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Original poster

Gousto

43 replies

nearlyspringyay · 14/03/2022 14:19

So I'm fed up of meal planning / thinking what to eat / shopping, over it all in general tbh since lockdown.

Signed up for a trial Gousto box, it was £11 for 2 meals for 2 adults and 2 kids.

I am utterly underwhelmed. The packaging, the portions (probably good for me, DH will be hungry), a random tiny chunk of ginger that's all dried out on each side, the coriander looks a bit swampy, the mince doesn't look that great.

Am I missing the point? I could just add the ingredients to my regular shop. Does anyone actually get on with it? I'd be pissed off If I had paid full price for it.

Is Hello Fresh any better or more of the same? I just want to lose some of the mental load of food during the week but think I'm probably better of going back to cooking a few meals for the week on Sundays. Also very boring.

OP posts:
PeggyGa · 14/03/2022 14:36

I adore gusto and I’m really fussy.

Did you give feedback? I’ve never had bad ingredients and the portions are huge I fund

Yellowdott · 14/03/2022 14:44

I've used Gusto several times and was always underwhelmed. For the price I'd expect something better than I could cook myself and you simply don't get that.

I find Hello fresh has much better recipes for my taste, but their ingredients are worse quality. You get 20% fat meat and veggies aren't always fresh. I only use it with discounts as otherwise not worth the money unfortunately.

I have a code to send £46 off if you want to try it (DM me an email address). It'd make your first box free.

Duracellbunnywannabe · 14/03/2022 14:49

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘swampy coriander’ and ‘not great mince’. Can you post a photo?

There is some packaging in mine but not enough to be overwhelmed. I found portion size to be fine but then my youngest is a toddler.

Ifeellikedancing · 14/03/2022 14:50

I was also underwhelmed. Meals were fiddly to prepare and a bit meh. Simply cook is way better, even though you only get the spices/flavour pots. 4 or 5 staple ingredients needed and easy to customise to your own taste.

Katia2511 · 14/03/2022 14:51

We get Gusto every week. It is expensive and we find the portions a bit small. We do eat a lot though, so I always thought the portions are within the recommended calories/ portion sizes.
You also pay for them to take the mental load off, you just choose from the recipes and that's dinner done! We tried to just add the ingredients to our normal shop but we ended up eating the same recipes every week and also throwing some food away. Since we get Gusto, we hardly ever throw any food away.

MissDollyMix · 14/03/2022 14:54

I love Gousto. We use it every week. It’s been a life saver in terms of meal planning and introducing variety. Mostly we have enough left after feeding our family of 4 for DH and I to have some for lunch the next day. Maybe we eat small portions?! I think you have to pick carefully. They usually do lovely curries. I’ve also tried Hello fresh but I don’t like the layout of the app and the meat is poor quality in comparison (if you don’t think Gousto quality is great, you definitely won’t like Hello Fresh!)

Makegoodchoices · 14/03/2022 14:55

Mince quality does seem a bit poor, but that was my only complaint - all other elements were fine and the quantities and variety are great. I only did one week but will do another when I’m feeling uninspired again.

fdgdfgdfgdfg · 14/03/2022 14:57

I've been getting Gousto for about 2 years. I find that the ingredients are generally good quality, the meat in particular I find is better than supermarket stuff.

The herbs can sometimes be a bit dodgy, but thats what happens when something sits in a UPS truck for 2 days.

Portion sizes are smaller than what I used to make, but that's because I'd gotten into some bad habits, so happy that they're a more "normal" portion size.

For me, its about convenience, we get it 4 meals a week, and it means I don't have to go supermarket shopping. My DP does most of the shopping, but she's not a foodie, so unless I did the cooking then we'd exist off frozen stuff. Getting Gousto means I don't have to really think about meal planning or go shopping myself.

It's not perfect by any means, but it does the job for us. It's also not cheap, but on the weeks we don't get a box we invariably end up with a takeaway one night, which costs around the same for one meal as Gousto would have done for 4.

I'm also religious about letting them know if anything is missing or not perfect quality, gets me a few quid off the next box.

LBF2020 · 14/03/2022 14:58

Those saying the meat quality is poor, where do you get your meat from normally? I find the mince (you can pick low fat %) and fish/prawns etc much better than I can find in the big supermarkets.

We have it weekly and I love that the portions are

CraftyGin · 14/03/2022 14:59

We love Gousto.

It has instilled a love of cooking in our DDs.

We find the portions are more than enough, and are happy to do a 2-person meal when there are three of us.

We don't buy from them very often now as we have such a good collection of recipes.

BiscuitLover3678 · 14/03/2022 14:59

Op they are money making scams. Hello Fresh is incredibly overpriced. Definitely try and find some recipes and do a normal shop. Or do it for a few weeks, steal the recipes and cancel cancel cancel.

LBF2020 · 14/03/2022 15:01

Whoops! I love the portions are already calorie calculated which helps me keep track each day. I don't find the portions too small. My only complaint is that the accompanying salad always needs some other veg added to make it more interesting.

Original poster
nearlyspringyay · 14/03/2022 15:02

@Duracellbunnywannabe

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘swampy coriander’ and ‘not great mince’. Can you post a photo?

There is some packaging in mine but not enough to be overwhelmed. I found portion size to be fine but then my youngest is a toddler.

Black wet leaves in the coriander and the mince looks high fat.

It's fine as a trial and we'll eat it, I just can't see how it's helping me!

