Hello Fresh is one of the most popular meal kit delivery services. They pride themselves on sending delicious recipes and fresh ingredients making it very easy for families to cook a restaurant-quality meal in their own kitchen. I’ve cooked through well over 50 Hello Fresh recipes and this is my honest Hello Fresh review.
**This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small commission if you decide to subscribe to Hello Fresh. However, this is my completely honest Hello Fresh review and you’re by no means obligated to use my links. If you do, thanks so much for supporting my site.
This review was updated on 9/9/21
Hello Fresh Review
Summary
Hello Fresh offers a large variety of family-friendly recipes that are easy to make and tasty. Portions are big and it’s a good value for the cost. Ingredients are high-quality but not organic. This meal kit company is a good option for individuals or families who want to reduce takeout and save money by cooking delicious healthier recipes at home.
Hello Fresh is a meal kit delivery company. Recipes are curated every single week for you to choose from. Then based on your selections, Hello Fresh will ship fresh ingredients to your doorstep so you can create homemade healthy meals in your kitchen.
Hello Fresh takes care of the meal planning and limits your time spent in the grocery stores. If you struggle with either of those things, then you’ll love that they remove the hassle of planning and shopping for dinnertime!
Recipes are classic and family-friendly. You’ll find things like burgers, pasta dishes, one-pot rice dishes, stir-fries, and Mexican-inspired meals like enchiladas. The recipes are easy to put together, and portions are plentiful.
Many people turn to this meal kit company to save money and eat healthier. So, instead of stocking their kitchen with processed foods, ordering take-out, or eating dinner at restaurants, they are learning to cook and get creative with Hello Fresh recipes.
How Does Hello Fresh Works?
Sign up for a meal plan
When you’re ready to get started, the first thing you’ll do is pick one of the Hello Fresh meal plans. Currently, there are four meal plans.
- Meat and Veggies
- Veggies
- Family-friendly
- Calorie Smart
- Quick and Easy
- Pescatarian
Next, choose the meal plan size.
If you’re single, or it’s just you and one other, you can choose a meal plan for two people. You can choose between 2-5 recipes a week.
If you’re feeding a family of 4, then select a larger plan for four people. Again, you can choose between 2-5 recipes a week.
Set up your details
After you pick a meal plan, you’ll input your payment information and set a delivery day. You can change this information at any time in the account section.
Pick your meals
Now you’re ready to pick your meals. This is the fun part – next to cooking everything, of course!
Tips for choosing meals.
- Each week there are 18 meals available. Within those 18 meals, include recipes specific to the menu you chose. Those meals will be automatically curated for you. Of course, you can select others but, if not, recipes based on the meal plan you picked will go into your box.
- Calorie-smart, carb-smart, and veggie recipes are labeled. This is helpful if you want to pick recipes within those meal plans quickly. You’ll also find quick recipes and spicy recipes marked to make it easier to select meals.
- You can choose from all of the available recipes for the week, regardless of the meal plan. So, if you sign up for the veggie meal plan but see a juicy burger on the menu, you can pick that instead.
- Gourmet meals or craft meals cost extra. Within the menu, specific recipes are considered craft or gourmet. These meals cost extra per meal because they have specialty ingredients.
Choose your extras
Within the last year or so, Hello Fresh started to add extras to their offerings. At first, it was just garlic bread and cookie dough, but now you can get various food items to make the week easier.
You can order quick lunch items like a salad with chicken breast or avocado toast. You can even get snacks and drinks like energy shots, coffee, or individual avocados.
You can get sides to go with dinner recipes like salads and garlic bread. And you can also order extra proteins like chicken breasts, ground beef, chicken sausage, or salmon.
FAQs
The price of each plan goes up or down depending on the number of people and servings you choose. For the most part, you can expect to pay between $8.49 – $9.99 a serving. There is also a $7.99 shipping charge.
Shipping charges are more standard now with meal kit companies so it’s not unusual for Hello Fresh to charge shipping.
