I really liked Hello Fresh - enjoyed the food, good menu variety, correct portion size, no waste or left overs etc.

But I cancelled today due to recurring delivery problems.

I wondered if anyone could recommend similar services they use and enjoy?

Thanks

Gousto is decent, I think it’s better quality having done both. They usually have decent offers on for your first few weeks as well.

Ive used a few, but pretty sure they're all ultimately owned by / supplied by same people.

I found Green Chef most reliable but sure it's the same company.

A lot of the dishes are very good BUT I do find the meat hit and miss. (and they often use cheaper cuts). But the flavours are good. So I started opting for a lot of the veg or fish dishes.

Love Gousto. We've been subscribed for about three years now.

Gousto is better both ingredients and menu wise than Hello Fresh, but the way they package things up is annoying.

We use hello fresh, not had any issues for a while.

We've done gousto before but preferred the hello fresh menus.

Probably due to swap back soon as our offer has expired.

We've found we save a ton of money on shopping doing these

Simply Cook is miles better. Slightly different concept in that you buy most of your own ingredients from the supplied list, but there's never more than 4 or 5 and you get to select for yourself in the supermarket, plus things aren't going off if you don't use them immediately. I've never looked back since I switched.

I tried Simply Cook trial but be warned they are impossible to cancel and don't respond to any messages

I use the decide what to eat and go to the shop. I got a lifetime free trial and I just pay for what I buy.

As a society how did we get to a stage where you get a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking?

Guppyspotter wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 8:24 am

I use the decide what to eat and go to the shop. I got a lifetime free trial and I just pay for what I buy.

As a society how did we get to a stage where you get a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking?

Very glib way of looking at it. On the other hand, it means far fewer trips to the supermarket, the portion sizes reduce a lot of waste (i.e. they only send the amount you need to make the number of portions you select), and it's a good timesaver for those who don't have much of it.

You could say having your food delivered from a supermarket is "getting a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking" too.

Guppyspotter wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 8:24 am

I use the decide what to eat and go to the shop. I got a lifetime free trial and I just pay for what I buy.

As a society how did we get to a stage where you get a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking?

I agree I've never gone wrong with a straightforward simple concept that works. Just buy what you want when you want & make it & cook it whenever you want it the way you like it.

Woodleyclaret wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 7:34 am

I tried Simply Cook trial but be warned they are impossible to cancel and don't respond to any messages

I tend to use a single use virtual card to sign up to these things, then a virtual card if i want to continue so its an easy stop. Safe enough

ClaretOfMancunia wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 12:14 pm

Very glib way of looking at it. On the other hand, it means far fewer trips to the supermarket, the portion sizes reduce a lot of waste (i.e. they only send the amount you need to make the number of portions you select), and it's a good timesaver for those who don't have much of it.

You could say having your food delivered from a supermarket is "getting a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking" too.

100% agree

It’s sometimes difficult to cook “just for 2” but we found with Hello Fresh, we weren’t wasting food and we weren’t going shopping and buying things we didn’t really need

The only issue I had was the amount of cheese they thought was appropriate for 2 people

wilks_bfc wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 2:36 pm

100% agree

It’s sometimes difficult to cook “just for 2” but we found with Hello Fresh, we weren’t wasting food and we weren’t going shopping and buying things we didn’t really need

The only issue I had was the amount of cheese they thought was appropriate for 2 people

Yeah, it's really good for meal planning too as you can select your meals in advance and filter by low carbs, low fat, veggie etc. etc.

My main issues with HF - and this is going back to Covid when they were really popular - was the size of the veg. We had a good laugh at some spring onions they sent with one box, they were the size of matchsticks. They did refund a bit of money after I complained though.

ClaretOfMancunia wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 01, 2025 12:14 pm

Very glib way of looking at it. On the other hand, it means far fewer trips to the supermarket, the portion sizes reduce a lot of waste (i.e. they only send the amount you need to make the number of portions you select), and it's a good timesaver for those who don't have much of it.

You could say having your food delivered from a supermarket is "getting a takeaway delivered and you have to do the cooking" too.

We haven't used Hello Fresh for a few years (mainly down to busy evenings/kids activities meaning we don't all eat together as much), but I think it's a great idea, for many reasons.

Sure - it can be a slightly more expensive way of eating.
Sure - if you take an old school view, why wouldn't you just buy your food from the village shop? (But why would you pay £30-40 to watch Burnley FC when you can stand in the local park and watch some lads represent a pub for free? You can use that argument for anything.)

But, a recipe box provider delivers the food to your house, without you having to actually shop/purchase it. That means that your food is there whether you're busy or not.
And, if you enjoy trying new things, then once or twice a week at least, you'll be eating things you've never or rarely eaten.

I've found it saves money.

Our weekly box is £50 for 4 meals for 2 adults and 2 kids. I'd easy spend more than that going to Tesco for the ingredients.

I'm sure you could do it cheaper if you're a povo meal household with chicken nuggets or whatever, but we prefer to cook from scratch and keep things different. With this we get to choose something different every week, certainly not stuff we would normally think to go and cook.

Found portion size decent too.

Like anything, each to their own. It'll work for some and not for others.