OP posts:
Original poster
nearlyspringyay · 14/03/2022 15:05

@BiscuitLover3678

Op they are money making scams. Hello Fresh is incredibly overpriced. Definitely try and find some recipes and do a normal shop. Or do it for a few weeks, steal the recipes and cancel cancel cancel.
Yep I think the problem is, I already cook a lot, I have most of the store cupboard ingredients in. I saw they had sausage and mash as a meal, I wouldn't be happy paying their prices for sausage and mash.

Most of our meat comes from the local butcher.

I think it's perhaps more aimed at people who can't cook, but even then you have the recipient card so why go back to them? Seems flawed and possibly why they are offering 65% off!

OP posts:
PeggyGa · 14/03/2022 15:09

I think it’s aimed at people like me time poor with disposable income

JengaCupboard · 14/03/2022 15:11

I tried it for a few weeks while it was ridiculously discounted but cancelled once that was over. It categorically isn't good value at full price and I don't think it's even about paying for convenience because I had endless quality issues - weird smelling chicken, black potatoes, terrible quality fresh herbs etc.

Some of the recipes are alright but nothing earth shattering. And I also do not agree with their unnecessary use of single plastics for things that could easily have gone in paper.

Oh and that quite a few things were out of stock days before the cut off for menus for that week, and the uplift in costs for pathetic sized items such as tiny steaks and salmon etc.

Not impressed.

TickleMyPickle · 14/03/2022 15:18

We get 4 meals for 4 people every week.
We all have big appetites and the portion sizes are fine.
The variety of meals my (previously very fussy ) teens now eat is fantastic.
Since the beginning of this year I have exclusively ordered meals under 600 calories and it’s helped DH and I loose 2 stone each.
Very occasionally I’ll be unhappy with quality of an ingredient and I feed it back and get money credited for my next box.

vesperlindor · 14/03/2022 15:21

We started it a few weeks ago and I bloody love it! I'm a decent cook anyway but I found 'normal' meal planning / shopping just never worked for me - there was always some really critical ingredient I'd forgotten which would necessitate a trip to the shops anyway, so the fact they they give you everything you need is perfect for me. I've actually found the quality to be excellent, but we only have veggie stuff and fish (I refuse to pay the extra for the salmon dishes tho!) so can't comment on the meat. I was also pleasantly surprised by the portion sizes as DH is a gannet and constantly starving, but he's had no complaints.

DH and I agreed that it is probably costing us a bit more per portion than if we shopped for it ourselves, but the benefit of having everything we need, someone else thinking up the dishes for us so we are not having the same things every week, and not having to go to the shops so regularly (which always results in adding stuff to the basket that we didn't need and therefore wasting money) is worth it. We plan to do it for a few more weeks to get a good chunk of recipe cards and ideas, and then ditch it for a few weeks and see how much it costs us to do their recipes ourselves. There are a couple of things we have tried that I would never usually buy or put together and they have been really nice, so it's been a good experience that way as well.

I did have a look at Hello Fresh but they seem to have far less options so wasn't keen.

Florencenotflo · 14/03/2022 15:29

We've done Gousto a few times, but only when it's discounted. I don't think it's very good value at full price. I needed some new ideas for meals really. We tend to eat the same things so it was nice to try different recipes. We are both trying to lose weight too, so seeing what normal portions are also helps.

I've never had any issues with the quality of the ingredients, but I do know what you mean about the mince, but I think it's just because it is vac packed, that's all.

EmmaStone · 14/03/2022 15:31

We have it monthly - 2 meals for 4 of us. Not had any issues with portion sizes (including 2 hungry teens).

Originally started during lockdown when I'd grown weary of having to think, plan, shop and cook all the meals day in, day out. The idea was the DC would choose the recipes, and cook it themselves. DD does tend to get stuck in, DS doesn't. DH oversees, and I wash up.

I agree that many of the recipes aren't terribly inspired, but as a learning tool for the DC, I don't mind too much (although I tend to discourage ordering meals that would be a normal 'easy' meal for me - things like sausage and mash or spag bol).

Now I see it merely as a couple of nights I don't need to think about, although I have considered cancelling as we're now eating out again etc, so I don't feel quite so chained to the fridge and oven!

Original poster
nearlyspringyay · 14/03/2022 15:39

@PeggyGa

I think it’s aimed at people like me time poor with disposable income
That's me but I still can't see how it's helping, I still need to log on and chose meals, by the time I had read them I could have done my normal Sainsbury's order, which I still had to do for the kids lunches etc.

maybe just not for me.

OP posts:
Original poster
nearlyspringyay · 14/03/2022 15:43

I think I just want a personal chef, or someone to deliver cooked meals that I don't have to think about at all!! not going to happen

OP posts:
LBF2020 · 14/03/2022 16:00

@PeggyGa

I think it’s aimed at people like me time poor with disposable income
Agreed.
gogohm · 14/03/2022 16:00

Love Gousto. Portions (2 person box) and perfect and never had a single bad ingredient. Hello fresh is very similar but I've had missing ingredient issues recently

gogohm · 14/03/2022 16:05

@nearlyspringyay I think it's more suited to couples, we don't do a "proper" shop I get 3-4 gusto meals then one of us nips into Lidl fir bits on the way home a couple of time, usually me unless we need cat food in which case it's a sainsburys run by dp. Between gusto and meals out we only buy a loaf of bread, milk, cheese and salad most weeks