In Toronto there are 3 big meal prep kits: Chef's plate, GoodFood and HelloFresh. (they are actually all owned by the same company)
In this article I will explain the good and bad for all 3 of them.
All of them require at least 2 meals (usually for 4 servings per meal) or 3 meals with 2 servings.
Chef's Plate
If you want to try with $40 please use my promo code. You can also have someone refer you for a free week (upto $75 off and free shipping). These promos come once in a while, so you might want to wait.
Website / App (4 stars)
The website is simple to use, nothing too complicated, you can view the recipes ahead of time, so you can make it at home with ingredients from store if you choose to.
App: I have not tried the app yet, but it is rated 2.5/5 stars on Google with 14 reviews.
Meal Choices (2 stars)
Chef's plate has likely the worst choice when it comes to options. The number of options you have varies, but for Dec 29th, there were 12 options and 4 had an added cost of 2.96-3.99 per serving. These I find not to be worth it. Also 5 of those options were spicy, and only 4 were vegetarian friendly.
Food (5 stars)
Here are some reviews of the meals I ordered, unless otherwise stated it is all 5 stars.
 |
| How it comes packaged (2 meals) |
Two-Cheese Beef Pasta Bake, it was a great tasting dish which was simple to make and very tasty (5 stars)
Cheesy Beef Unstuffed Peppers: a very nice variant on stuffed peppers. I would almost say a Mexican twist for it.
Cajun Shrimp Tacos: I made them at home by getting the ingredients myself (The cost was 3.49$ extra per serving) It was very simple and amazing taste.
 |
| Ingredients for one meal |
New England Fish Chowder
 |
| Finished Product |
(4/5 stars): This one took quite a bit of time to prep, lots of cutting and peeling, from carrots, potatoes... There was one fillet per person, and a decent amount of spices, I think it would be pretty hard to try to replicate it by going to the store.
Pork Chops & Mushroom Gravy with mashed potatoes (2/5 stars) I found the beans to be not tasty, the rest was ok, but nothing that is really worth it. The gravy was likely the most complex part of this meal, and it was good, but do not think it was worth getting the whole meal. The pork chops were very small, and there was nothing special about them.
Thai Beef Bowl (4/5 stars)Great taste, even thought it is marked as spicy, the spiciness comes from siracha, so you can choose the level you want. The recipe definitely did take a while to make, there is lots of cutting and prepping. The 4 stars is that the food was meant for 4 people, and 3 of us finished it and were not stuffed, I do think it is a tad smaller than other meals provided.
Creamy White wine Chicken and Mushrooms: (4 stars): The chicken is very good, the recipe is not too complicated, but there are way too many potatoes, I think it needs more salads to be a better balanced meal.
Southwest Spiced Pork: (4.5 stars): I did not get pork chops, so I used ground pork instead. Great sweet potatoes recipe. The avocado seems like it was an after thought, but it does not ruin the recipe.
One-Pot Italian Fish & Farro (5 stars):
SUPER EASY AND QUICK Likely one of the easiest recipes, very little cleanup, and actually takes half an hour to make. Great taste as well.
One-Pot Italian Meatball Soup (5 stars):
SUPER EASY AND QUICK Likely one of the easiest recipes, very little cleanup, and actually takes half an hour to make. Great taste as well.
Thai Fish & Coconut Rice (5 stars): extremely flavourful, the rice is amazing by itself, the fish is very juicy. I would highly recommend.
Bavarian Pork Chops (5 stars): Easy to make, most of the time is spent on cooking potatoes in the oven. Might be one of the few meals where time is actually correct. Great taste.
