HOME » REVIEWS » HELLO FRESH REVIEWS: AN UNBIASED, UNSPONSORED REVIEW
Hello Fresh Reviews: An Unbiased, Unsponsored Review
This is one of the few Hello Fresh reviews on the internet that’s not sponsored. Nothing was received from the company, and I’m excited to share my 100% honest opinion about my family’s Hello Fresh experience!
I want to start with complete honesty: I wasn’t planning on writing about a meal kit delivery service, and I certainly had no intention to write any Hello Fresh reviews. I had no plans of trying Blue Apron, Sun Basket, Home Chef or anything of the sort.
But then three full Hello Fresh meals unexpectedly landed in my kitchen.
As it happened, our neighbor had ordered a box, then unexpectedly went out of town for several days. He wouldn’t be around before the shipment spoiled, so he told us to go grab it and use it instead of letting it go to waste.
Before the experience, I didn’t look favorably upon meal services. Read on to see why, then see if my opinion changed after trying this Hello Fresh.
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Why I thought I’d hate Hello Fresh
I always thought that a meal kit company wouldn’t work for us. My assumption was that they were expensive and that they wouldn’t provide enough food for my family of four. I also was pretty certain that they couldn’t possibly offer any meal options that would please all four of us.
Because my husband eats a lot at dinnertime. He has a physical job and does intermittent fasting, so dinner is his biggest meal of the day by far.
On top of that, I have two growing kids, and one is a picky eater. If they like what we’re having, they’ll eat a lot. If my picky one doesn’t like it, neither one of us is happy.
With all of those factors, I was convinced a service like Hello Fresh would be wasted on my family.
Even with all that, I admit that the idea of a meal delivery service 100% appealed to me. There’s nothing special about me – I’m a typically busy mom, and I admit I have my struggles. I have a lot going on AND I have ADHD. My brain finds planning dinner for all of us every. single. day. an ongoing challenge.
Easy meal planning and scaling back grocery shopping while trying a different, delicious recipe or two sounded absolutely fantastic. I also loved the thought of easily introducing my kids to new tastes and flavors.
So when that HelloFresh box landed in my lap, I was super excited to have the chance to try it out!
I wouldn’t waste any money, we could cook some new foods with fresh ingredients and I’d test my opinions on this meal kit delivery service.
What is Hello Fresh?
HelloFresh.com is a meal kit delivery service that provides all the ingredients needed for a meal, plus the easy-to-follow recipes to go with them.
In a nutshell, Hello Fresh gives you a recipe card, complete with step-by-step pictures and written instructions, and then lets you skip the grocery shopping by bringing you the whole package of prepared, pre portioned ingredients for the recipe.
Recipes usually take about 30-40 minutes to make, and you get to choose from a selection of almost 30 different recipes that change from week to week. (hooray for 30 minute meals!)
You place one order for all your weekly meals, then all the groceries for the week are delivered in a single shipment.
Hello Fresh Reviews – everything you need to know
This Hello Fresh review will cover everything you need to know about this particular meal planning and delivery service.
I’ll start it by saying: I was lucky our neighbors gave us the chance to try Hellofresh for free. But here’s the truth:
I’ve already signed up with Hello Fresh for our own weekly meal kits. Because they’re SO. GOOD.
My personal review starts with the actual ingredient delivery. While I didn’t choose the meals we received, I’ll be sure to go over how the ordering process works a bit later so you get all the details.
The Hello Fresh delivery
I have to say, I was immediately impressed when I inspected both the Hello Fresh box and packaging. As I said earlier, the shipment was intended for our neighbor.
What I didn’t say was that we’re in Minnesota, and the box had sat on their porch in sleet and snow for at least 12 hours before we went and got it.
The cardboard box was pretty wet, but the contents were very protected, thanks to great packaging. It turns out that that the exterior condition of the box didn’t making a difference!
The box was fully lined with an insulated, waterproof bubble wrap that kept all the ingredients from getting too cold. It would also keep everything from getting too warm, if you happen to live in a more pleasant climate than mine.
The insulated box contained three labeled paper bags that identified their meals. Three corresponding recipe cards had been inserted down the side of the box.
After taking the bags out of the box, there was a cardboard divider with cute text stating, “Don’t forget about ingredients, which may be hiding under the ice.”
Under the divider I found recyclable ice packets, plus vacuum sealed fresh meat for all three of the meals. There were boneless skinless chicken breasts for the balsamic tomato and herb chicken, ground beef for the Ancho BBQ sloppy joes and ground pork for the sweet chili pork bowls.
I appreciate that the meat was vacuum sealed AND separated from the rest of the groceries by several layers. I loved that I could be 100% confident that no meat came in contact with any part of the other groceries.
