluding Montana, North Dakota, and parts of New Mexico
- Diets Available: Paleo, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Carb-Conscious, Keto-Friendly, Mediterranean, Diabetes-Friendly, Pescatarian
Pros
- The meal kits come pre-portioned and take between 20 and 30 minutes to prepare.
- The service offers a la carte options for breakfast, snacks, grab-and-go lunches, and specialty meats.
- Sunbasket caters to a variety of diets, including Paleo, gluten-free, and diabetes-friendly.
Cons
- You can only order up to four meals per week with this meal delivery service.
- Our tester noted that portions can be on the smaller side.
- Sunbasket’s delivery range is smaller than other meal delivery services we tested.
Sunbasket earns its spot within this round-up thanks to its impressive meal variety of roughly 20 weekly offerings. We appreciate the robust menu that caters to a wide range of diets, too, including gluten-free and diabetes-friendly. According to our tester, the individual ingredients are packaged neatly, and the pre-portioned makeup makes getting into a recipe a breeze. With an average cooking time of roughly 30 minutes, meals can go from doorstep to dinner table quickly.
We also appreciate how Sunbasket offers “Fresh and Ready” meals as well as pre-portioned kits. These can be great solutions for those time-crunched evenings when you don’t have time to prepare a hearty dish. These meal options can also be great for athletes that have fewer kitchen tools at their disposal — normal meal kits will require some common essentials like bowls, cutting boards, knives, spatulas, and other kitchenware.
Taste wise, our tester noted that the Sunbasket meals were solid but not fantastic. They often needed to doctor their servings with added spices and sauces. Of course, every palette is different, so take our feedback with a grain of salt (or maybe have some tableside in case of emergency).
Sunbasket Appearance
The one callout we do have, though, relates to the portion size. Sunbasket’s meals are smaller than others our tester had at their disposal. The portions left them still hungry post-meal on a handful of occasions. This can be a problem for high-intensity athletes that need a high caloric count to fuel their training and performance.
Additionally, your orders are capped at four meals per week, so if you need the extra intake, you may need to add some extra servings or choose from the brand’s a la carte offerings of breakfast, snacks, grab-and-go lunch options, and specialty meats. Both of these alternatives will up your final price, though, so be sure your budget is able to accommodate.
Read our full Sunbasket Review.
Best Meal Delivery Service for Families: Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh
This meal delivery service can be great for families thanks to over 100 rotating meal and market offerings as well as the ability to receive up to eight meals per week. Recipes are simple to follow, and cleanup is typically kept to just a handful of kitchenware.
Shop Hello Fresh
Specs
- Price Per Meal: Starting at $7.49
- Type: Meal Kit
- Meals Per Week: Up to Eight
- Delivery Range: Contiguous United States
- Diets Available: Vegetarian, Fit and Wholesome, Pescatarian
Pros
- The recipe cards are easy to follow and can make for a great family activity.
- There are over 100 meal and market options weekly for a great sense of variety.
- Most meals only require one or two bowls for prep, making cleanup a simple chore.
Cons
- There aren’t a ton of meal options catering to specific dietary needs such as gluten-free.
- Some customer reviews have noted smaller portions than desired.
- Our tester said their produce freshness was inconsistent from order to order.
If you’re looking for a meal delivery service that caters to your entire family, we recommend Hello Fresh. The weekly offerings total over 100 meal and market items, which is great for pleasing every palette in your house. Additionally, we love how simple and intuitive the recipe cards are during preparation — they’re so easy, according to our tester, that even your children can get in on the cooking without difficulty.
Hello Fresh also earns our praise because of the limited cleanup we experienced in testing. Our tester noted that most meals required just a bowl or two (and some minimal kitchenware) for prep, which kept more time post-meal reserved for family engagement.
Despite the name, though, our tester did state that freshness wasn’t as consistent as they’d prefer. While no issues arose with dairy or meat ingredients, produce was sometimes lackluster with soft bits or wilted leaves. Plus, some meal kits arrived with melted ice packs and crumpled boxes, but we attribute this more so to the delivery services that vary from area to area.
Hello Fresh Meal Prepared
Hello Fresh has multiple meal kit subscriptions, allowing you to order up to eight meals per week. You have a handful of options for plant-based and seafood-rich dishes, but athletes needing more restricted plates, like those catering to gluten or soy allergies, may be left with less variety. Additionally, our tester noted that portion sizes can seem small in some dishes leading to some lingering post-meal hunger, but their stomach adjusted to the sizing over time. They attributed this to their tendency for over-eating before starting with the service, as well.
Lastly, Hello Fresh is a subscription-based service, so you’ll need to plan for weekly check-ins with your orders. You do have the option to skip shipments weekly, and swapping out certain proteins or adding meals is fairly easy. Overall, Hello Fresh can be a great way to keep your entire family’s nutrition in-check as they learn to enjoy the benefits of a home-cooked meal. (1)
Read our full Hello Fresh Review.
Best Value Meal Delivery Service: Dinnerly
Dinnerly
Dinnerly
With meals starting at just $4.99 per serving, Dinnerly can be a great meal delivery service for athletes on a budget. Preparation is kept simple with five-step recipes, and there are even ready-made options for those particularly time-crunched evenings.
Shop Dinnerly
Specs
- Price Per Meal: Starting at $4.99
- Type: Meal Kit or Prepared
- Meals Per Week: Up to Six
- Delivery Range: Contiguous United States
- Diets Available: Vegetarian, Vegan, Low-Carb
Pros
- Meals start at just $4.99 per dish — one of the cheapest services we found in testing.
- Preparation can take five steps or less for added efficiency and convenience.
- Dinnerly can cater to multiple dietary needs, including gluten-free and dairy-free.
Cons
- You need to have the web page or app open to follow along with recipes during prep.
- The taste was underwhelming for our tester, who compared the flavors to a TV dinner.
- Our tester said that ingredients weren’t separated as neatly as other meal delivery services.
Meal delivery services can often be more affordable than your weekly trips to the grocery store, especially when you factor in the time savings. However, certain platforms really lean into that budget-friendly aesthetic, including Dinnerly. Meals can start at just $4.99 and fluctuate according to your tastes and meal quantities per week. Plus, there are options for meal kits and prepared meals alike, giving you a little variety when it comes to actually getting your dishes to the dinner table.
We also appreciate how Dinnerly keeps preparation simple with its recipes. According to the brand, the instructions routinely house just five steps — a great option for those less versed in cooking or those routinely on a time crunch. Our tester did note, though, that the meal kits don’t come with physical recipe cards, so you’ll need to have your laptop or smartphone handy to follow along with the instructions during prep.
Dinnerly’s menu has a wide array of options with over 100 recipes to choose from on a weekly basis. We enjoyed this variety in testing, and especially liked how the brand offers meals that cater to specific dietary restrictions. We were able to find gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-calorie options when building out our weekly orders.
Speaking of shipping, our tester had no issues with packaging, but did note that ingredients aren’t separated as neatly as other meal delivery services. The meats and dairy items were individually wrapped, but produce was sort of placed into the box without any rhyme or reason. It wasn’t a big issue in testing, but it does require a little more attention when unboxing your kit before dinner.
Lastly, the tastes of Dinnerly meals range from good to mediocre, according to our tester. The fresh ingredients cooked up nicely for a flavorful end result, but the prepared meals seemed to resemble that of a TV dinner more often than not. Edible, yes, but not the most flavor-packed offering we found during our...
Click here to view the article.
