(Bloomberg) -- What are we all short on? Time. Which is why everyone loves a meal delivery service.
Home-style meal deliveries, designed to sustain families beyond a few boxes of pizza, took off in New York around a dozen years ago. Brands such as Blue Apron (2012) and HelloFresh (launched in the US in 2013) popularized the meal kit concept, delivering pre-portioned ingredients and recipes for customers to cook at home. The category is projected to grow more than 15% annually in the US through 2030. (That doesn't mean it’s been smooth sailing for Blue Apron, which was acquired for $103 million by the Wonder Group in 2023, or HelloFresh, which has been on a financial roller coaster over the past few years.)
One reason for the increased delivery demand, which also includes heat-and-eat packages, is the rising cost of food, even for a home-cooked meal. The basic grocery store by my Brooklyn, New York, apartment charges $7 for a bag of celery and $12 for a box of wheat crackers. In fact, food prices rose 5.8% in the US in 2023, according to the USDA. That’s modest compared with the cost of eating in restaurants; the tab for dining out is up 25% since 2020.
Yet meal delivery service prices have stayed relatively constant. Mademeals and plant-based Thistle both say they’ve raised individual meal prices by 50¢ over the past two years. The nutrition-oriented Sakara, maternity-centered Chiyo and premium frozen meals dealer Ipsa Provisions have pretty much kept prices stable. That makes several of them a good bottom-line deal. Take Ipsa, which sells two portions of sungold tomato arrabbiata for $21. If you were to buy all the ingredients and make a similar dish at home, you’d spend around $47—more than double the cost.
We checked out seven other new and notable meal delivery services available to New Yorkers to see if they too delivered good value. Spoiler alert: Many of them do, especially compared with the costs of grocery store shopping and restaurant hopping, and all the saved time, of course.
Thistle
Vegetables—usually organic and locally sourced—are the focus at Thistle, the Bay Area cold-pressed juice spot turned meal delivery service, from former lawyer Ashwin Cheriyan and his wife, Shiri Avnery. Last year, Thistle expanded to deliver meals like chickpea-based Moroccan tagines and eggplant puttanesca to most major cities on the East Coast. Customers select the number of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks), then choose between plant-based or with animal protein: chicken, turkey, pork. Pricing is dynamic; the more meals one orders, the cheaper they are. Dishes are designed by an in-house dietitian and include legumes, whole grains, nuts, fruit and sometimes superfoods like spirulina and reishi mushroom. And customers can still add the original cold-pressed juices. Details: Meal prices hover around $11 for breakfast to $17 for dinner per person. Three weekly lunches start at $42.Value: Fantastic value, especially given the dose of superfood ingredients.
Mademeals
Jesse McBride’s tri-state-area-centered, protein-focused meal delivery service highlights chicken, beef, turkey and pork from respected purveyor D'Artagnan. Seafood, like shrimp and salmon, is wild-caught or sourced from a sustainable farm in the Faroe Islands. Meals such as chicken breast in Thai peanut sauce, baby bok choi and jasmine rice are developed by executive chef Pete Hanna and approved by a dietitian. Most follow a similar setup: protein, sauce, vegetables, plus a starch (customers can also opt for more vegetables). Sides, drinks and dishes such as blueberry protein pancakes or chimichurri flank steak are also available by the pound. Details: Single-portion meals range from $9 for overnight oats with Greek yogurt and peaches to $19 for peppercorn steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables.Value: Considering the cost of grass-fed proteins and wild-caught seafood, Mademeals is good value for protein-focused customers.
Feast & Fettle
A popular service now available in Westchester, New York, Feast & Fettle first has customers choose the number of days—from two to five—and number of diners for delivery of its globally inspired meals. It then suggests the number of dinner entrees—for instance, Korean barbecue chicken thighs and penne alla vodka—and sides. Customers can also add lunch, snacks, desserts and even kids’ meals, such as parmesan chicken meatballs in red sauce. Maggie Pearson founded the company in 2016; today it hand-delivers meals in New England and some counties in New York and New Jersey, with plans to launch in Brooklyn next January.Details: Membership costs $10 per month; weekly plans range from $70 for two meals for one person to $300 for five meals for a family of four.Value: Feast & Fettle offers the freshest-tasting dishes we tried, with the fastest delivery, within 24 hours of preparation. Overall, these meals are cheaper than making them at home.
