Hello Fresh! Recommendations or Avoid lists please

[Lilylicaclavendar]

Want to inject some variety into my meal planning so going to give Hello Fresh a try. Have a houseful of fussy eaters (think along the lines of one doesn’t eat what the other does and the don’t eats are rice, potaotes, curry … the list is endless!).

What have been hits or misses for you, if you use them? Thanks!

Think it's a waste of money. Portions are too small

I do hello fresh. This week I got delivered leaking chicken. As I carried the fridge pouch to my fridge, it leaked onto my bloody feet and floor. All the cool stuff (including garlic, cheese, Greek yoghurt etc) was covered in the fucking chicken juices. It’s a fantastic concept, menus are excellent - but the execution is slovenly and aggravating. They also didn’t bother including 2 of the recipe cards and shoved in 2 random ones instead that didn’t correspond to the food.

the food is really great, the chefs are great. But the execution, fuck me, it’s so shit. I only carry on with it as I have a family of big eaters and hate trying to conjure up meals.

We have Hello Fresh at the moment and it's all about taking the pain out of menu planning, and shopping as none of our local supermarkets are great...

I really wanted to like this for high pressure weeks where someone else could cook without me having to plan/shop/direct but the problem with HF was that a lot of it really wasn't fresh - Riverford was much better in that regard.

>too salty

You're the one adding the salt, lol.

They give you a chicken breast and a can of tomatoes or whatever. If it ends up too salty, that's on you.

Love it, really think HF have upped their game. One extra meal over gusto and meals are great.

saves me a fortune as that’s all I provide. If anyone wants anything else they can buy it themselves (mine are adults though 😂)

That's really not true. You rarely add "salt".
The goopy stuff in the plastic sachets is where the salt comes in. Soy sauce, "seasoning", grated Italian cheese, paste for this, powder for that, barbecue sauce, teriyaki... all of it is loaded with salt. Their meals are very highly salt based. All you can taste with these from a past box is salty savouryness, not actual flavour

Did you report the issue to them? I had that once, went on the app, and got a credit to my account. It's not ideal though, I'd rather not have to wash everything down!

I use Hello Fresh & Gusto. Often when you cancel they’ll send you an email to sign back up with discount off the next 3 or 4 boxes. So I tend to use one for a few weeks then switch. On the whole I prefer HF but happily have either. Ive never had an issue with delivery or missing ingredients. I use them because I’m not very organised or creative with meal planning and also not great at doing veg or salad as standard with meals but because it comes with veg/salad I feel I have to eat it.

Oh how funny this has popped back up! We had our first box delivered last week. The meals themselves have been pretty good, enormous portions and always have leftovers. On the downside, missing ingredients and meat that had very obviously gone off. Will do it again though and am keen to try Simply Cook too.

@Lilylicaclavendar "meat that had very obviously gone off"
And you'll order from them again???

My minimum expectation of an ingredients delivery service is "edible".... minimum.

@BeyondMyWits, I guess it sounds mad when I read it back. I’m blaming the fact that the order was delivered when it was 26/28 degrees and the ice packs were mostly liquid by the time it arrived. The first couple of nights were grand but I opened chicken yesterday and it smelled like rotten eggs. I will be calling them!

@Lilylicaclavendar I would prepare for this to happen again 👎🏼😔 Not great for your first box and I would definitely let them know!

Oh no, well that would be the end if that happens again! Definitely plan to let them know.

Do try Simply Cook! I like it much better than Hello Fresh. I made Tamil Black Pepper Chicken the other day and it was amazing. I also recommend the Beef Rendang and the Thai red prawn curry.

Here's a code for a free box if you'd like to try it -

www.simplycook.com/invite/57H9RH?via=app

Simply cook sounds good if you have reliable local supermarkets. Most of meal planning hatred relates to the need to replan when stuff isn't available when I go to the shops or is substituted if I order online so I don't see how simply cook solves that part.

I also really like the portion control effect of getting the 3 person box from Simply Cook, not sure if the Gousto Family box will work as well for us (2 adults, 2 kids) as adult greed might creep back in. But we're trying Gousto and possibly mindful Chef and will probably flit between them depending on offers as it has really helped with the mental load side of things.

I can see how online ordering could be a pain with Simply Cook, but the meals are very adaptable, so if the supermarket doesn't have the right thing in when you're there, it's easy to substitute. They even suggest substitutions on the recipe cards, but it's easy to change it up yourself. I can't eat peppers, so I just use sugarsnap peas, for example. Or I could use pac choi. Or both. I often use coconut milk instead of crème fraiche as it's easy to have in.