Looks like a novel concept, and certainly not new, but I wondered what hands on experience was like.
I’m not interested from a user perspective, but they have a commissary near here and they were looking for management help.
I did trial run. and it’s cool to learn different cuisines, and have essentially single serving proteins and vegetables.
The major downside for me was the quality of produce and protein.
Packaging also gets tiresome and is wasteful. Big-medium cardboard box with dense foam and ice packaging.
We have a guy at work whose daughter-in-law has a cooking channel on youtube which is sponsored by Blue Apron. He is constantly pushing it on people at the office. His pitch (to me) is that they will supply ingredients that you wouldn’t normally use, and so can push you out of your comfort zone with your cooking.
I researched it and it looks like the primary downsides are price, and a large amount of packaging hitting your trash bin. Quality of the ingredients, I can’t speak to, but I can’t imagine individually shrink-wrapped packages will ever compare to hand-selecting at a quality produce market or farmers’ market.
I can see how the convenience would appeal to some, but it doesn’t for me. This guy’s constant sales pitch has added a to my negative reaction, to where it seems almost cult-ish. Also, we have a curse at our house that if we plan meals more than 2 nights ahead, some emergency will always come up the food ends up sitting until we throw it out.
I wish there was a service like this with all organic foods… We have a newborn and cooking all meals has of course not been that easy.
I did a similar one early last (Plated). Agree with the sentiments above that, while convenient, pricing and amount of packing is definitely a deterrent. I also love to do food shopping, so this would never be a good fit for me. The quality of the ingredients ranged from ok (produce) to so-so (meats).
We use it, and we love it… 3 weeks out of 8 i’d say is our frequency…
We’re not chefs or wanna be chefs… we make our usual stuff but this really does push you out of your comfort zone… we’ve eaten grains that we’ve never even heard of, let alone tasted…
The package is wasteful but you can recycle so not too bad… plus they’ve shrunk the size of the box due to complaints…
I find the quality to range from ok to good to very good… some of the salmon we’ve had were delicious (compared even to king salmon from whole foods for example). Now it’s not ‘caught yesterday, and freshly flown in’ quality but for us it’s very good.
The price works… it’s not cheap. works out to about $20 per night (3 nights, $60. .feed 2 easily… baby eats some too but it’s 2 portions). for 3 nights, you get a red meat, a white meat, and a seafood… some recipes are hit or miss, but others are really delicious.
Some times you just don’t wanna have to ‘think’. for us, both working people, with a new kid, it works… i’d imagine if you were retired, and spend half your day in the garden growing your own food, this probably doesn’t appeal 
Plus we do 3 nights so there’s still 4 nights left over to eat out a couple of times, and cook a couple of times etc…
We’ve been doing it for several months roughly 4 to 5 weeks out of 8 and three meals a week. I think the food has been surprisingly good. We also appreciate the wide variety of spices and ingredients that we have never heard of. The packaging is a bit wasteful but we recycle. My wife loves it because her shopping is simplified and she doesn’t have to think about what to make a few nights a week. The meals generally take about 30-45 minutes to make.
Seems like a pretty narrow range…aren’t “so-so” and “ok” synonyms?
I have found the fish and chicken to be good. The beef just ok. Usually a tougher cut like flank steak.
We’ve been doing it for a couple of years and would say overall it has been good to very good. We do it now about 2 weeks out of 4.
The pros are the variety - really some unique dishes, ease of preparation and relative bargain - $20 a meal that says it feeds 2 but really 3 in our house.
The cons are the recycling bit - lots of packaging, some dud meals, does take 30-40 minutes to prepare and sometimes I miss the thought process of planning a meal.
I noticed a lot of competition popping up - anybody try others?
Tom, we haven’t though my wife seems to be hearing quite a bit about plated. We always joke when we get started about what is always the first step. Wash and chop the vegetables…
Ann meant to, but forgot to put a stop to this weekends delivery as we have plans each night this weekend. Looks like we will be eating well at lunch each day!
I only did one that my wife had leftover after one of my business trips.
First, the chicken was bad. Tossed.
Second, the recipe for the mole was not very good. I knew immediately I would need to adjust it and did.
Our friends like it quite a bit. Suzy liked it because she isn’t much for cooking. She’ll probably do it again since she is crunched for time when I’m away.
We used it for a few weeks. I found it OK, but don’t miss it at all now that it is gone. A lot more prep work than I expected given the concept. Also I found the quality of some of the proteins lacking. Farm Raised Salmon for example. Lots of packaging waste as previously indicated. Overall, not a fan.
My wife are into our 3rd year and it does seem to be getting pretty solid. 3 meals a week and we do it 2-3 weeks each month. Menu has been improving and I have not seen anything other than quality ingredients (except the farm raised fish - we never buy this direct). They have been offering wine to be paired with meals lately in 500ml packaging and just received a flyer with this months wine options - 4 wines, a white and red from Pax Mahle and the same from Ian Brand - Le P’tit Paysan. Wine club format with 6 - 500 ml bottles each month for $65.99 and a $20 coupon.
I need more wine like I need a hole in my head but this looks to be pretty promising for a lot of people nationwide that want to ease their time spent at the grocery store/wine shop midweek.
I’ve been going through all the promotions from the various meal-prep companies and we’ve been trying them out. Some of the promotions are really good and are a steal to try it for a week.
Blue Apron is by far our favorite so far. The food has layers of complexity and is much more sophisticated than the other companies’ food.
We’ve done two weeks of Hello Fresh (got a super deal from Rue La La and then after I canceled, they sent a coupon for 50% off). Some of the recipes are from Jamie Oliver. It’s just been okay. I would do it again for half off, but not at full price.
One Potato was not very good. They are more geared towards family food, but my toddler didn’t like it.
Next one I need to try is Plated.
We did it for a few months. Really enjoyed the diversity. Portion control was nice too. 3 meals a week for 2 people $59.99 delivered. It’s grilling season now. Time to give the stove and oven a rest.
Never tried it but I did see a couple packages that were received by someone else. It looks like it would be good if you are into portion control.
The meals typically are 600-800 calories for each portion x 2 but between my wife and I, we honestly cannot finish most of them in 1 seating. And I am a big eater! All of the ingredients are whole/raw (except bread, noodles) and not processed.
Tom, interesting. It didn’t appear to be that way. But like I said I only looked at it. You’ve experienced it which counts for a lot more.
We tried Blue Apron for three weeks. The meals were okay, at best. Our main “problem” with the recipes is that the ratio of vegetables to meat/grains is too low for our liking. We typically cook veggie-heavy meals with less meat. Most of the B.A. meals were light on the veggies.
Additionally, we like to cook in bulk for the week. It is harder to do that with B.A.
We canceled our subscription and are now testing out how Instacart fits into our lifestyle. Our ultimate goal is to find more time in the week to relax.