Hello Fresh - portion size

[yogakeepsmesane]

Interested in maybe starting this. They only do boxes for up to 4. As a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 primary-aged children) would a 4 person box be enough?

Yes easily!

We haven’t had them for over a year now, so guessing things might have changed a bit, but we used to get two dinners and two small lunches out of several of the recipes, especially the noodle and rice-based dishes (two person box).

For most things yes but don’t pick something that needs a chicken breast in one piece for example as you would get 4.

I'd say so - when we did HF we got a 4 person box for 2 adults, a 2yo and a 4yo and there was always at least a portion left over (and DH and I can eat!)

We did Gousto with a 3 person box, also enough for the 4 of us

Yes, perhaps add a veg bought from supermarket not hello fresh as they charge a fortune for sides (or frozen peas eg)

Going against the grain here I would say possibly not. I personally feel the quality of ingredients and portion size has decreased over the last year. If you choose meals with “cheaper” ingredients (something rice or noodle based for example) you’ll probably be able to have enough (possibly bulking out with veg).

Other things you may struggle: burger there will be enough for 4 patties and 4 buns so you’ll need to have 2 children who will only need half a burger. Sausages they work on 2 per person so again do 2 of your children only need 1 sausage? Or 1 1/3 for each of them?

Ive started using Cook more (for nights we need a quicker meal). Decent portions, less packaging and much better quality ingredients. A 4 person meal feeds 2 adults, a teenager and 2 primary kids.

We've had 3 boxes of 5 meals for 4 people. We found they would feed 3 of our portion sizes and, occasionally, 4. Mainly it was the salads were enough for 4.

Sadly our 4th box didn't arrive and got clearly list in the system. Their customer service was atrocious and I'm still waiting on a refund of £3 which I suspect I'll never see. I finally got the refund for the original lost order but without a lot of messages - none of which were initiated by HF..their attitude seems to be "Oh, this happens"
Before giving a refund they applied it as future credit and worded it as if they were being kind in doing so!

So, I've cancelled..but I cannot go shopping unless I plan when I go, so a missed box is a massive PITA to me.

I may go back to Gousto who never missed a delivery in the 18 months we used them.

Generally yes. We are 2 adults, 2 teens and a tween and a 4 person box is usually enough, sometimes even with some leftovers. Occasionally we'd have to add the odd thing, eg if there were 4 baked potatoes, we'd have to add an extra.

Even for two of us hello fresh was very inconsistent. Some nights more than enough. Some nights nowhere near.
It was always really carb heavy and I wasn’t that keen on the quality of the meat (particularly- it was a bit grim) or the dates on any of it.
Out of our first four boxes, three had missing items. Fifth was somehow delivered to the wrong address but we managed to find it. the prawns were full ammonia even after 3 hours in winter. Sixth, fully awol. No idea still what happened to that because I then lost my cool and cancelled.
Meat options are crap unless you want to pay extra to not eat gristley minced whatever and there is so much plastic involved.

@GreenMeanMachine
I agree Cook is delicious and good quality.

Also as PP have said - the cheapest recipe options are actually the ones you’d likely cook yourself for less without their input. So you’re not really gaining much and the fresh produce is crap.

I get a 4 person meal for 5 of us - 1 teen, 2 primary school. I would say teen eats an adult meal and half each for the small ones. We always have plenty and I have to say we have never had an issue with delivery or quality. There's still a lot of cooking and prep but I enjoy it and it has stopped me constantly stressing about what to have for dinner. We are enjoying more veggies too, the veg portions seemed large to me and made me realise how little we were eating before. I'd highly recommend it.