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Home Chef has been around for some time, and we doubt it’s going anywhere. We’ve featured Home Chef on several of our best meal delivery lists and even ranked #1 for Best Food Subscription Boxes. Why? Because we love the fresh ingredients and easy-to-prepare oven meals, not to mention the welcome alternative it provides to another night of takeout.
In this Home Chef review, our expert testers describe what Home Chef offers and what makes it one of the best meal kit delivery services among many. Follow along as Erin Chidester, a friend of GGR, shares her experience with Home Chef.
RELATED: Best Heart Healthy Meal Delivery Services
Medical disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. For health advice, contact a licensed healthcare provider. GGR also recommends choosing a product that has been third-party tested for quality.
We’ve Tried Over 40 Meal Kits and We’re Still Hungry For More
By now, you should know that Garage Gym Reviews takes all aspects of fitness seriously, sharing honest, comprehensive reviews of the gear and nutrition that keep you going. We work with experts like registered dietitians, strength coaches, and certified personal trainers to evaluate how these products and services stand up to our comprehensive testing methodology.
We’ve cut our teeth testing over 40 meal delivery subscription services, taking notes on everything a consumer would want to know, from serving sizes to seasonings.
In this review, Erin walks us through the Home Chef meal kits. She evaluated Home Chef’s meal options, cooking times, taste, and ease of ordering, then scored everything on a scale of 1 to 5. Other categories include:
- Ingredient quality
- Customer experience
- Dietary options
- Cost per meal
- Packaging and shipping
- Customer service
Home Chef
Home Chef
Product Highlights
- Can choose from meal kits, pre-made meals, or grill-ready ingredients
- Recipes can accommodate two, four or six people, and you can get up to six meals per week
- No specific meal plans, but you can narrow down your choices
- Menu changes weekly, with up to 30 meals to choose from
- Requires a subscription, but you can cancel or skip a week anytime
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Menu changes weekly to prevent food boredom
- Options for meal kits or pre-made meals
- Can skip a week if you don’t need a delivery
- Can accommodate larger groups and families (many meal delivery services cap out at four servings per recipe)
- Reasonably priced
Cons
- Doesn’t accommodate a lot of dietary restrictions
- Options can be limited if you’re on a specific diet
- Requires a subscription (that you can skip or cancel, but you have to remember)
Bottom Line
Home Chef is a meal delivery service that gives you options between meal kits, heat-and-eat meals, and grill-ready selections. It does require a subscription, but you can cancel any time or skip a week if you don’t want a shipment.
A Quick Look at Home Chef
Founded in 2013, Home Chef quickly went from moving van deliveries to high-quality, fresh meals, a grocery store partnership, and a spot among the best meal delivery services in the country.
Home Fresh is still expanding, with menu options including plant-based and low-carb or low-calorie meals. Add a footprint in a major grocery store chain, and it’s easy to see how Home Chef is so on-trend. Let’s dive in and see if Home Chef is worth it.
Before You Buy
- Choose from meal kits, express 15-minute prep meals, oven ready, and microwaveable.
- Menu options include vegetarian, keto-friendly, gluten-free, and low-carb.
- Meals are priced around $10 to $12 on average.
RELATED: Best Gluten-Free Meal Delivery
Is Home Chef Worth It?
Home Chef is a perennial favorite among other meal kit delivery services. Home Chef offers fresh ingredients to suit a range of dietary preferences. They provide full meal kits and oven-ready options to help minimize grocery shopping and make cooking easy for any skill level.
Great for:
- Couples and families
- People who want to the option to cook at home or enjoy fresh, pre-prepared meals
- People following the keto or Paleo diet, as well as vegetarians
Not recommended for:
- Singles
- Vegans
- People on a budget
RELATED: 9 Cheapest Meal Delivery Services
Home Chef Specs
| Price per meal | Depends: $8.39-$12/meal |
| Meals per week | 2-6 |
| Meal kit or prepared | Both |
| Diet options | Oven-ready, calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, vegetarian |
| Fresh or frozen | Both |
| Delivery area | Nationwide |
Experience Using Home Chef
Our Home Fresh expert tester was Erin Chidester, a long-time friend of GGR. She and her husband have been ordering meals from Home Chef since 2022, so they have experience and insight into this service.
