I tried 12 meal delivery services

A biased, mostly-vegetarian, mostly-helpful review

If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ve probably heard me recount the not-so-distant time in my life when my diet consisted mostly of Coke* and Hot Pockets.

Back then, being healthy = low sodium Hot Pockets and Coke Zero.

Now I know, for me, eating Hot Pockets ≠ feeling hot, Coke is an expensive habit, and most importantly, what I eat impacts how I feel.

As my diet has moved ‘healthier’ and mostly vegetarian, I’ve been exploring all the mail order meal delivery services the internet has to offer. While I can cook and still do (and have done weekly meal prep in the past) I’ve found myself coming back to these services for a few reasons:

• Convenience. Even if cooking meals, especially for more than me +1, can be healthy and enjoyable, the thinking, shopping, cooking, and cleaning these meal services cut out each day has been a welcomed convenience.
• Variety. There’s only so much of one thing I can consciously eat in a week. With these services, I often have a wide range of vegetarian options to try, well beyond tofu eight ways.
• Waste. While yes, some of these services are creating non-food waste, the ones I have continued to use have compostable, reusable, or recyclable packaging. My personal food waste has also decreased — if you’re like me, go and check your fridge for that spring mix you bought last week…

So, after trying 12 different services, here are my thoughts and reviews.

(Note: for the services I’d recommend, I’ve included referral links which will give us both a discount. Use them, don’t use them, your choice.)

Here’s what I’ll be ordering again:

Cook Unity

$10.49 / meal

This one is hands down the best meal service I’ve used. They deliver fully made meals in reusable, insulated totes and mostly compostable and recyclable packaging. They feature a variety of local chefs and a wide range of foods from all over the world. This past week: 270 meals to choose from.