Also, as I said earlier, some of the gourmet recipes have an extra charge. All those prices are listed on the recipe.
Extras, of course, all have an additional charge.
Skipping a week is super easy to do. You can either use the website, or app, to view upcoming weeks to skip a week(s) that don’t work for you.
If you decide that Hello Fresh isn’t a good fit, you can easily cancel it in the account settings. Just go to the account section, scroll down, and click on “cancel plan.” You can also contact customer service with any questions or issues you may have.
Is Healthy Fresh Healthy?
Hello Fresh is certainly healthier than ordering take-out, fast food, or dining regularly in a restaurant. All the ingredients are high quality and fresh.
They do offer some low calorie and low carb recipes options to choose from. However, some of their recipe selections are high in calories and do include a lot of carbs.
On one hand, many customers like this because it offers more variety, especially when you’re choosing meals to feed your family. On the other hand, it’d be nice to have a larger selection of low-calorie and low-carb menu options for those that want it.
So, my advice is to review the nutritional information prior to making your selections. If you want recipes lower in calories then make sure to choose those.
Also, while they do offer fresh ingredients, the ingredients are not organic. So, if that’s important to you, that’ll be an issue. If you’re looking for organic ingredients along with meal plans that offer keto-friendly, low-carb, and plant-based, then I recommend checking out Sunbasket, Green Chef or Purple Carrot.
Overall, I think Hello Fresh is a healthier option for people looking to cook more homemade meals at home than eating processed take-out.
Who will benefit?
- You’re trying to change your eating habits to healthier ones and have no clue where to start and become overwhelmed when you try to search for new recipes. Hello Fresh creates the recipes, compiles all the ingredients, and delivers them to your door. All you have to do is cook. Every recipe has nutritional information and is made with fresh real ingredients.
- You love to cook but hate to plan meals and grocery shop. Taking the time to meal plan and then spend hours grocery shopping after a long week is exhausting. Hello Fresh curates the recipes and then sends all the ingredients to your door.
- It’s just the two of you. Hello Fresh solves that problem by offering 3 different meal plans for only 2 people.
- Your time is extremely limited. This meal kit company might not be able to clean your house, but they can plan and shop for dinner.
- You have a busy week coming up. I don’t get Hello Fresh every week. But I plan for a box to get delivered when I know my week will be busy.
- You’re not afraid to try new recipes. Hello Fresh doesn’t have what I would consider exotic recipes, but it’s different from frozen pizzas and tacos. But if you like trying new recipes and want to start cooking with fresh ingredients, then Hello Fresh can help.
- You’re ready to eat more at home. Eating at restaurants 2-3 times a week can make a living a healthier lifestyle very difficult. It also becomes expensive.
Eating at home is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Hello Fresh provides well-balanced, healthy, delicious dinners for you to cook and eat at home. Their meals are restaurant quality, and if you dine out a lot, I bet you will find yourself saving money over time.
Who won’t benefit
- You prioritize getting the best prices of food. Hello Fresh offers reasonable prices, but you can likely get a better price on ingredients shopping yourself.
- You’re a picky eater. You get to choose some meals, but all recipes are still in the hands of Hello Fresh. But if you tend to have issues with new recipes and cuisines, you might not have a good experience with Hello Fresh.
- You have dietary restrictions. I think Hello Fresh does a great job of working with your preferences. However, if you have strict dietary restrictions or need to eliminate certain food groups, then Hello Fresh might not work for you.
- You travel a lot. Hello Fresh could work for someone who travels, but you must make the foods ahead of time and store them in a cooler. This could be more of a nuisance, but it could work.
- You have no desire to cook. You need to cook the recipes. While the recipes are simple, they still require more effort than using the microwave.
My Honest Hello Fresh Review
Now let’s go over my experience. As I said, I’ve been a long-time Hello Fresh subscriber. I’ve received many boxes and tried many of their recipes. And, it’s always like Christmas morning whenever a box arrives.
Let’s start with the packaging.
