Which Is Better...Blue Apron or HelloFresh?

I finally got around to trying out Blue Apron after bypassing several weeks when the menu looked less than spectacular. Prior to registering, it said they didn't start delivering to my area until two weeks later. This didn't seem right so I called and they told me they do deliver to my area but they were at capacity the following week. However, the woman I spoke with encouraged me to complete the registration so I didn't lose out on my Groupon and just keep skipping weeks until I was ready to use it. Easy enough. After registering, I found out that I could cheat the system and "unskip" the following week, thereby getting me the week I had wanted. Fingers crossed it would work and that it did.

Let me start off by saying that I was very disappointed by their packaging. All of the ingredients for all three meals were thrown all together in an iced bubble-wrap bag. No cute little boxes a la HelloFresh. This meant that it took more time to load everything into the fridge and to take everything out when it was time to start cooking. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? The second disappointment was that the produce was covered in dirt. No big deal considering I would have washed it first anyways but it was not the best first impression. Strike number three was the fact that they only listed calorie content on their recipes as opposed to full nutritional information.

All of the meals looked good but the first one we tried, Cumin-Sichuan Beef & Noodles, was very mediocre at best. It might have tasted better with a different sauce. Next, we tried the Southern-Style Chicken Cacciatore which was actually very good. I knew at least one of the three meals had to be decent considering I have tried some of their recipes in the past with pleasant results (sans having them deliver the ingredients). The last recipe, for Sauteed Shrimp Sandwiches, was okay but a little too basic and nothing to write home about. The Celery Parmesan Salad that went along with it, however, was a creative spin on a salad that I would definitely make again.

Now that I've tried HelloFresh and Blue Apron, I can confidently say no thanks to Blue Apron. I had initially liked the fact that it was $10 less (per week) but the quality put forth by HelloFresh makes the higher price worth it. I'll definitely be ordering from HelloFresh again in the future. My favorite dish overall was their Plantain and Black Bean Tostadas with Pickled Red Onion. 

Next stop: Home Chef and Plated. Which one will come out on top? Stay tuned to find out and feel free to comment below to share your experiences with any of these meal delivery services.