COVID-19: our readers have quickly understood the benefits and convenience of ordering a meal delivery service during this global coronavirus outbreak. Because of higher-than-usual order volumes due to the quarantine, EveryPlate might be experiencing slight delays in delivery. Stay healthy and safe!
This meal kit delivery series was established just last year in New York but is already one of the biggest names in the industry promising high-quality ingredients and recipes for a lower price than most.
Meal delivery plans will not only save time on grocery shopping but will also help with your environmental impact in terms of waste. Each meal is carefully proportioned so that you throw out as little as possible. Want to know if EveryPlate is the meal kit delivery service for you? Keep reading to find out.
Ease of Use
Delivering their customers’ delicious ingredients and simple to follow recipes for a low cost is something EveryPlate does well. This company offers quite simple recipes for two various meal plans. You can choose from three recipes per week with two servings per recipe or three recipes per week with four servings per recipe.
The great thing about EveryPlate is that they took on board people saying that they could only choose from five recipes a week, and now you can choose from eight mouthwatering dishes.
Choosing your meal plan is simple as is selecting your meals for the week. Keep in mind that there are also “premium” dishes that can cost around $3 more per serving.
If you plan on being away at a certain date you can always skip a week without any penalties for not ordering consistently. All you have to do is log into your EveryPlate account and select the week you wish to skip. Within your account settings, you can also modify your order as well as change the delivery day along with your payment and shipping information.
Deliveries occur on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm.
Canceling your order is not an issue either as you are not bound by any legal contracts which means you will never get stuck paying for a subscription that you want no part of. If you do decide to skip or cancel your EveryPlate meal kit delivery service you need to do so by midnight five days prior to your next expected delivery.
The delivery itself comes in a cardboard box which is lined with insulated bubble wrap. To make sure all the ingredients remain as fresh as possible there will also be large ice packs, meaning your meat does not go off in front of your door.
The only thing that might be confusing to some people is that not all the ingredients are labeled, so you may have to use your detective skills to work out what the mystery ingredients are.
The worst thing about meal delivery services is that you sometimes feel as though you are getting supermarket leftovers, due to the freshness and quality of the ingredients which arrive at your home. This is not the case with EveryPlate. The ingredients are fresh and perfectly proportioned for each of the meals.
Variety
EveryPlate really prides themselves on being the cheapest meal kit option for people around the US. Not only that, they claim to deliver high quality produce (although not organic) for the lowest price.
They advertise their service as “the affordable meal kit for everyone”. Whilst they are the most affordable meal kit on the market at the moment, rivaled only by Dinnerly, they aren’t really suited for everyone.
If you have special dietary needs and follow a strict diet of either: keto, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian or gluten-free, EveryPlate is probably not the meal service for you. In fact, when it comes to any allergies customers may have, EveryPlate has suggested checking out the recipe cards and just leaving out whichever ingredients do not suit you.
As mentioned before you have eight weekly options on offer that you can choose from with the chefs creating recipes that are less exotic and more likely to suit the general public.
Choose from recipes like:
- Garlic Rosemary ChickenLinguine Carbonara
- Cowboy Skillet PieSpicy Chicken Sausage Stuffed Peppers
- Pork and Poblano Tacos
- Apricot-Sriracha Pork Chops
- Beef Bibimbap Bowl
- Sausage and Root Veggie Sheet-Pan Dinner
- Cranberry Glazed Pork Chops
- Easy Chicken Fajitas
- Teriyaki Glazed Chicken
- Chicken Sausage and Tomato Soup
- Cherry Glazed Pork Meatballs
There are also premium dishes that may take a little longer to prepare and generally have better ingredients. These dishes come at an added cost and include:
- Lemon Garlic Butter Steak
- Pan-Seared Steak
- Chili-Garlic Shrimp
- Party Thyme Steak
You will see within the weekly menus a little chili or a leaf which lets you know of spicier or veggie friendly recipes.
Taste
Probably the most important part of any good meal delivery service is the taste of the meals which you prepare. EveryPlate offers great solutions even for the pickiest of eaters so you can prepare a meal for friends knowing that you won’t get any complaints.
The portions are quite generous, although this all depends on the meal. Generally, anyone with a regular appetite will be satisfied, but again it all comes down to the meal in question. For example, burgers often come with just two buns, but on the other hand, when preparing fajitas you have around 5 or 6 tortillas to work with which means you can use the leftovers for a tasty office lunch.
