My review of food delivery service provider Hello Fresh

Introduction

My wife does all the cooking at home.  Not because I don’t want to cook, but it’s that she enjoys cooking (or that’s what I tell myself.)  Plus, I’m busy reselling, MS’ing, bookkeeping, gardening, and collecting miles and points.  She usually cooks an abridged meal during the weekdays and will spend more time on Sunday nights when she has more time.  I’m sure some of you can relate, but due to her limited time after work, some of the weekday meals are only slight variations from other meals and it becomes redundant.  That’s where Hello Fresh came in.

 

Hello Fresh coupon

I got one of those flyers in the mail for Hello Fresh and there was a coupon for $35 off my first order.  I figure that sounded like a good deal, so I’ll try it out.  Disclaimer – I was not paid by Hello Fresh for this review and don’t really care if you use them or any other food delivery service.  I’m just writing about my experience with them.   So I signed up, but because I missed the Wednesday night delivery deadline, my first box wouldn’t arrive until the following Saturday.  I chose the Classic box, which feeds 3 meals per week for 2 people.

 

Delivery

I chose the option to have the box delivered on a Saturday.  I had forgotten it was coming, and we actually went grocery shopping earlier that day.  When we got home, my wife brought the box inside the house.  By the way, I hadn’t told her I bought the box yet.  When she opened the box, she wasn’t as excited I thought she would be.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  She wasn’t upset that I was trying to insinuate that she cook something new; she was more upset that she had just bought groceries earlier that day.  Anyway, she didn’t stay angry for too long.

 

 

First Meal – shrimp risotto

The first meal was a shrimp risotto.   It took my wife about 15-20 minutes or so to prep and cook the meal.  When I sat down at the table, she pointed to the stove area and goes, “You see all that mess?  That’s what happens when you cook American food!”  Regardless of the mess, I thought the dish was delicious.  The shrimp was a good sized and the meal tasted great.  Much different than what she normally cooks.

 

Second Meal – Chicken, sweet potato, and snap peas

I helped her prep the 2nd meal.  My job was to cut the ends off the snap peas and I made the sour cream sauce.  With my help, this meal was made in also about 15 minutes or so.  I thought this was great too, but not as good as the shrimp risotto.  The reason for that is this was something my wife usually cooks.  She usually roasts vegetables in the small convection oven and makes a lot of chicken and snap peas.  I thought the sour cream sauce was the star of the dish, partly because I made it.

 

Third Meal – steak over couscous

This one took my wife a bit longer to cook, but it turned out to be good as well.  The one good thing about the meals is that the portion size is JUST right.  I don’t feel bloated nor do I feel hungry after I’m done eating it.

 

Cancelling subscription

I’m typing this on a Tuesday after my Saturday delivery.  I went to cancel my account today and it looks like I already locked in on the 2nd delivery.  I’m not too happy about that, so if you just want to try this out one time, I’d advise you to cancel as soon as possible (probably on the day your first order order ships.)

 

Conclusion

While the food was good and the convenience was nice, I couldn’t help but think that we could have just looked up the recipes online and went and bought the groceries for half of the price.  I don’t look at the math of $70 for 3 meals; I look at the price I would have had to pay at a grocery store for the same ingredients.  But if you value the creativity and convenience, then this service may be for you.  I do plan on trying other competing services (only as a new first customer bonus,) but there’s no way I’d be a full priced subscriber.

I think for me personally, I’d like to find some old Asian lady that lives near me who is already cooking for her family.  Then I pay her like $7-$8 per person per meal FULLY COOKED AND DELIVERED.  I think even at this price point, my wife would say NO.  But if I was still single, that’s the target price for me.  Unreasonable?  Probably.

If you want to try  out Hello Fresh though, you can use my referral and you’ll get $40 off your first order (I’ll get $20).  That’s better than the $35 off coupon in the mail, and it was dumb of me not to try to find a better offer online.  I did a quick Google search and it seems $40 is the best offer; if it’s not, lmk and I’ll edit the post.  Once again, I’d recommend you try it once if you feel adventurous (just make sure you don’t buy groceries for that week and tell your loved one also!)