Any feedback about Hello Fresh?

[Bookaholic73]

I’m considering trying HF for a few weeks, as life is so busy at the moment.

Has anyone tried it and have any feedback, good or bad please.

I know it’s not very cost effective, that’s not what I need feedback on. More like are the portions of the meals good, any issues you’ve had with delivery, how easy it is to make etc.

Thank you.

They where on living social recently, £119 for 4 weeks meal for 4 - I like the step by step Recipes, I've made it my sons 'job' to cook tea on the days we have them.

I've tried HF and Gousto and much preferred the latter. I feel like HF has more conventional/classic recipes and Gousto offers more "bang for your buck/cooking time" in terms of flavours. Also more themed weeks (not all of them a roaring success but whatever, adds variety), more Asian/middle eastern type meals that I wouldn't feel able to cook otherwise, and more veggie meals like I can enjoy as a meat eater.

They were both quite poor on packaging and both now getting better imo - things like single eggs in plastic tupperware boxes .

If anyone wants a Gousto code - 60% off then 30% - there's one from me here.

I bought Gusto for my parents over the last lockdown ( they were only shopping every fortnight)

They are very “ traditional” eaters and a bit greedy. Gusto had way more choice than HF. They absolutely loved them. My mum got a free wooden spoon too, which made her week, bless. My dad recommends them.
They weren’t horribly expensive .

Have had HF and Gousto too.
Overall we were pretty impressed.
Recipes can become a bit repetitive and, with both, ingredients were often damaged or missing.
For us that was the main problem -tins put on top of salad ingredients etc.
With Gousto I just pause it for a few weeks. It does make life easier as I cannot stand thinking about what to cook every night.
Thought portions were quite large, but did think that I wouldn’t be quite as happy if I had two teenage boys rather than girls.

Tried hello fresh recently. Same issues with missing ingredients.

I live in NI and I think we had issues due to. Brexit? Our meals were substituted loads - I have a fussy eater who had picked specific meals to try and then we were given two chicken flatbread meals one week instead of what we had picked. Ten year old enjoyed making the meals - simple to follow.

After a few weeks of never getting what we ordered I cancelled - ended up with it all refunded and a £60 credit due to the substitution meals 🤷🏼‍♀️.

Trying gousto next!

I’ve used Hf on and off for the last couple of years. The portions are not huge and the meat portions have shrunk over the last year. It’s useful for getting the kids to cook. Adds variety. You can skip weeks. Our box use to be delivered on a Monday and now it is a Thursday. Once I’m back in the office I will cancel as I don’t want the box sitting outside for the day.

I love Hello Fresh! A few times I've had missing items but only something small that I can either replace or just miss out. I love the food, I find it's really tasty. It's so convenient too! I'm a single person who doesn't really cook often and will just end up ordering takeaway so it's nice to know I have a meal planned. I order for two which is the minimum and then freeze a portion so I've got a freezer drawer full of frozen meals for the days I don't fancy cooking.

Gousto is better.

When we tried HelloFresh we were underwhelmed. One of the three recipes was very plain (almost flavourless), and one was actively unpleasant. One recipe was great, and we've kept the card and made it ourselves since. The recipes are a faff to make - lots of chopping and peeling (whereas in my usual cooking I use short-cuts like frozen minced garlic, frozen mixed peppers etc). I wouldn't go back to HelloFresh even if it were free.

Pros: We tried them, recipes were easy (although used lots of pans) food was nice.
Cons: Had a few missing bits from the boxes, also found the food very salty. I am doing baby led weaning so we stopped using them. I do use the recipes though and just tweak them. Also the amount of single use plastic was horrible. Everything in little sachets.

The thing that annoyed me about HelloFresh was that there was always a sachet of some house spice blend. Which meant it was more difficult to replicate afterwards (using own ingredients) because you didn't know what spices to add.

I much prefer Gousto. We only get a box once in a while when we get stuck in a rut but we pretty much use gousto recipes for most meals - they give you a folder to keep all the recipes in (and the cards are a much better size that HelloFresh)

The plastic waste for both HF and Gousto is horrendous. That alone stopped me from continuing with a subscription.

Hello fresh only let's you see this weeks available recipies after you've paid so I would avoid if you have fussy eaters or dietary needs. The recipies change each week, so you cant tell what this weeks will be until you've already bought a box (you can skip boxes later but not your first box)

We signed up for a reduced price trial, realised there was only one recipe suitable that week for my family and not enough to fill a box, then had a hell of a fight getting money back,initially they declined a refund even though i paid and within 10 min realised it wasn't suitable, after a fight they then allowed me to skip that box and asked us to have the next months box instead (but couldn't tellme what the meal choices would be). It was a complete pain and spent a fair while on the phone sorting it.

