Has anyone tried Hello Fresh/Gousto?

[TheNewShmoo]

My Ocado food shop is rotting away in the fridge ...sleep deprivation and living on biscuits whilst tending to my 11 week old and toddler has forced me to find another way!

The FAQ sections on these websites claims that they are cheaper than buying from the supermarkets, but £5 per head for a bean cassoulet with a fancy name does seem a bit pricy?? Any thoughts?

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For the lowdown on the best recipe boxes, take a look at our comparison of the most popular boxes out there and, of course, Musnetters’ reviews of their favourites. MNHQ.

Are you aware that there are loads of £20 off your first Gousto order vouchers around at the moment? I keep seeing them in the food magazines I buy, and have been meaning to try them. Haven't yet though, so can't help you there.

You'll still need to cook though, so can't really see how it would be that much of a benefit over buying ingredients from Ocado. Maybe because they're measured out...?

With the voucher deal, certainly worth trying as a one off, although iirc you only get the ingredients for 3-4 meals, so not necessarily food for the week depending on how many mouths you have to feed.

I use Gousto once a month as a treat. I'm not convinced it's cheaper tbh but we like having new recipes to try and having the right amount of each ingredient already measured out is a luxury I've got used to.

We get the family box for 2 adults and 2 DC and always have a portion leftover. So we get 4 meals out of the box, which helps with the value.

The ingredients, especially the meat, are excellent quality, though I've found that the chicken hasn't always lasted as long as the packet says. We often find this with meat from the Farmer's Market too so it must be because they haven't got loads of added extras to make it last longer so it's a good thing.

If you PM me your details I can refer you for 50% off your first box. I get £15 towards my next one too, which always helps.

I did think it was the height of laziness but it is nice to have someone do the thinking, planning and shopping for you, tell you what to do with it and not have any waste! And yes, also gets you out of the rut of the same monotonous repertoire of dishes. Might be a good survival technique for these first few months with a new baby and toddler (amongst doubling up on the cleaner).

Worth getting a one-off box with the discounts I suppose- thanks guapa- will PM you my details.

I started using Gousto a few months ago after I found a 50% Off First box code online. I was on the fence between Hello Fresh and Gousto, but chose Gousto as I liked that I could choose my own recipes.

I am not a fussy eater, but my kids don't like certain things, so I didn't want to receive any surprise recipes. The other thing I like about Gousto is that I can plan my calorie intake in advance as well. I love having days off when I treat myself to a heavy meal, but I try and keep it healthy for me and my family most days. All of their recipes have calorie count and then when the recipe cards come in your box, you also get fat content, five a day + the calories. I also thought it was a bit pricy in the beginning and was very hesitant about wether I would want to commit to paying money every week, but as I started to receive the recipes and I saw how much food they actually send you I became hooked haha!

I personally think the price is worth it, because if you order a meat dish, the meat that comes in your box is organic and sourced locally. It looks and tastes amazing, it's way better than the £4 Chicken I would get at Tesco's. The other thing I like is that there is no food waste, everything has been measured out so I don't have to go get a whole jar of expensive saffron to make an amazing Paella, or some random ingredient such as Fish Sauce just for one recipe. All of these sauces normally just stay in my fridge or cabinet for ages and never get used up.

I have a few refer a friend discounts codes to use up. If anyone would want any, just DM me. The more codes I give out - the bigger discount I end up having in the future.

:)

I have tried Gousto - and the food is lovely, great presentation, recipe cards, recipe choice etc. Only - perhaps I was unfortunate - a new driver in the delivery company - but I had two weeks where the delivery did not turn up! Gousto very apologetic and say they will refund the money - but two weeks failed delivery is not acceptable!
Sad - because I think it is a great idea - and when it does arrive - it is very good!

I had Hello Fresh twice, I did really like having something different than I would have cooked good and liked mostly what they sent - I think one of the eight meals we had in total was a bit unimaginative, but just too expensive for our budget. If you do try an introductory order, remember to cancel in time, it was nearly a week before delivery the cancellation cut off date and I got caught out.

I have Hellofresh.
I get ridiculously excited about it coming once a month and cook from the recipe cards the rest of the time. I love love love it; I love the surprise element, although you can look ahead an select and not having to think about the meals for a week, trying out new recipes and ingredients.
I've never had any problems with supply, quality or recipes- really can't recommend them highly enough.

I use Gousto. Went with Hello Fresh first but had problems with the delivery and the Customer Service was awful. Gousto have occasionally messed up (nothing major - a missing egg, late delivery once) but are then full of apologies and send a lovely bar of choc in the next box to say sorry.

It works out cheaper for us as there is far less waste and I choose the meat dishes. I don't think it would be good value if you wanted mainly the vegetarian meals.

I tried Hello Fresh and found the meals very boring - not a single meal I hadn't prepared before. Some of the stuff went off quickly too (you really couldn't have any other evening meals between your Hello Fresh meals), and some of the quantities provided were short compared to the recipes.

I cancelled after the discounted trial, but even at the discounted price I don't think it was worth it compared to the quality you can get elsewhere (e.g. Ocado). Plus lots of follow-up calls after cancelling, even when I asked them to stop.

