About Cook, Gousto, Hello Fresh, et al?

[Famalamaringwrong]

Hit me. Which is the best of this kind of box? I want to start using one for my family not sure what to try and how the delivery works if you're not in etc? Thank you!!

Hi, I've only tried Gousto. It comes packed in a box with ice packs. They will leave it in a safe place outside if you're not home.

Gousto is cheaper, but I have begun to find the recipes a bit samey, whereas I wasn't disappointed in the Hello Fresh recipes. Both pretty simple to use apps, easy to follow recipe cards and easy to change and cancel deliveries. I found Hello Fresh 'choose your box' reminders better than Gousto's. Have stayed with Gousto longer though - probably due to price.

I like simply cook. I’m a bit picky with food and it means I can tweak the recipes to suit. There’s a good variety to choose from as well.

Gousto is fantastic. I wasn't impressed with the quality of hello fresh meat or veg at all.

Love gousto. Every so often I'm not bowled over by the choice, but usually am!

I've used both hello fresh and gousto and preferred hello fresh. As a pp said gousto gets a bit samey whereas helllo fresh there's loads of recipes to choose from.
As you get the recipes and ingredients with both what we started to do after a while was still follow the recipes but bought from the supermarket rather than direct to make it cheaper as it isn't overly cheap once you've used up voucher codes.

Weirdly when reading this thread, a Simply Cook advert has come up on the right hand side of the page!

I use Hello Fresh 1 x a month. It gets other members of household cooking and we usually end up with leftovers. I also do whatleggy does & has added to my own repertoire of quick recipes. Probably slightly increases the food bill, but this is offset by convenience.

I like Simply Cook. I'm not much of a chef so if I can whip up these lovely meals from three tubs of sauces / herbs etc, anyone can. There are plenty to choose from and I'm sure you can get your first box for £1 or something.

I like simply cook because it's just the recipe/spices and you add the fresh stuff, meaning it can sit in the cupboard until you want it. All the recipes have been really tasty so far, and you can get your first box on offer for about £3. Top tip, if you have it for a few months and decide to take a break, they'll come back with an offer to reduce it to £7.99 a month 😬

I don't think you mean Cook, they make frozen ready meals which are actually not as bad as most of the supermarket crud that attempts to imitate food.

Only tried Hello Fresh. Mixed results with the meals, most good but some duds. Got us eating stuff we'd never have tried otherwise.

Considering the cost and effort, it's not something I'd want to do more than once a month. And there's a fair bit of plastic packaging.

These boxes kind of feel like they're for people rich on cash and poor on initiative. A good cookbook and buying ingredients will be cheaper.

I used Abel and Cole quite a lot a few years ago. The recipes were never repeated. Were interesting and had pretty good quality ingredients.

However, they have changed their boxes and I find them too fiddly to order now.

They do other stuff as well, butcher/fishmonger stuff which was good quality but a cost meant only for treats.

Haven't tried the others.

The only advantage Gilbert is you don't have to think about what to cook and the portion sizes are measured so no leftovers. I've kept their recipe cards so sometimes do my own versions.

The obvious advantage is you don't have to go shopping!

We use gousto, have tried a couple of others in the past but gousto is by far the most flexible in terms of being able to adjust the number of recipes or portions you want up or down and always has a big selection of recipes to choose from.
Gilbert I find they cut down on our food waste a lot and we started ordering them because I have a chronic condition where I struggle to stand and cook for any length of time. Having everything pre-portioned makes enough of a difference that I can cope with cooking a fresh meal whereas before I was relying too much on frozen food for example.

I also love Simply Cook.

I use Gousto and definitely recommend them - lots to choose from and cheaper than the others. The ice in the box keeps everything chilled for a long while so even when delivered in the morning it's fine when I get home in the evening.

My only complaint would be that recently the recipes have got a bit samey. Might just be a phase though.

Much prefer Gousto to HF for flavour, but really used it to expand my repertoire and now don’t order anymore - it’s pricey outside of discounts etc.

The advantage is no thinking at all and going home to a meal that you haven't had to waste any brain power on. I'm going home to a Hello Fresh box tonight and I can't remember what's in there and I don't much care as long as I don't have to potter hungrily and aimlessly around the supermarket on the way home from work.

To be finickity Phiney, you don't have to go shopping with normal supermarket delivery either!

We have tried a few but love Hello Fresh and mean to do more often.

If we were higher income we absolutely would do weekly. We love the meals! Especially when the brain is all over the place.

If anyone wants a Hello Fresh discount code pm me as we'll both get a discount and we can have another go!

They all come with a lot of plastic packaging. For instance, if you just went to the supermarket you might buy a jar or ground cumin which might last a few months. However, with these meal planners you’ll get a small plastic pot with one teaspoon of cumin in. Imagine having to produce (and dispose of) a small plastic pot every time a recipe called for a teaspoon of cumin.

The mountain of packaging that came with every box is what made me stop ordering them.

I use Hello Fresh occasionally - usually during term time when dd is away at university and I know dh and me have a busy week of evening commitments. I wouldn’t use it regularly but on the whole we have found the quality and quantity of food to be good.

Morrison’s are also doing these type of boxes now, seems a bit cheaper than hello fresh / Gousto. I find them a good way to try new things, but can’t afford them every week!