To ask what people think of their free Gusto boxes?

[londonmummy1966]

As lots of people were sharing codes last week I thought I'd try a box - I've had some from Hello Fresh before - to see how they compared.

Mine arrived today - I had a text yesterday giving a 2 hour delivery window and the box arrived within that - one up on Hello Fresh which only gives a 12 hour window and the couriers don't always knock so I don't know how long a box has been on the doorstep.

The contents are all there although the herbs and spinach look a little tired. THe chilled items came in a cardboard chiller box which would be good for taking things on a self catering trip/picnic or could otherwise be recycled.

Recipe cards are easy to follow and tonights meal - herby rice with basa fillet was really nice - fish portions are more generous than Hello Fresh.

The down points were that the recipes were less interesting to choose from than Hello Fresh a lot of pasta and rice dishes and not that many veggie options. Also Hello Fresh boxes divide up the ingredients between recipes so you have four bags each containing what you need for a dish with one further bag with any ingredients to be shared between recipes. Much easier to sort out and put away.

So I'm happy as they delivered what they said they would when they said they would and it tastes fine. Not sure I'd buy a full priced box though and am still pondering about 30% off or not - that might depend on whether or not I can also claim my voucher code credit.

Anyone else?

I haven't tried any of the subscription boxes yet, but I do wonder about the cost. I get that it could be cost effective if you have a code or discount, but surely it works out expensive once those are used up? Especially if you have a larder well stocked with herbs and spices, soy sauce and the like?

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=KERRY43374732&utm_source=iosapp

fresh new code if anyone would like one 😊

You then pay for the convenience. I never had them without discount and used them only couple of times a year to get out of rut. Gives some nice ideas and brings up the food spark in us again. Wouldn't have them every week, but good for sometimes

Ours didn't turn up... claimed to have been unable to leave it in our safe place, but I had been gardening in our front garden all afternoon with no sign of a delivery van. Rang customer service who said that they would call back once the courier responded. Nothing heard 3 hours later. Won't bother with it again!

There's about 35 veggie items each week. We really like the variation on Gousto and found HF bland.

What's the issue with basa fillets?

I think with flavour it comes down to which recipes you choose, we had a prawn stir fry which was really bland and disappointing but had a Vietnamese style fish dish which was honestly one of the tastiest things I've eaten in a long while and I wish they would do it again. Similarly there was a coconut daal dish that was gorgeous, full of flavour and better than any other daal I've managed to make, but it hasn't appeared again. I know I could just use use recipe cards to recreate them and no doubt will get round to doing that eventually.

We had our first meal tonight, my kids actually made it and I can't complain. I also liked that you got a free wooden spoon in the box.

We've had Gousto boxes for the last month or so. First box was really good but the quality of the ingredients has gone right down. So much so that I've cancelled now - and the last box they sent had credit of over £15 due to the issues with the ingredients.

I do Hello Fresh and get given a 1hr time slot and they usually always come right on the very first minute. They don't always knock but I get a text and email straight away.

We used Gousto regularly for a couple of years but the quality of their chicken went drastically downhill so we stopped several months ago. Interested to see if it's improved? It was stringy, tough, water-filled breast fillets when we left, looked more like turkey than chicken.
we consistently found the recipes way better than HelloFresh, much more interesting. We have a huge recipe folder of Gousto recipes now that we recreate regularly but using better quality meat.

Oh and I do have 3 free boxes for Hello Fresh to send to a friend, it asks for an email address so if you're interested PM me :)

Ps I'm sorry I've hijacked a gusto thread with hello fresh 😂

That's 3 separate boxes for 3 separate people btw.... Deffo time for bed for me!

Can I ask people please not to put codes on this thead otherwise MN will take it down - I wanted a thread on the experience. If you have a code please either PM it to people (which is what I have been doing for those that asked) or put it on one of the specific Gusto code threads in the Promo section and put a link to the thread. I know a lot of people have complained bitterly about Gusto code threads clogging up other talk topics.

FOr those saying they were surprised I was disappointed with the veggie meal selection - I felt that the Gusto veggie options were quite pasta heavy whereas Hello Fresh has more south Asian veggie curry type options - I guess its horses for courses but I can cook veggie pasta without an ingredients box.

TBH I'm not sure that the box had less packaging than Hello Fresh despite the bags for individual meals. I found the multiple sachets annoying - my box had a hunk of fresh ginger and a whole bulb of garlic so I didn't need several sachets of ginger and garlic paste as well IYSWIM. I'll use my own ingredients from the cupboard and keep sachets of soy and balsamic etc for when DH takes a packed salad into work for lunch as he can use those for dressings to stop it getting soggy. I did like the "disposable" cool box though which has been given to one of my neighbours to keep her Glyndebourne picnic cool and which she can pop in their recycling bins rather than lugging it all back on the train.

Place marking as mine arrives tomorrow!

Also have codes available

Mine also went missing @Nellyfunk ! Initially I had a message saying it would be late, then just nothing. They gave me a refund without a quibble but I was mighty annoyed because I’d planned on having the meals and had to squeeze in a mid-week shop

I must have missed the box been reusable, the bottom of the inside cool side of mine was slightly soggy.
I have kept the 3 freeze bags though as they will br great in my cool box.

The freezer bags are also handy to keep beer cool in a summer in the garden🙈

FOr those saying they were surprised I was disappointed with the veggie meal selection - I felt that the Gusto veggie options were quite pasta heavy whereas Hello Fresh has more south Asian veggie curry type options - I guess its horses for courses but I can cook veggie pasta without an ingredients box

I found the exact opposite 😁Must just be how it fell on those particular weeks!

Underripe fruit and the smallest cloves of garlic I have ever seen but apart from that looks good

We had the cheeseburgers tonight as it’s tidy up Monday so something easy - the oregano ruined the burgers as too over powering so I’d recommend leaving that out but not bad

Mines actually eventually appeared! It was due between 9am and 7pm. I got in touch with gousto who emailed the courier and it magically appeared at 9pm. Not great though as I also had to do a mad dash to the supermarket for dinner! But now it's here, I'm impressed so far! Made me a bit hesitant about it arriving in time in future though!

Glad they gave you credit for a future box but it doesn't help that its another 3 or 4 days before you can get other one, eh!

@Shadowdog - not quite sure which bit of my last post asking people NOT to post codes on here you didn't understand? I'd really like this thread to be about how people found the boxes and if it is full of codes Mumsnet will take it down as they have with lots of the other promo code threads posted in AIBU and Chat rather than in the Promo section. Anyway I'll report anymore posts with codes as I really want this thread to stay up.

Could someone please pm me a code if anyone has one? I’d love to give this a try! Thank you in advance!

Messaged you.