Hello Fresh meals
Each of the three Hello Fresh meals I received came packaged in its own labeled bag. These are the meals that were delivered:
- Sweet Chili Pork Bowls
- Balsamic Tomato and Herb Chicken
- Ancho BBQ Sloppy Joes
The recipe cards that came with each of the meals were clear and honestly left very little room for error. Each one detailed the ingredients that were included with the shipment, and then indicated if additional ingredients were needed.
Hello Fresh ingredients
The only ingredients I needed to supply for any of our recipes were oil, salt and pepper. The oil was even included In one of the recipes.
Fresh produce
The vegetables provided for each meal were absolutely beautiful. This was most obvious with both the chicken and pork dishes. The tomatoes and peppers were bright, perfectly ripe and flavorful.
Another fun ingredient included with the meals was fresh herbs. They arrived in perfect condition, packaged in a way that prevented any sort of wilting or rotting.
Fresh beef, pork and chicken
We don’t have a vegetarian or vegan diet, and I was happy to see such a generous amount of meat included for each different meal.
The meals were intended for two people, but there was over a half pound of meat for each two-person recipe. I generally use about a pound of meat when cooking for four people, so to see that much protein included for two servings was pretty surprising (in a good way!).
Hello Fresh Meal reviews
I’m going to get right to it: Every one of the Hello Fresh meals we received was absolutely delicious. So much so that my daughter begged me to at least try to replicate the pork dish the following week!
I’m not a stranger to cooking, and I consider myself a fairly good cook. I can follow a recipe and I rarely screw things up. Yet there was something especially amazing these Hello Fresh meals.
I think a big part of it was the fresh ingredients and unique seasonings they included for the meals. In my list of grocery priorities, I’d say that budget is often more important than quality. I don’t buy bad ingredients, but I always gravitate toward the less expensive option.
Since Hello Fresh did the grocery shopping for me, they likely chose better ingredients than I’d be inclined to buy on my own. And that made a huge difference!
Hello Fresh recipes review
Another part of Hello Fresh that influenced how fantastic the entire meal ended up were the clear and detailed instructions and techniques on the recipe cards.
Following the recipe card instructions led to perfectly fluffy rice for the sweet chili pork bowls.
The method for slicing and cooking the balsamic tomato and herb chicken led to the most tender chicken breasts I’ve ever cooked on a stovetop.
Finally, the oven gold potatoes served with the Ancho BBQ sloppy joes were out-of-this-world amazing. I didn’t even know it was possible to cook potatoes like that at home. Seriously. They were incredible.
My favorite Hello Fresh meal
When I first opened the box and looked at the three meals we’d be eating, I was pretty sure everyone in my family would love the chicken dish most.
Instead, I was astounded when my daughter, my picky eater, declared that the Sweet Chili Pork Bowls were not only the best meal of the three, but possibly one of her favorite meals ever.
As it turns out, my son, my husband and I all agreed with her. It was a meal so full of fresh flavors, bright lime juice and just a hint of heat. Serving it on top of the most perfect rice I’ve ever managed to make was just a bonus!
Even though we had a clear favorite, the other two meals were close runner-ups to the pork dish. The balsamic chicken was perfect, and the barbecue sloppy joes were a delicious kid favorite that the grown-ups liked, too!
Honest answers to frequently asked questions
There are some very valid questions a lot of people are asking about Hello Fresh, and I’m pretty sure I have the answers! From nutrition to different kinds of meals to how expensive it is, you’ll find out all the important stuff here.
Is Hello Fresh worth it?
The big question that everyone looking for Hello Fresh reviews wants answered:
Is HelloFresh worth the money?
In short, yes! But you do have to keep a few things in mind.
Hello Fresh would be expensive if you used it for every dinner, every day of the week. But that’s not how most people use the meal kit service, and I’d never use it that way, either.
Hello Fresh is worth it for several reasons:
- Trying new recipes
- Introducing new flavors
- Having someone else shop for you
- Learning to cook different items
- No searching and shopping for special ingredients
- Meal planning. If your meal plan skills are lacking, you’re going to love how helpful this service is.
- Including healthy, fresh ingredients in your meals
- Minimizing food waste (especially fresh produce, which always seems to rot too quickly!)
Hello fresh is worth it especially if you take advantage of the big savings offered on your first box!
This offer of 21 free meals with free shipping is great, even if you only want one week of deliveries to try HelloFresh out. Because the first week has the biggest discount.
In fact, if you use the promotion below, your cost is about $4.48 per person, per meal! That cost also goes down if you order more servings.
For our family of four, that’s just under $18 for a delicious dinner where I don’t have to grocery shop or do a bunch of meal prep work! My answer to the question Is HelloFresh worth it? YES.
It’s far healthier than eating out and it’s much easier than meal planning, shopping, and using produce before it goes bad.
How the Hello Fresh free meals promotion works
Explaining the discounts is a challenge, because the numbers change depending on how many people you’re cooking for and how many recipes you want delivered each week. Plus, the 21 free meals is distributed across five weeks of deliveries.
