“There’s something for everyone” is the kind of trite cliché people trot out when what they really mean is that you have a lot of choices. But with its revamped menu, HelloFresh is making a run at a literal execution of the adage. The biggest meal kit company in the world—as of 2024, it commanded close to 50% of the meal kit market worldwide—now has around 100 different recipes to choose from each week, including a whole set of microwavable heat-and-eat meals.

We decided to retest the service to see how the new jump in quantity changes (or doesn’t) the experience of cooking and eating with HelloFresh.

Read on for my full review.

What to expect in a HelloFresh box

Each HelloFresh delivery is packed with (somewhat cumbersome) ice packs that will keep the box’s contents cool for a few hours until you’re able to get them into your fridge. Inside the box, ingredients for each meal come packed in paper bags; they’re pre-measured but not actually prepared, so you’ll find whole garlic cloves and produce that you’ll need to mince, grate, chop, and dice. Recipe condiments and flourishes like chicken stock concentrate, creme fraiche, or balsamic glaze come in tiny packages that you can rip open and add to your sauce or on top of cooked vegetables.

Each meal has its ingredients, minus any proteins, sorted into its own paper bag, to prevent any mixups in a recipe. Proteins arrive isolated, hidden under a layer of ice packs—which is nice for their preservation and to prevent any accidental leaky meat juices from soiling your other ingredients. Clearly labeled instructions tell you to keep digging for your beef, chicken, or shrimp so you don’t miss them.

In terms of quality, everything I got was on par with the kind of quality I’d get shopping for myself at a chain supermarket: Produce arrived fresh and undamaged, proteins were mostly quality versions of less expensive options (think 51/60 shrimp, not jumbo prawns).

What I liked about HelloFresh

I’m a parent of small children who are periodically temperamental when it comes to food, so in order to get my kids to actually eat, I need softball recipes pitched right down the middle. And HelloFresh really nails that. Even dishes that contained bigger flavors—like a kimchi fried rice—offset and balanced them in ways that were friendly to more cautious palates.

The portions were also amongst the most generous of the half dozen or so meal kits I’ve tried. I ordered four portions (for my family of four) and had leftovers with every meal. That might be because my kids are still small, but it means that even if your family of four has teenagers going through a growth spurt, no one will leave the table hungry.

Finally, HelloFresh utilizes shortcuts in a smart way that doesn’t undermine a dish’s flavors. When executed badly, meal kits end up tasting like reheated TV dinners. That’s because, in order to maximize efficiency (both in the cooking and the packaging of the food), companies choose things like pre-cut garlic or pre-squeezed lemon juice. Ingredients like that pale in comparison to freshly minced or squeezed versions. HelloFresh finds shortcuts, but they’re with items that can be portioned out without sacrificing flavor, like stocks or base condiments like soy sauce.

What I didn’t like about HelloFresh

HelloFresh meals are not quick prep operations. Ordinarily, the fact that a meal takes 45 or 50 minutes to make wouldn’t merit much of a response from me; that’s a typical evening’s work. But the HelloFresh recipe cards proclaim prominently that prep times would be as brief as five minutes and they just weren’t.

I mention that because lots of people sign up for meal kits specifically as a way to save time not just in meal planning but in meal prep. But the reality with HelloFresh is that you’ll have to do 90% of the work of cooking a meal. The result tastes as fresh as a meal made from scratch, but it takes time.

I scheduled my first box to arrive on a Wednesday… but it wasn’t delivered as planned. New York City was experiencing a heat wave, and I was experiencing some mild disappointment. There was no way my chicken and steak would be safe to eat after spending extra time in transit during such sweltering conditions, I thought. But when the box arrived the next day, the ice packs were still 90% frozen and the raw protein was cold to the touch. The packaging was fully intact, and I felt comfortable using all the ingredients. (Phew!)

At a glance, the amount of food seemed like it should be enough for the three meals I had selected, and with the exception of one mushy tomato, the fresh produce was top quality. Even the bagged scallions looked as good as what I’d have picked up at my local grocery. The abundance of tiny packages of specialty ingredients like seasoned rice wine vinegar and mushroom stock concentrate reminded me why I like meal kits—you can experiment with new flavors without stocking your pantry with full-size versions of ingredients you might not use all of.

What I like about EveryPlate

All recipes have six steps, which were clearly laid out on recipe cards that include a handy picture. The well-designed recipe cards made the prep steps easy to understand; I appreciated that the cards walked you through the ways the cooking process changes if you’re preparing your meal for two or four people. And if you had chosen to swap or add an ingredient when you ordered your box, the instructions for those ingredients are in orange.

The recipes themselves were involved—some steps include multiple mini steps, which aren’t always immediately apparent—but not very difficult to follow. As long as you feel comfortable with basic kitchen skills, like chopping and sautéing, you should be able to prepare these meals.

The first two out of the three recipes I cooked went off without a hitch, so I was riding high when I encountered my first problem. While making Sweet and Saucy Soy Garlic Chicken with Savory Honey Glaze, I couldn’t get my glaze to glaze. Even after leaving the glaze ingredients in the pan for five minutes (the recipe calls for two to three), it wasn’t thickening. Eventually I gave up, instead scooping the sauce onto the chicken after plating. All’s well that ends well—the chicken was delicious.

Overall, the meals were filling and, according to the recipe cards, ranged from around 650 calories (Tex-Mex steak and zucchini pasta) to 910 calories (chicken with carrots). Plus, true to its marketing, the meals were more affordable than other meal services I’ve tried, like HelloFresh and HomeChef. Three meals for two people came out to be around $36. (Note: Bon Appétit was gifted a week of meals for this review.)

What I didn’t like about EveryPlate

Looking at the recipe cards, I immediately noticed that unlike other meal kits I’ve tried in the past, EveryPlate expects my kitchen to be stocked with more than just the basics. Between my three meals, I needed butter, white sugar and brown sugar, and flour. I don’t bake, and I never cook with sugar. And while I do have butter, I did wonder about the full range of ingredients needed to cook EveryPlate meals every week. This could be something to consider for people who don’t have fully stocked pantries and would like the meal kit to provide everything necessary to cook a meal.