- All the recipes and extras come in a sturdy isolated box. There is a large ice pack or a couple of ice packs on the bottom of the box. To make sure the meats stay cold, they are underneath the ice packs.
- All of the packaging materials are recyclable or reusable.
- Recipes are organized into individual paper bags and labeled. All the fresh ingredients are in each paper bag, and the meats are separate.
All of the recipes have beautiful color-coded recipe cards with step-by-step instructions. If you lose the recipe card by some chance, you can find the recipes on their website or app.
In my latest box, I received:
- Chicken with Arugula Caprese Salad
- Bacon Buckaroo Burger (this is a Craft Burger)
- Shrimp Spaghetti with a Kick
- Pesto Caprese Sandwiches with Almond Studded Green Salad (extra)
- Garlic Bread and Crunchy Sesame Salad Combo (extra)
- Chocolate Lava Cake (extra)
I purchased various recipes and extras for testing out to give you an honest, accurate review of the different items they offer.
Let’s start with the Chicken with Arugula Caprese Salad.
- This recipe is one of their low-calorie recipes and is listed as carb smart and quick. It’s my kind of meal!
- My biggest concern with any meal kit is the quality of the chicken. I do not like rubbery chicken. Truthfully, I never had an issue with Hello Fresh meats.
- The chicken was juicy and with great texture.
- Everything else about this salad was excellent. The arugula was fresh, the mozzarella was tasty, and I loved the side of ciabatta toast.
The second recipe I chose was Shrimp Spaghetti with a kick. This is like the opposite of carb smart, but it’s still one of my favorite types of meals. My husband loves recipes like this, so I made this for a Friday night dinner at home.
- The first thing I check out is the shrimp. Of course, it needs to be fresh and not “fishy.”
- This entire recipe came together lightning fast. And even though it was simple, it was delicious.
- I made the garlic bread and lava cake to go with this Friday night dinner. The bread is tasty and goes nicely with this Italian-style recipe. The lava cake was chocolatey and rich and perfect for two people.
The third recipe was the Craft Bacon Buckaroo Burger. This recipe was an extra cost, but I got it anyway because my oldest daughter loves burger recipes.
- This burger recipe didn’t disappoint. It was super easy to make during the week. And, honestly, I could’ve prepared the bacon beforehand to bring this recipe together even faster.
- Now, it was not on the light side, so it’s a recipe that I needed to modify to enjoy. For example, I ate it without the bun and had ½ of the portion of potatoes. However, my kids and husband enjoyed this recipe in all its glory and loved it. This burger was a delicious, family-friendly recipe.
- I did serve the Asian salad with the burgers. It was nice to have that on hand and brought a fresh element.
Final thoughts
I’ve used this meal delivery service many times over the last five years. I appreciate the convenience of having my dinners planned out for the week and all the ingredients shipped directly to my door.
Of course, most weeks, I do all the planning and shopping myself, but sometimes it’s nice to open the door to a beautiful box stocked with delicious food. That, to me, is worth every penny.
I hope my Hello Fresh Review helps you make an informed decision about whether or not this meal kit company would be a good fit.
If you love meal delivery kits then read my other reviews.
Hello Fresh Coupon
Hello Fresh is offering new subscribers $90 off plus free shipping off first box.. You can get the coupon here. This is a great way to test out Hello Fresh at a discounted price.
If you love meal delivery kits then read my other reviews.
**This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small commission if you decide to subscribe to Hello Fresh. However, this is my completely honest review and you are by no means obligated to use my links. If you do, thanks so much for supporting my site.
Kelly says
Hi there,
Thanks for your review. I signed up for Hello Fresh because I wanted to start eating healthier and though I “can” cook, I liked the idea of learning new recipes to try out with everything all set for me. I also especially wanted to get good guidance on cooking seafood – I’d like to add that to my meals more often, but had very limited experience. While the convenience is definitely a factor, I’m hoping that eventually I will learn enough to be able to create more meals for myself. (So seeing Hello Fresh as a kind of cooking course – especially for seafood). Would you say that’s an accurate expectation?