I tried it again 6 months later and had the same issue. You have to chose a set amount of meals and there was never enough meals that we would chose to make it worth it.

We are vegitarian with some lactose intolerance though

We found gousto worked better for us, better selection of recipies and you could see in advance if that week was a good week to join!

We tried them for about 6 weeks at the beginning of the year...to encourage 16yo DD to do some cooking and also because we wanted some more veggie ideas.

Found them really good. I think we had one minor ingredient missing on one occasion. Main issue for us was that most of their chicken dishes use thighs which DD won't eat, but just bought chickenbreats and used the thighs up when DD not eating at home.

I'd definitely use them again.

I am a Gousto person. Didn't think much of Hello Fresh, which I got with someone's code here the other week - it just isn't as fresh and the recipes are a bit "meh".

So.... Shamelessly posting a Gousto referral link for anyone thinking of trying them - you get 60% off your first box and then 30% off the rest of the month, and I get £20 credit!

Love that I’m getting hello fresh adverts on my phone in between this thread ha ha x

Oops, link!

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=ALLIS33205208&utm_source=androidapp

I used Hf but was horrified by the plastic waste.
I wish there was an option to not receive the spices for example, I have a well stocked spice cupboard. HF if you're listening this would get me and I'm sure thousands like me back on board.

I'm interested in hearing more about Mindful Chef for this reason, anyone else tried them?

@Bookaholic73

Thanks everyone, sounds like it depends on where you live.

The plastic was a concern of mine too, as I’d heard negative things about that.

Yello, I’d love that code please.

Referral code for £20 off: HS-NAUPCBQAZ

You just got to www.hellofresh.co.uk and put the code in at checkout.

I don’t think it’s a one time only code but if it turns out it is and anyone wants another then drop me a DM.

(No idea if I get anything if someone uses it but you usually do for things like this so full disclosure just in case.)

Hello,

So my review of Gousto is that they are consistent, have a good range of recipes and have recently started offering healthier options. Have used them throughout the pandemic (I think we started just before it all kicked off as life was feeling very hectic. I love the reduced mental load of meal planning, and find there is plenty for left overs. I like how quickly they rectify things if there is a missing ingredient - they’ll just credit your account which seems fair to me. Delivery is always timely and things are not damaged. They do have a commitment to reduce the packaging, and I believe they know this is a barrier for many customers so will likely be pushing this agenda further. Here’s hoping!

Code below if anyone wants to give it a go.

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=ELEAN26264639&utm_source=iosapp

However, we are getting a trial box of Hello Fresh this week- my observations so far is that there are less choices over all and that means there are less healthy options. But always happy to try things out.

I am interested in mindful chef as well- did people find the meals healthier or helpful if trying to lose weight? Not sure if they work on a calories or lower carb basis?

Haven't tried HF but had a trial offer for Gausto and actually enjoyed the meals. And tried some foods I hadn't given thought to before.

I do enjoy cooking anyway, and it gave me some easy to follow recipe ideas I've adapted slightly. I did find that you can reduce their estimated prep and cooking times by doing things either out of order, or while doing something else.

I've reduced my use of Gausto lately as I've stocked up on the spices and now have my own herb garden.

Wouldn't discourage anyone from giving them a try.

Had some a while ago. The meals tasted good, the portions were good, no trouble with missing or gone-off items. But the cooking was more involved than I want to do every day and made loads of dirty dishes, and some recipes were problematic.

Cheaper alternative: the free Tesco and Asda magazines usually have a meal plan in them. Five meals, four portions each, £25 kind of thing. Works well with online shopping.

I've had 2 evening visits from door steppers trying to sell me Hello Fresh as apparently my very comprehensive notice saying such approaches are unwelcome doesn't apply to them.

They failed at the first hurdle. I would never use or recommend them

@Elphame weirdly I just had a sales call from HF which had never happened before.

Wondered if the Internet gremlins have informed then I've got a Gousto delivery coming on Sunday!

Minty, el - I think both companies (and Mindful Chef, Feast Box, Simply Cook etc etc) had a huge uptick in customers during the pandemic and are now battling a bit as restrictions ease and restaurants re-open.

I run a food bank that gets a lot of supermarket and catering "surplus". Since April we've had literally tonnes of meat, eggs, veg, herbs from these home cooking kit services, that went unsold. I think they have seen a downturn in subscribers.

(And fwiw I'm a Gousto customer and a very happy one!)