Marley Spoon Review – Simple Meal Kit Delivery Service

As part of our series of articles reviewing the most popular meal kit delivery services, let’s take a look at one of the newer services that has really become popular by partnering with Martha Stewart. It’s called Marley Spoon.

Common Features of Meal Kit Delivery Services:

Before I cover the things that make Marley Spoon unique, here are some of the features it has that are similar to other meal kit delivery companies:

A box is delivered once per week to your doorstep containing all ingredients you need to cook healthy meals for your family during the week based on preferences you pre-selected.You can select the vegetarian option if you prefer.

All ingredients for each recipe come pre-weighed and pre-measured, and you do the preparation and cooking. Each recipe includes a calorie breakdown. Ingredients do not include staples like oil, salt, pepper, suger and eggs; you provide those yourself.

You can select from plans that provide meals for either two people or a family of two adults and two children.

You can choose a box that contains either two, three or four meals per week.

All packaging materials are fully recyclable.

You get to choose which recipes you want, and you can skip weeks anytime you want.  You can make changes, pause deliveries or cancel your whole service. Each week you will receive an email 10 days before the delivery showing you which meal choices they plan to send to you based on your preferences. Or you can sign into the website anytime and see the recipes been provided that week. You can go into your online account of change them if you want.

There’s no commitment and you can skip weeks or cancel your whole subscription any time.

Cost:

Marley Spoon’s pricing is competitive with most other meal kit delivery companies, on average.

Two person box is $12 per serving for two meals per week, $10.25 per serving for three meals per week or $9.50 per serving for four meals per week.

The Family box (two adults and two children) is $9.50 per serving for two meals per week, $8.90 for three meals per week or $8.70 for four meals per week.

Cost is less then same ingredients when you purchase them at the grocery store.

What’s Unique About Marley Spoon?

Now that we covered some of the ways Marley Spoon is similar to other services, let’s look at how it’s different.

You choose from at least 7 different recipes each week. All recipes are designed by in-house chefs and nutritionists..

Recipes sometimes come half-prepared to save some time, compared to some other services that may tend to take a little more effort because they leave all preparation up to you.

Meals are usually delivered Monday – Thursday.

Marley Spoon says the chilled box can keep the food fresh until you get home, and the ingredients are good for 4 days, except seafood which must be cooked within 48 hours.

Meals include a Helpline number you can call if you have trouble.

Marley Spoon and Martha Stewart have partnered together and Martha Stewart’s recipes are offered through the Marley spoon meal plans.

Each recipe is boiled down into six simple steps.

The ingredients for each recipe are sorted together into separate paper dish bags to keep things straight, and the items that need refrigeration are kept together so it’s easy to just throw them into your refrigerator.

Delivery is free, unlike some other services which charge for delivery.

Tends to have more international food choices than other competitors, probably because of its founders previous experience originating in Germany.

They have an in-house recycling system so you can return certain items to them for recycling, unlike some services where you are left on your own to do any recycling yourself.

Recipes tend to be extremely tasty and appealing, compared to some other services.

Ingredients tend to be extremely fresh, with freshly-picked vegetables and freshly-butchered meats. Some other services send you frozen meat.

Portions tend to be huge, leaving plenty of leftovers. Some other services have been known to provide more limited portions.

Marley Spoon offers more tailoring of meals than with some other competitors (increasing certain portions, requesting as many servings as you need, etc.)

Chilled box keeps food fresh for up to 30 hours due to the huge ice packs included.

Marley Spoon donates any leftover ingredients to City Harvest, a charity in New York City.

Meals typically take less time to prepare compared to other companies.

Special meal box available for Thanksgiving.

Sometimes little free gifts are included in meal boxes.

Downside of Using Marley Spoon:

There are no prepaid labels provided so you can return materials back to Marley spoon for recycling, like you get with some other services.

Marley Spoon has focused more on the Eastern parts of the US and not so much on the West coast.

They are somewhat of a new startup compared to some of the other more well-established meal kit delivery companies; they re-launched in the Summer of 2016 in a new partnership with Martha Stewart re-branded as Martha & Marley Spoon.

They use an excessive number of small plastic containers, even for tiny amounts of spices, and a substantial amount of packaging waste is generated each week even though it is recyclable.

Marley Spoon cannot accommodate special diets or allergies like some competitors can.

Marley Spoon doesn’t operate in as many states as some of its competitors, but you can look on their website to see if their service is available in your area.

You  are required to provide photographic evidence of any defective food; as compensation the company only offers a $10 credit toward future meals.

Some people have had difficulty when pausing or canceling service.

Some people in apartment buildings have had trouble getting meal boxes delivered to the correct door, and some boxes get stolen.

Ingredients are handled together so no guarantee they are allergen free.

Ingredients are sometimes missing from delivered meals.

Meals tend to have more carbs and calories than other services.

Only 3 vegetarian meal options to choose from each week.

Recipes can sometimes be too simple and not adventuresome enough.

No dessert option as with some other services.

Summary:

If you’re thinking about supplementing your weekly dinners with a meal kit delivery service to simplify your menu planning and shopping, Marley Spoon is a great choice because of its reputation for better tastiness and greater simplicity in preparation. With the free offer on their website for your first meals, and the option of canceling anytime, you can easily try Marley Spoon with virtually no risk.

*     *     *     *     *

Other Articles You May Also Like …

SELF
FAMILY
HOUSE
OUTDOORS
WORK
FINANCES
INSPIRATION