I have been wanting to try a home meal delivery service for years but for no other reason, just never did it. As a Christmas present, a friend gifted me a week trial of Blue Apron (BA), and then in March, immediately before the pandemic outbreak, I was gifted with a 3-week trial of Hello Fresh (HF). Let the battle begin!
For three weeks, I received two meal kits for two people from Hello Fresh, and on the fourth week, I ordered three meals for two people from Blue Apron. Here are the results:
Quality - The food quality from both vendors is excellent. In both regards, by the end of the week, the produce sometimes becomes wilty and overripe, so you definitely must use the ingredients within the established week. However, in terms of quality, it was a DRAW.
Quantity - With 75% of the meals, my husband and I have had leftovers, ranging from just the main course, a few sides, or enough for one additional meal for one of us. DRAW
Pricing - This is the hardest for me to determine because I didn't actually pay for my meals. However, I feel that they are very comparable and only differ by a few dollars for the same number of meals. Both also offer "up-scale" options (Gourmet choices for HF vs. Premium for BA). DRAW
Options (Plans) - Because HF offers a 2-meal per week option (and BA starts with 3 meals per week), this one goes to HELLO FRESH.
Options (Complexity) - Both vendors offer a variety of meal options; however, HF's meals are more often traditional meats and sides. What exactly is farro? For me, this one goes to HELLO FRESH, but if you're adventurous, BA would be your preference.
Ease of Preparation - The instructions for both services are easy to understand. However, there is so much work with BA. I don't know who they have testing the time it takes to chop vegetables, but I had to double it for every single BA meal I cooked. The week of BA also resulted in a lot of questions: How do you shave ginger? How do you slice a poblano pepper? And for example, HF sends garlic already peeled, and BA doesn't. I will say I didn't know bok choy was so delicious, but it was just too much work for me. HELLO FRESH
Health Conscious - The HF meals are not healthy, and even the Calorie Smart options are high in fat. Comparably, BA offers Weight Watchers and Diabetes-Friendly meals that seem to be more in line with what I typically cook at home. But as my husband says, that's why these meals are so tasty! BLUE APRON
Environmental Considerations - Both meals are shipped in cardboard boxes; however, BA uses plastic packaging, whereas most of the Hello Fresh ingredients are packaged in paper bags and biodegradable containers. In addition, HF packages all of the ingredients for each meal separately, excluding the meat which is sandwiched between ice packs at the bottom of the box. This makes meal prep much easier than BA, which requires determining which ingredients are needed for each meal. HELLO FRESH
Customer Service - I can't compare the two as I didn't contact BA, but I have had to contact HF twice - once for a package indicated as delivered but hadn't actually arrived and last week when I received chicken cutlets with my order instead of ground beef. I was extremely pleased with how both issues were resolved, but will forego making a decision since I have no comparison to BA.
Overall, we've decided to stick with Hello Fresh for now. I would be open to ordering from BA again, or any other meal service. Anyone want to gift me a week of another service to add to my review?
