If you know me, you know that I don’t enjoy cooking, but I really love food. Steve is a great cook, but we’re both busy and don’t have much time to make good, creative meals.
My friend, Hallie, tried Hello Fresh and sent me an invite to try a box for free. In! Once we tried Hello Fresh, we saw a promo for four free meals through Plated, so we clearly had to try it. After that, it only seemed fair to round it out with the third major player, Blue Apron.
Read on for my pros and cons of each and which I’d ultimately order again
HELLO FRESH
Pros:
- Directions were very easy to follow
- Meals fell more into our comfort zones and it felt like we could replicate them
- Home run on deliciousness for all three meals (including the most mouth-watering turkey meatball pho!)
- Referrals: Share your code (mine is MKJ4SH) and friends get $40 off and you get $20 credit (<– get yours!)
- Some ingredients came with more than needed, so we have a surplus of rice noodles
- Lower calories than the other two. They were still high — 500+ — but lower than Plated and Blue Apron
Cons:
- Expensive: Three meals for two people is $69
- Meals are delivered between 8am-8pm and our delivery showed up at 7:55pm
PLATED
Pros:
- Forces you to branch out and try new cuisines. I really liked the chicken khao soi!
- Ability to choose fewer meals for delivery and pick from more options
- Referrals: Two free meals for a friend, 2 free meals for you via your link (<– get your 2!)
Cons:
- Recipes were a little trickier with more uncommon ingredients
- I asked for meals that weren’t spicy and received two spicy ones. We were able to make some omissions
- One meal, the corn arepas, was just ok on flavor and lacking protein
- Expensive: Three meals for two people is $69
- Higher calories than the others; most meals were 650+
BLUE APRON
Pros:
- Least expensive! Three meals for two people is $59 and some meals had three servings
- Directions were pretty easy to follow and didn’t require a lot of steps
- Some were under 600 calories
Cons:
- Higher calories on some others
- You couldn’t select which three meals you wanted and you couldn’t omit things like dairy, peanuts, and spicy ingredients
- One meal was pasta, which was delicious but lacked protein
- Referrals: You can’t start making them until after you receive a few deliveries. The message reads, “After a few deliveries, we’ll start sending you free food to give to your friends. Stay tuned.” Dislike.
So, to break it down:
- Flavor: All three tie with a very slight edge to Hello Fresh
- Convenience: Ties between Plated and Blue Apron for not having massive delivery windows
- Cost: Blue Apron
- Unique/Out of the Box recipes: Plated
- Calories: Hello Fresh
- Ability to recreate: Hello Fresh
- Ability to choose meals/preferences: Hello Fresh
- Referrals: Hello Fresh ($40 for you, friends! That’s a steal.)
Overall, all three are worth trying. All of the websites are beautiful and easy to navigate. All allow you to skip weeks so you don’t accidentally receive an order. All ingredients were fresh, labeled, and pre-portioned.
Hello Fresh comes out on top for me because of three things: Flavor, the fact that I could choose meals and say no red meat and no spicy flavors, and the ability to recreate meals. The one thing that would keep me from using it again is the delivery window.
Have you tried any of the meal delivery services? Which do you like/not like?
RLB Ink. 
I would recommend getting this shipped to your work or your significant other’s work because that will cut out that late delivery window. That is what I did and I received my package by noon, know that they would have to deliver it to a business before 5 pm.