Erin’s overall experience with Home Fresh has been a positive one. “I’ve tried a few different meal delivery kit services, and this is by far the best,” Erin said. She adds, “My husband and I love these meals, frequently getting more than the three we typically order because they’re so easy to make and are delicious.”
RELATED: Hello Fresh Review
We asked our in-house nutrition expert, Perry Nix, RD, to elaborate further. Perry says, “What makes Home Chef unique is that they offer express meals you can prepare quickly, one-pot family meals, oven-ready entrees, and ready-made microwave meals. The diverse options are great for those who like to cook but could also benefit from a healthy pre-cooked meal on busy days.”
Price Per Meal
Home Chef earned 3 out of 5 stars for price. Erin’s average meal cost about $12.06, on the higher end but certainly not the most expensive we’ve seen.
RELATED: Best Gourmet Meal Delivery
Home Chef Meal Preparation
Home Chef earns 2 stars for meal prep. Erin notes, “For most meals, you’ll typically use multiple dishes to cook, mix, and chop ingredients. The oven-ready meals have less clean-up because Home Chef provides you with a tray that you can cook the food in.” As with most meal delivery services, cooking time will vary based on the ingredients and your equipment.
There is an upside, as Perry states, “Eating home-cooked meals, whether using food from a meal kit or the grocery store, is linked to improved diet quality. Home Chef is a good option for those wanting to learn how to build balanced meals and acquire new cooking skills. Even if you only use the meal kits short-term, you can mimic the recipes using store-bought ingredients.”
Taste, Ingredient Quality, and Portion Size
Erin awards Home Chef a golden 5 stars for taste. She says, “They send the recipes, so we’ve definitely made some of the meals on our own without the meal kits, too, because we love them so much. Many of the meals have wonderful sauces that make the dish absolutely perfect.”
Portions got another 5 stars from our tester. “Portion sizes are typically perfect, leaving my husband and I both satisfied after eating,” she adds.
Erin gave 4 stars to ingredient quality, noting that while the ingredients appear fresh on delivery and taste good, they likely won’t last more than three to six days after delivery.
Meal Plans and Customization
For variety, Home Chef is a top scorer with another 5 stars. “I’ve had repeat meals a handful of times in 10 months, and it’s because I love them. They have a ton of variety, and meals switch from week to week,” Erin says.
Home Chef earned 4 stars for meal plans. There are no plans, but there’s an expansive weekly menu. Erin notes, “There are three ‘dietary preferences’ to choose from—vegetarian, calorie conscious, and carb conscious.” There are also options for 15-minute meals to reduce cooking time.
If high-protein meals are your thing, you’ll want to check out our high-protein meal delivery roundup.
Home Chef allows you to filter out common allergens, make substitutions, or choose different add-ons.
Perry adds, “If you have severe food allergies, you may want to avoid Home Chef. Meals are made in a facility that handles many common allergens, so there’s a risk of cross-contamination.”
Ordering, Packaging, and Shipping
Ordering from Home Chef is easy, and earned it 5 stars. New subscribers can select preferences for their first order and preview subsequent menus. Erin notes that Home Chef will choose your meals automatically based on your prior selections or preferences, but you can always make changes.
She adds, “You aren’t confined to certain meals, so if one week you decide you want to do a Family Kit—four servings versus two—you can add that to your order, but you will need to pay extra. There are also options for breakfast, snacks, dessert, etc., though I have only used the meal kits so far.”
Erin gave 3.5 stars for shipping. Your box arrives with pre-portioned ingredients on dry ice packs. She didn’t have any major issues, but she did say, “We do somewhat consistently get wrong meal kits or proteins. It hasn’t been a huge inconvenience because we’ll still make the incorrect meal kit by referencing the recipe on the website.”
She also says customer service usually offers a free meal or credit if you encounter any shipping issues. Downloading the app further allows you to customize your meals or adjust the delivery date.
Your food arrives sealed in plastic bags, and all the shipping materials are recyclable.
Home Chef vs EveryPlate
EveryPlate
EveryPlate
Product Highlights
- Meal kit delivery service with five menu plans to choose from
- Kits included pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards
- Approximately 26 recipes to choose from each week
- Recipes serve two or four people
- Can opt for three to six recipes per week
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Low price per serving
- Can mix and match from all meal plans
- New menus drop weekly
- Most meals take less than 30 minutes to prepare
Cons
- Doesn’t cater to any specialized diets
- No substitution options
- Not a lot of focus on ingredient quality
Bottom Line
EveryPlate is a low-cost meal kit delivery service that offers new meals weekly. If you don’t have dietary restrictions or need to follow a specialized diet, it could be a good option for you.