Cost
| Meals Per
Week |
Number of People |
Shipping Cost |
Food Cost |
Total Cost |
Cost per meal |
| 2 |
2 |
6 |
39.96 |
45.96 |
11.49 |
| 3 |
2 |
0 |
59.94 |
59.94 |
9.99 |
| 4 |
2 |
0 |
79.92 |
79.92 |
9.99 |
| 2 |
4 |
0 |
71.92 |
71.92 |
8.99 |
| 3 |
4 |
0 |
107.88 |
107.88 |
8.99 |
| 4 |
4 |
0 |
143.84 |
143.84 |
8.99 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cancelling:
Cancellation is online, very straight forward. Settings -> Account -> Deactivate (confirm deactivation)
Reactivation
After 2 months, I got reactivation or chef's plate:
Enjoy 20% off 3 boxes when you reactivate your Chefs Plate account.
I did not take it since I had other commitments, 2 weeks later I got another offer
Enjoy 30% off 3 boxes when you reactivate your Chefs Plate account.
I still did not take it since I had other commitments, another 2 weeks later I got another offer
Enjoy 35% off 3 boxes when you reactivate your Chefs Plate account.
GoodFood
GoodFood is another provider, they have bit bigger option on meal plans, (including Classic Basket, EasyPrep, Clean 15, Family Basket and Vegetarian. If you want to try it, you can use this
link, you get $40.
Cost (1 star) GoodFood WOW:
With WOW, there are no weekly boxes automatically sent and you don't have to skip weeks anymore! This way you are able to opt-in only when your situation allows, with only your specific selection of meal kits and / or groceries. No surprise boxes!
It is overpriced. They might be nice and high quality but def much more expensive than you would get in regular store.
They do offer a $10 monthly membership for free delivery,
Cost for Boxes:
This is for Classic Basket (Vegetarian and Family Basket are cheaper, the rest are slightly more expensive
| Meals Per Week | Number of People | Shipping Cost | Food Cost | Total Cost | Cost per meal |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 68.94 | 68.94 | 11.49 |
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 82.72 | 82.72 | 10.34 |
| 2 | 4 | 0 | 86.96 | 86.96 | 10.87 |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 127.32 | 127.32 | 10.61 |
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 159.20 | 159.20 | 9.95 |
Cancelling (4 star)
To cancel you have to call them and cancel, there is no way to stop directly online. (Year 2016)
In 2021, they do have an online customer support via chat that you can cancel as well. They did offer me $20 credit for GoodFood WOW when I asked to cancel it.
HelloFresh
To get the Discount you can use my promo: HS-XZQN4SFDU
I used HelloFresh for a few weeks then deactivated my account.
Food:
Seared Salmon and Lemony Lentil Bowl (5 stars): One of the more simple recipes, requires 1 pan, and 1 oven tray. No special spices, can be done at home without HelloFresh. I do have to give a thumbs up the the salmon fillets that came with the Hello Fresh, they were outstanding quality.
Butternut Squash Ravioli (5 stars): Very simple and clean. One of the few recipes where the time is actually accurate (the time needed for the oven is enough for you to prepare the other stuff). Really tasty, good portion size.
Lamb Tacos and Fresh Pico de Gallo (3 stars) The portion of lamb was pretty small compared to how many tacos were there, the portion was a bit smaller. The lamb did not have a very strong flavour.
Sesame Ground Pork Bowl (5 stars) The only complaint is that it is not clear from the recipe that bulgur should be removed from the heat while being cooked. It is simple, can be done from home without anything special.
Promotions/Reactivation
After a while I got an email to re-active and got a discount:
Order now to save 50% off your 1st box, 30% off your 2nd box and 10% off your 3rd & 4th.
A few weeks later
all you have to do is have 2 boxes delivered between 29/03/2021 and 26/04/2021 to get $25 off.
A few months after the last order
GET 20% + 20% + 35% OFF YOUR NEXT 3 BOXES
Cost
| Meals Per Week | Number of People | Shipping Cost | Cost per meal |
| 3 | 2 | 9.99 | 11.49 |
| 4 | 2 | 9.99 | 11.25 |
| 3 | 4 | 9.99 | 9.99 |
| 4 | 4 | 9.99 | 9.69 |
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