The meals are usually a little high in calories ranging between 500 and 950 calories, but there is a calorie count as well as allergen and nutrition information which is provided for every recipe.
Convenience
The great thing about EveryPlate is that you can choose from the three available delivery dates for the product to arrive at your door. That way you can pop in early from work or just know that your food will be there when you come home.
Preparing the food isn’t going to be a problem. Most of the meals are ready within thirty minutes, however, this doesn’t include food prepping, dicing and chopping.
It is also fair to say that none of the ingredients come prepped prior to arriving at your door. There is also clean-up time added to this. As you can see, you may spend upwards of an hour in the kitchen at the end, which is not something you want to be doing especially if you’re cooking for yourself.
The recipes themselves are very simple to follow with around six simple steps needed to complete before you can actually start enjoying your meal. Most of the dishes will just require a pot, pan, cooking board, knife, and baking sheets, but keep in mind you do also need your own salt, pepper, and oil.
EveryPlate has a great team of customer support professionals which are on call day or night. Being one of the few meal delivery plan services to offer 24/7 online chat options, you can ask questions regarding your meal plan whenever you please. If you would like to speak to someone over the phone you can do so Monday through Friday from 9 am to 6:30 pm ET.
Pricing
When it comes to cost, EveryPlate certainly is the meal kit service to beat. With each meal costing just $4.99 per serving, there is no cheaper option around at the moment. Of course, as you may have guessed you will have to pay shipping, but the $8.99 of shipping will still work out to be more cost-effective than other meal plan services.
If you choose the dinner for the two-option with six servings per week it will work out to be less than $40 per week. On the other hand, you can choose the dinner for four family plan and have 12 servings delivered to your door. This will set you back just under $70 which ends up being almost half the price of other meal delivery services which charge around $10 per serving (sometimes more).
One of the best things about EveryPlate is that they understand the financial difficulties of being a student. This is why all they have to do is verify their student status with UNiDAYS in order to receive as many as 18 meals for just $2.50 each.
In terms of paying for your subscription, EveryPlate accepts all major credit cards including Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover as well as PayPal. However, as stated on their website, EveryPlate will be adding additional forms of payment in order to streamline the checkout experience as well as providing customers with more payment options.
You can change your payment method by heading to your account settings, selecting Edit under Payment Method and choosing the right payment information for you. Delivery and meal plan costs will be charged four days prior to your scheduled delivery.
If you have trouble with your payment or if your card gets declined, you shouldn’t worry that you will not receive your food without notice. Should payment fail you will receive an email letting you know about the error that has occurred. From there you can always change your payment method in your account settings or re-process the charge by contacting a customer service operator.
Don’t forget that there are always coupons floating around the internet, especially on the EveryPlate homepage which offers a discount of $20 as well as sometimes offering free shipping for the first week. This means you can have your three meals delivered for as little as $20. If you do not cancel your subscription, it will automatically continue and charge you at the full price.
Conclusion
This flexible meal kit subscription service is the one to beat, especially in terms of price. Being a fairly new meal kit company that started up in 2018, EveryPlate has made its presence felt and is quickly becoming one of the most popular choices all over the US. The great thing about EveryPlate is that it won’t compromise on the freshness of their ingredients just because of the cheap prices.
In saying that, $4.99 per meal plus a weekly shipping cost of $8.99 still works out to be around half the price of its competitors. Premium dishes do come at a higher cost of around $3, but they also come with incredible ingredients and mouthwatering recipes.
Meals are pre-portioned which means you’re throwing out minimal amounts of food. Additionally, you won’t be going to the grocery store and purchasing items that you will push to the back of the refrigerator after they have been used once.
The ingredients found in the box are taken care of with the packaging ensuring minimal damage to the produce. On top of that, there are ice packs keeping your meat unspoiled and fresh even if you aren’t able to accept your package for as long as eight hours. Another positive is that all packaging is recyclable.
Save time and spend more of your precious moments with family members instead of looking for particular ingredients in the grocery shop. With EveryPlate, meals will take around 30 minutes to an hour max to prepare before you and your loved ones can enjoy a delicious meal. The simple 6 step recipes are possible for at home chefs of all skill sets.
The only downfall of this meal kit delivery service is that they do not cater to those with special dietary needs, so if this is an issue you may have to look for another service. On the other hand, EveryPlate offers a range of eight delicious recipes on a weekly basis that is well suited to regular diets for a very cost-efficient price.