Thanks again!
Robin says
I have been receiving Hello Fresh Classic 3 Meal plans for 2 people for 6 months. I opted for the 3 meal plan so that I still have the experience of planning and shopping for the other 3-4 dinner meals each week. The 2 person plan easily feeds my husband, daughter and myself. We are rather moderate eaters. Yesterday, I finally got around to organizing all 67 recipe cards into a binder with sheet protectors! It’s a thing of beauty to this geek! Of the 69 meals, 23 shipments, we only had 2 meals that we would not eat again, so I tossed those 2 recipes. Of the remaining 67 that we loved, there were only 4 duplicates! Hello Fresh provides enough variety and options that you don’t feel like you’re eating the same thing over and over again. And with the recipe cards on hand, you can always recreate a meal that you loved at any time, yourself! I highly recommend Hello Fresh! Seeing that box on my doorstep gives me both comfort and excitement!
Terri Hallenbedk says
I want to try Hello Fresh as it is just my husband and myself now and it is so hard to shop for different dinners every week at the grocery store.
My question is if I order the 5 meal plan for 2 because we want to eat healthier and also lose some weight.What would be the best way to find receipes for the other 2 days to continue to eat healthy? Do you have a suggestion of a website?
Tammy Kresge says
Personally, I always have leftovers with Hello fresh so that is an option. Or make it easy with salad night or a crockpot recipe.
Carol Kuzilik says
I read your review of Hello fresh and thought I would give it a whirl. The packing was impressive and well thought out. However, we found the recipes to be very basic and honestly, boring. Perhaps I chose the wrong ones, but there was nothing in the box that is usually not in my kitchen. Also, the first box we received sugar snap peas with tiny insect larvae in them. We were so disappointed with the quality that we cancelled my subscription. Quite a bummer of a tryout.
Tammy Kresge says
I’m sorry you had that experience. I hope their customer service worked with you to rectify this. personally, I never had this experience and I’ve been using this service for a long time. I know there are other meal delivery services that offer more exotic type meals – Sun Basket is another one I like. Thanks for your comment.
Jill Nielsen says
Hi_
Thanks for your review on this product. I am looking for my dad who is going through chemo, radiation….needs healthy meals he doesn’t have to cook, just reheat. Do they provide that? He also has a live in girlfriend who is not savvy in the kitchen. I need to find something soon as I want him eating healthy asap.
thanks
Jill
Tammy Kresge says
Hey jill! Maybe try the meal delivery service called Veestro. I never tried them but heard from other they are good. They offer prepared meals delivered. They have a starter pack for $99. Here’s a link to that deal http://bit.ly/2x9Obfo
Wayne Steinmassl says
First off thank you for your well written and I especially liked that u took time to do a review with multiple orders not just 1. I have tried a lot of ways to relieve the stress of ‘What’s for dinner tonight’?” If u have a family where both parents work full time then that 1 question stress is high. So I tried meal plans from hello fresh, home chef , blue apron and peach dish. Blue apron and peach dish were either to costly or to fancy for my family. Fancy means there’s always some type of spice that changes taste that we don’t like. Tarragon, Rosemary, fennel etc..maybe other families grew up with spices mine did not. Middle class meat and potato family here. So wet left with hello fresh and home chef. So I have been ordering from home chef the last 8 mnths and I love it but after reading your review my daughter says lets just try it. Home chef comes complete with recipe cards and binder to keep them organized and about 6-8 different meals to choose from. So my question is does hello fresh allow u to change your meals and choose any meal u want out of the recipes that week? Say u have 2 meat and 1 pasta dish but want to switch out the pasta dish to add another meat meal. Can you? Or do u have to,keep the switch the same.
Tammy Kresge says
Thanks for this comment. Yes you can choose your meals for the week. Also I tried home chef too and really like them and totally agree with everything you said about spices and what not. I grew up the same way. My home chef review will be up shortly.
