Skip the grocery: 14 best meal kit delivery services for restaurant-quality meals
I’ve cooked professionally in enough private clients’ kitchens to know two things with certainty: (1) most people don’t hate cooking; they hate decision-making; and (2) nothing derails a healthy routine faster than coming home hungry with no plan, no groceries, no willpower.Meal delivery services solve both problems.They remove the cognitive load, which for many of us is half the battle, and the good ones turn into something you look forward to.Over the past few years, between private-chef work, writing commerce reviews, and simply trying to keep myself fed through periods of burnout, I’ve tested more meal delivery services than I can count.
Some were forgettable.Some were brilliant.
A few were so good they made me question why I ever insisted on doing everything myself.The range of services available today is what surprised me the most during this process.
Yes, there are meal kits designed for beginners, but there are also kits with instructional levels more suited to higher levels of experience.You can now find prepared meals made by award-winning chefs, and vegan comfort food can actually rival non-vegan versions.
Whether you want to lose decision fatigue, cook more at home, or eliminate that 5 p.m.panic-scan of your fridge, the right service will change your entire week.Click to skip to our list of winners, or jump directly to a meal delivery service review:Purple Carrot | Home Chef | Green Chef | HelloFresh | EveryPlate | Thistle | Daily Harvest | ButcherBoxThe category of “meal delivery service” has exploded so impressively in recent years that it now encompasses several different formats.Meal kits (like HelloFresh or Blue Apron) send pre-portioned ingredients with a step-by-step recipe.
You still cook; they just eliminate the planning, shopping and measuring.These are great for building confidence in the kitchen or getting out of a recipe rut.Prepared meal services (like Factor and CookUnity) send fully cooked meals that you heat and eat.
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