EveryPlate is another meal kit service that ships fresh ingredients and recipes for at-home meal preparation. It’s less expensive than Home Chef but will require more time and energy to cook and plate your meals.
For example, rather than sending you a meal you can toss in the oven or pre-measured ingredients you can put together in 15 to 20 minutes, you’ll get the whole shebang and need to chop, cook, and assemble everything. That said, EveryPlate has more dietary options than Home Chef.
Editor’s note: the average EveryPlate meal took me about 45 minutes to prepare, but I will say that they tasted great when complete.
For more, read our in-depth EveryPlate review.
| Home Chef | EveryPlate | |
| Price per meal | $11.99 (4 people, 6 meals per week) to $13.99 (2 people, 2 meals per week) | $8.99 (4 people, 6 meals per week) to $12.49 (2 people, 2 meals per week) |
| Meals per week | 2 to 6 (choose from 2 servings or 4 servings per meal) | 2 to 6 (choose from 2 servings or 4 servings per meal) |
| Meal kit or prepared | Both | Meal kit |
| Diet options | Oven-ready, calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, vegetarian | Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Family Friendly, Fit & Wholesome, Quick & Easy, Pescatarian |
| Fresh or frozen | Both | Fresh |
| Delivery area | Contiguous U.S. | Contiguous U.S. plus “select ZIP codes in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska” |
Customer Experience
Home Fresh takes customer service seriously and earns 5 out of 5 stars.
“As I alluded to under ‘packaging and shipping,’ we’ve had a few issues with incorrect meal kits or ingredients. It’s super easy to provide feedback, the responses are quick, and credits are immediately applied for your next meal delivery,” Erin adds.
Customer Reviews
We looked at Home Chef on TrustPilot to get some real-world insight from subscribers. Home Chef has over 3,000 reviews and an average rating of 2.9 stars. Many people were happy with Home Chef’s menu variety and taste.
Others noted issues with shipping, inconsistent deliveries, or missing recipe cards. A few others had their first box arrive after the scheduled delivery day.
Final Verdict of Our Home Chef Review
Our bottom line is Home Chef is worth it if you want a new spin on home-cooked meals. Home Chef has options for specific diets, including vegetarian meals, plant-based meals, and protein packs for people who want more protein. They also have a Culinary Collection, which consists of premium ingredients at an extra cost.
The Home Chef menu is expansive and can accommodate keto, paleo, and low carb. They offer low-calorie meals and quick, 15-minute meals. And with oven-ready meals and meal kits you can cook at home, it’s no surprise Home Chef is one of the best meal delivery services out there.
RELATED: Blue Apron vs HelloFresh vs Home Chef: Battle of the Best.
Full Rating
Home Chef
Home Chef is a meal delivery service that gives you options between meal kits, heat-and-eat meals, and grill-ready selections. It does require a subscription, but you can cancel any time or skip a week if you don’t want a shipment.
Product Brand: Home Chef
Product Currency: $
Product Price: 8.39
Product In-Stock: InStock
4.1
Home Chef FAQs
Is it hard to cancel Home Chef?
Not at all. You can easily cancel anytime online or in the app.
Is Home Chef pre-made meals?
Yes, Home Chef offers both meals you prepare at home and oven-ready meals.
What makes Home Chef different?
Home Chef meal kits have an extensive weekly menu, tons of veggies, protein packs, keto-friendly recipes, the ability to customize meals, and much more. Home Chef meals are available online and in grocery stores.
You can find carb-conscious and calorie-conscious meals and meals with short cooking times. With Home Chef, you can easily pick a meal, customize it, and be eating in no time.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.
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Home Chef has been around for some time, and we doubt it’s going anywhere. We’ve featured Home Chef on several of our best meal delivery lists and even ranked #1 for Best Food Subscription Boxes. Why? Because we love the fresh ingredients and easy-to-prepare oven meals, not to mention the welcome alternative it provides to another night of takeout. In this Home Chef review, our expert testers describe what Home Chef offers and what makes it one of the best meal kit delivery services among many. » Read more about: Home Chef Review (2024): What Makes This Meal Delivery Service So Popular? » Read more