To ask if anyone here does ‘Hello Fresh’

[Vikinglightning]

And if so, is it worth the money?

Seriously thinking about starting it as I’m just so fed up of trawling round the supermarkets bored, trying to think of what to eat for dinner all week. Tired of never getting the portion sizes just right (there’s only 2 of us) and either having loads left over or still feeling a bit hungry. Tired of not knowing what to cook and worrying our diets aren’t great blah, blah.

Also, I’m just so short on time at the moment so would love for dinner time to be a bit quicker and easier!

That's good to know @PearTreeBoat - thank you. That was the main reason I stopped using them! I did call and complain when they started it and the guy did say that they had a lot of complaints and were "reviewing it". I might look into them again as we liked the food!

I got Hello Fresh to help with lockdown meals, but actually I've found it really reduces the mental load.

Have had a couple of missing ingredients but they're pretty good at refunding.

The spring onions are always awful though. Not had a fresh one yet.

@BlueJava just to let you know I've just had this weeks HF delivery and the meals aren't in individual bags this week. They've gone back to just putting all the non-chilled goods just in the box altogether 😤

We tried it for a month and then gousto, HF definitely preferable to Gousto the meals are tastier and not as basic. With both I found there was a lack of veg, maybe we just eat a lot of veg? Also we had some issues with freshness/quality but again more with gousto than HF

I have had a few boxes and have mixed views.

It's good at half price but at full price is pretty poor value. One meal I had because I couldn't find a third was a tomato pasta dish which gave you 300g pasta, cherry tomatoes, garlic, passata, a little pot of olives and a ball of mozzarella which I would have been able to buy for less than £3 but would have cost £10 full price.

Some weeks there are loads of nice looking things and other it's hard to pick.

Customer service is pretty bad, you can only use the chat on the app which is a pain to use on a phone.

We use Gousto but my parents use HF and love it. We get occasional boxes when I’m treating DH as he normally does all cooking. He’s such a good cook and I am an absolute terrible cook so at least with Gousto it’s really hard to go wrong and he enjoys the meal

We've been getting gousto for about 5 months now. I love it, never had a single issue with freshness, quality or supply. The 10m recipes are great for doing fresh homemade food after being to the gym.

I’ve just stopped, had my last box this week. Both DH and I have loved the meals, as have the kids but we just can’t afford it full price, £40 a week for 3 meals for 4. I will say thought the portions are huge, there’s plenty of left overs for lunch the next day, so a meal for 4 serves 6. One box contained ingredients for a meal I hadn’t ordered and a card that didn’t match the ingredients and I was given a credit for the meal within 5 minutes.

I used to cook the same 6 meals on rotation week in, week out, I signed up (with a discount code) to get ideas & inspiration and it’s definitely worked out. I’ll remake all the meals I’ve had from then again. I’ll miss getting them.

(Now off to check out gousto!)

I do it! We do meals for two, 3 a week and it does me, DH and our 5 year old. It massively helps me, I was so stuck in a rut. Also it’s good for stuff I wouldn’t necessarily think to cook. I do quite often amend the recipes a bit - I’ve stopped baking broccoli, which HF often suggests!

Spring onions are shite it’s true! Also I’ve ended up with a lot of garlic as they chuck in a whole bulb a week.

If you want a code for Gousto Ice that gives you 50% off your first box and 30% off the first month just let me know.

I do it from time to time. I quite like it, although a lot of the recipes take a lot longer and are more complicated than they say they will be. Also they use all the pans! This has improved recently though - they’ve obviously had feedback and introduced “rapid” and one pan things.

We've had a few boxes on voucher codes and I was impressed - loved the meals, good variety, decent portions and saves the mental load of meal planning, shopping etc. If I had the money I would probably keep it up for a few meals a week, but it's at least double what I would normally spend on a dinner. You're paying an awful lot for someone else to plan your meals and ingredients.

It’s not the cheapest way to eat but it does depend what you’re replacing. I’ve found my grocery spend overall is pretty static as pre hello fresh I was nipping to marks at the station on the way home and easily spending £10-20 on the makings of dinner.

It's fine at first IME. A variety of tasty things. But eventually it just ends up being endless mince and chicken dishes

Have tried Gousto, Mindful Chef and Hello Fresh ( depending on who had a deal on)
I think Gousto has the best selection and recipes. Mindful Chef is more expensive but has better quality meat ( but less selection). Hello Fresh is Ok if you can't get the others but the worst of the 3 in terms of interesting dishes and quality. Its a bit stodgy - or maybe its just what I chose

Also tried Simply Cook but didn't find that it helped/added much

Riverford (the organic veg box people) do recipe boxes. Every week there are three vegan and three veggie options (one each of light, simple and foodie), two meat options, two "prime cuts" options and two family options. The portion sizes are very generous. You get 5% off if you order two boxes and 10% off if you order three or more.