Ipsa Provisions
Blue Apron brand director Joshua Brau and chef Micah Fredman started New York-based Ipsa in 2020 just before the pandemic. While lockdowns helped the frozen food delivery business thrive, sales have roughly quadrupled since. And last August, the company expanded distribution to 25 states. There’s a wide range of cuisines and seasonally changing dishes designed by former Barbuto chef Ryan Hart, featuring local ingredients and purveyors; Ipsa sources its ravioli from downtown New York pasta experts Raffetto’s, while kale and tomatoes come from Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Farm.Details: Unlike many food delivery services that require a subscription, Ipsa meals, such as beef and kimchi stew ($20) and sungold arrabbiata ($21), are sold a la carte and serve two.Value: With meals costing around $10 per person, Ipsa offers the best value on this list.
Welcome Home
In 2022, Mandela Cocores opened Welcome Home, a fresh and frozen meal delivery service targeting postpartum moms. The organic meals, inspired by the soul food she grew up with, are high in fiber, protein and healthy fats and made without dairy, gluten or refined sugar. She also emphasizes healthful ingredients, such as oats that support milk production for new mothers, in fudgy brownie banana muffins, and energy-boosting lentils, in garam masala-spiced Indian dal makhani soup. Details: Customers can order a three- ($325) or five-day ($440) plan. Meals are delivered frozen and include breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. Value: Not great. One of the pricier options on the list, especially because food arrives frozen and in bulk. Despite quality ingredients, some menus feature common ingredients such as chicken and sweet potatoes, making the new-moms angle feels like a stretch.
Chiyo
The food-is-medicine concept powers Chiyo’s three Asian-accented meal programs, which are designed to support women’s maternal health from conception through childbirth. Dishes rely on immunity-boosting ingredients, such as the kabocha pumpkin—rich in magnesium, believed to help manage hormonal shifts—that enriches a creamy adzuki bean soup. In 2022, founders Irene Liu and nutritionist Jenifer Jolorte Doro expanded the brand—which includes such investors as actress Sophia Bush—to nationwide delivery. Customers can configure the dairy- and gluten-free menus for vegetarian and pescatarian diets. Meals also include a broth, snack and tonic-based drinks.Details: Customers can choose from three- or five-day plans, as well as a six-week plan. Prices range from $227 for a three-day, two-meal plan to $430 for the five-day, three-meal plan. Value: Highlighting less common, health-supporting ingredients, Chiyo offers good value for mothers (and fertility support seekers) with fresh prepared meals for about the same amount that they would cost to make at home.
Sakara
Plant-focused meal delivery company Sakara has been around since 2012, when it was founded by Whitney Tingle and Danielle Duboise. Over the past decade its popularity has exploded, thanks in part to celebrity clients such as Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s also expanded its delivery zone from Manhattan to across the US and launched a line of supplements and snacks. Sakara’s Signature Nutrition Program promotes colorful, organic, plant-rich meals, all devoid of animal products, gluten and refined sugar. A morning could begin with a lilac-hued purple sweet potato “doughnut” made with almond flour and shredded coconut, followed by zucchini noodles and quinoa salad, with tomato and black bean soup and chipotle corn muffin for dinner. There's a Level II Detox for those who want a deeper reset, for an even higher price.Details: Customers who sign up for a weekly subscription can choose from one to three meals per day, for two, three or five days per week. Prices range from $44 for breakfast twice a week to three meals for five days for $395.Value: Sakara’s high-priced meals are based on top-of-the-line ingredients. Meals incorporate notably good medicinal wellness-supporting ingredients, and for that you pay a premium.
COMING SOON
The Daily Grocer
Front-of-house operator Lee Weiss worked in vaunted New York restaurants including Eleven Madison Park and the Musket Room before opening the Daily Grocer in January. From a modest Tribeca storefront—currently closed for renovations, but scheduled to reopen in September—Weiss delivers dinner kits with options like chicken larb and miso salmon. He works with industry mainstays such as Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors and Gotham Seafood, sourcing restaurant-quality base ingredients. Weiss’ culinary team also operates like a professional kitchen, brining chicken breasts for 18 hours so they’re well seasoned and moist. Neatly portioned boxes come with all ingredients, except for olive oil and seasoning; customers scan a QR code for cooking instructions.Details: Meal kits for rotating dishes range from around $19 for a DIY cheese pizza kit to $34 for branzino with salsa verde; all are portioned for two. Value: High-quality entrees cost around $10 to $17 per portion, around half the price of the same dish at a decent restaurant, though someone else won’t be cooking for you.
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