Holly Lynn says
This was my first meal kit experience. The box the food comes delivered in impressed me enough. Well insulated with cardboard insulation, I love to recycle so this surprised me, a thick sturdy box, along with 2 big square ice packs. They definitely put a lot of thought into the packaging to make sure everything arrived fresh. The food was good, enjoyed the recipes and the cards that they gave, as they were graphically beautiful. Now that I know the recipes, I can refer to them whenever I want!
Courtney Smith says
I’m not the type to comment but I greatly appreciate your review. This is by far the best review I have found, and I have read quite a few, to say the least. The section “Who should use Hello Fresh?” and “Who shouldn’t even bother?” is ingenious – I struggle to justify the money spent on something that seems extravagant but after reading your article I believe I do need to give it a try. Thank You!!
Carliss Dollar says
I never liked to cook until I joined Hello Fresh. I have enjoyed this experience so much. I have rated all of my recipes on a scale from 10 to 1, with 10 as being excellent! So far I have had eight 10’s, seven 9’s, ten 8’s, nine 7’s, three 6’s, and seven 3’s. I must tell you that I love the program and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I think they do an excellent job with packaging their meals. You save money because you have fewer trips to the grocery store where you are picking up more than you need, I highly recommend Hello Fresh to everyone!
Holly Lynn says
Good point about not picking up more than you need!! uGH!! I hate it when I do that hahaha.
Barbara says
Thanks for the detailed review. I’ve had about 25 or so meals from Blue Apron and while I’ve found the ingredients to be high quality, the recipes have been both time-consuming and bland, a bad combination. The big plus for me is having two nights a week when I don’t have to come up with dinner ideas. My family is into food so I am always trying to surprise and please them, but bland doesn’t cut it. On your recommendation I am going to try Hello Fresh. Thanks
Tammy Kresge says
I hope you like it. I’ve been wanting to try blue apron also. I tried Sun Basket and thought those meals were very good.
Christine says
Just got a great deal to try this. I agree that it is not the cheapest way to eat, but if you compare it to eating out it is so much cheaper!
Terrie says
Just would like to know if the contents are organic? No gmos
Tammy Kresge says
From my understanding the ingredients are not organic. Not 100% on the GMOS you can check out their website or contact them for more information.
Alison Grant says
Thanks for the great review! I’m on my second box having read your review and realising I fall into one if not all of the ‘who would this work for’ categories. It’s been a delight to be able to cook nourishing meals for my partner and I despite us both being incredibly busy and working late because no more time is wasted standing in the store trying to think about what to cook! I’ve also noticed we’ve saved money on eating out and takeaways midweek. I’m currently getting the 5x2person classic box and get 3 large portions of every meal so we have dinner and I have lunch Monday – Friday for £48 which I think is a bargain. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the ingredients, the recipes and the service over all so far!
Tammy Kresge says
That is great! I’m so happy this review was helpful for you!
shelly says
Thanks for this review! very helpful
Jim Barnett says
My daughter gave me a groupon for 1 week of classic meal plan for 2 delivery. What a fantastic gift, I love to cook. The meals came on time in good condition, well packaged. Menu was Salsa Verde Sole, Cherry Drizzled Pork Chops, and Vietnamese Marinated Steak. Prepping was pretty simple, ingredients very fresh. They came out great, my wife and I really enjoyed them. The cost is reasonable considering you’re receiving good quality perishables delivered to your door, and figure in the convenience factor. If those things are worth it to you, the cost is OK. For me, I enjoy shopping and preparing meals from scratch so to me, I would prefer getting my own ingredients and saving some money. Also it would be nice if the entire packaging the meals come in was recyclable – the insulation was a fiber wrap. However, I enjoyed the different recipes and cuisine, so because of that we will keep our account open and probably buy meals one week a month or so just for the fun/experience of it. The groupon is a fantastic gift for someone who loves food and loves to cook, then they can decide whether to continue the deliveries or not.