I tried Hello Fresh on a discount trial. The quality was good, the recipes I teresting and the portions about right, but I think full price it's very expensive. Also the food miles involved are huge. I expected it to come from a local distributor, but it's all dispatched from the Midlands somewhere. Which, if you live on the South Coast is a very long way.

I haven't tried them because I like to cook and like to choose my own variations. I'm also resistant to signing up for anything and then being pressured to continue if I want to stop.

I did sign up for a supermarket delivery saver though at £5 a month for a year of anytime deliveries, which in my circumstances and locality, is saving me so much time and money it's amazing.

If you're finding inspiration hard at any time try reading
Tesco Real Food website. I imagine the other major supermarkets do this kind of thing too.

There are tabs for meal planners including ideas from other customers as well as the supermarket, recipes in all kinds of categories and a click to buy option from recipe pages so you can omit what you already have and select what you need. It also helps flag up what's in season.

If you did your meal planner on a rotating basis then you wouldn't end up with odd ingredients stock piling in the cupboard.

Hiya,
I've tried Gousto, when I normally wouldn't go for something like this, but it is actually surprisingly delicious! They deliver the ingredients right to your doorstep and they have easy to follow instructions. So while you're still the one doing the cooking, it is much easier not having to think about what comes next.
Also I was in a bit of a rut with my recipes, and the options they have every week make it easier to decide what meals to have next. My family love it!
If anyone is wanting to try it, I have a code that can be used by more than one person, for £20 off your first order. It is: FELIP75913

I also had a friend who tried it for a couple months, then decided it wasn't for them and they found it easy to cancel, with no problems or bothersome follow up calls. So even if it is just to try something different for a little while, it's still worth it :)

Have used both. Gousto recipes are far better in my opinion- tried some really interesting new ingredients which we are now incorporating into our other meals like barberries.

You do still have to cook though (can take a teeny bit longer than recipe states) and I don't think it is good value for money full price but then my OH has a big appetite and we often take leftovers to work whereas this is measured exactly so no spare food as it were.

DefinitelY worth trying with the discount code though and see what you think.

I didn't rate Hello Fresh- limited choice and relatively bland meals for our tastes.

Message from a very unhappy customer
When using Hello Fresh be very careful that you monitor your paused deliveries, imagine thinking that you have stopped your deliveries only to have £39 taken out of your paypal account and when you call Hello Fresh you are told basically "tough" as it is an opt-out service and not an opt IN,as such it is 100% my fault and I will have to pay whatever, you could tell from the customer service girl that I spoke to that this wasn't the 1st time this had happened, it was like she was reading a script, but I suspect that after reading other reviews today she has lots of these types of calls as her smugness came across.
To make matters worse I'm away next week so won't be in to accept the delivery anyway.
The reason i have paused my delivery for the last 5-6 weeks(that's all you can pause from the screen) is that the family look at all 3 companies that now do Food deliveries each week ( Hello Fresh, Gusto and Marley spoon) and see who has the better menus, unfortunately for Hello Fresh, Gusto has had the better menus recently (last 5 weeks) , also their service its not an opt-out service as you can stop all delivery and then just order when you choose.(unfortunately for me this is what I thought hello fresh also did)
Hello fresh did have a great customer in me, even though i haven't chosen them for a number of weeks, who says that their menus wouldn't have been the best next week... but I won't be looking at their ever menus again and they have lost any positive feedback or recommendation, after searching through twitter, facebook and various forums today, it seem that I am not the 1st person to suffer, thinking that they had paused your delivery only for hello fresh to unpause it as such i believe it forms part of their business plan, as many customers looking online suffer the same issues.
unfortunately, good companies don't grow to great companies by using these tactics.. i suppose their are 60m potential customers that you can upset before you have no business
I wish you all the best Hello Fresh,
Hello Fresh customers please make sure you check out Gusto as they care about customer service.
@goustocooking @HelloFreshUK

Gousto Lockin

What started as a fun experience for the family to get the kids involved in cooking, has ended very badly.

After being a good customer for over a month, we found that there were less and less reciepes that the whole family would enjoy. So one particular week we decided to not choose any recipes, and then got an email from Gousto to say that they had chosen some for us and they would be despatched anyway.

I complained, as was told that the box would be delivered regardless.

This is/was a really poor customer experience, and when you lock in a customer like this and then offer very little flexibility or redress for issues like this, then it will end in disappointed customers that leave again and again.

Hi I've had my first ever Gousto box delivered over the weekend. I've come to cook to nights meal and they haven't put in the correct amount of meat and missed some herbs.

The meat I do have was to be used by the 22nd of this month. I've opened it and it's off. Total waste if money. I'm trying to cancel my subscription but I'm struggling to find where it is on the page. Do you know how to do it?

I tried Simply Cook. They provide spices, herbs & pastes to make authentic dishes, with a list of things needed for the meal.
Much simpler & cheaper than the others.

I actually bought them to encourage DH to be more adventurous when he he makes dinner on my night off. He showed no inclination to use the, so I cancelled.

Just realised how old this thread is, why does it appear on the current list?

Be careful with Gousto, just my experience but I ordered a box and it never turned up! Customer Service terrible and now struggling to get them to refund. So I can't say what the food is like but I won't be ordering again. There are lots of people on twitter with gripes about it too, food missing etc. Think if you have a good experience every order you are very lucky.