Sheila Lee says
I totally disagree- hello fresh has too many technical difficulties with their web site-
Their page is unresponsive when time is important- I ended up with food I did not want because I was unable to access site- even with chrome and internet explorer- Both my friends, my son, and my daughter have cancelled memberships that were to begin as they had the same problems. I would stay away from Hello Fresh–
Tammy Kresge says
I’ve ordered many boxes from Hello Fresh over the last couple years and never had that experience. Sorry you had this experience.
Karina Guerrero Fernandez says
Is there any food box service that not provides only dinner, but also lunch and breakfast?
Josh W says
I’m going to give this a try! Thanks for this awesome review. I live by myself and my social life is very active (with LOTS of eating out, which is costly). My kids (5 and 12) are coming soon for the summer and this sounds like a good way to make cooking fun with them (and learn how to cook better).
Bri says
Hello Fresh is a waste of your money definitely stay away from this company. They will send you a box anyway even if you pause your subscription. I have a screenshot of when I last logged into my account and they lied and said I logged in at a later date. The site tells you when you last log in, however they still will say it is a different date. Then you cannot get a refund, for food you did not even want. They were very rude and acted like they did not care, but since it’s not their money I guess they would not.
Tammy Kresge says
Hi Bri,
I’ve been using hello fresh for over year and never had that experience. A couple times the meat leaked and I wasn’t able to use the vegetables but they gave me credit for the following week. I found them very easy to work with. But Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think it’s important for people to hear other experiences so they can make an informed decision before signing up.
Dave says
Totally! Same here. I had to demand to speak with a supervisor and they said that they could not do anything about it, but they would pass my case on to the department that could and I would be contacted later that day. I received no call. I contacted them again a few days later and repeated the same scenario once again and once again was told I would be contacted by someone that could help me. I am still waiting
Leslie says
They do not care about their customers as long as they have their money!
SUSAN ESTRADA says
I had the same experience. Instead of getting the notification to remind me to choose a meal after I have skipped a month, they charged me – I noticed I missed a “skip” – then saw what they selected and the selections were nothing I would choose. So, I had to accept the fact it was my fault I didn’t skip so I went into the app and CANCELED. I received my final box on Monday, after we have already eaten dinner. So yesterday, we were preparing a zucchini with chicken pizza/flatbread to notice the zucchini was rotten – slimy. I went online and chatted with Hello Fresh and as they were very apologetic, they offered to credit my already canceled account $1.60 for the zucchini. Bottom line, we canceled the Boxes in the first place because after using our coupon, almost $50 was not worth it for a 2 meal plan. We made the zucchini and chicken pizza without the zucchini, so it ended being about a 4 ingredient pizza. It was good but not worth $25. No thanks, Hello Fresh.
Jessica says
Hello fresh is for sure not a waste of money and I will recommend to everyone I know. I had conversations with people from hello fresh with a couple concerns, they handled it very well and very nicely. They value their customers.
Kathleen says
I received an offer for 3 free meals from a friend who recently signed up with hello fresh. I selected 3 meals however had to pay 13.98 for ‘upgrade meal’ ? and SHIPPING which to me doesn’t equal free. Today I noticed the deducted 63.98 from my bank for 3 meals I did not choose or authorize! I was furious! I called and was told they would be delivered tomorrow. BEWARE! When you accept the free meals they automatically enroll you! They did refund my money and I’ll receive the 3 meals at no cost. I had them cancel my account that I NEVER signed up for!
Shara says
@Patricia – you can always order a gift card for a one-off box!
https://www.hellofresh.com/gift/
Patricia says
I’m thinking this would be a nice gift for my dil & son. They just had their first baby. Can you buy say a week or two worth of meals & that’s it? I don’t want them to have to worry about canceling or pausing.
Tammy Kresge says
Patricia thanks so much for brining up this point because I thought about it in bed after I posted it. Yes I think a gift card for Hello Fresh would be a wonderful gift – I know I would love it. I will update this review with information on gift cards.