The Good Kitchen Review 2024: Is It Any Good?

Overview

The Good Kitchen (TGK) has a varied menu that contains heat-and-eat meals for different diets. The company puts a lot of care into choosing organic, fresh, and responsibly-sourced farm ingredients.

The menu boasts dozens of meals that fall into several categories. I got curious and set out to do my own review of The Good Kitchen given all the praise. Together with our food specialists, I took a closer look at the taste of the food and the overall experience with the company. I have to admit; I was truly impressed! 

Still, I think there’s room for improvement. For example, the price per serving and the cost of shipping can make you think twice about whether to make a purchase or not. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly meal delivery, check out our list of the cheapest options on the market.

If you ask me to name one service that has great meals, an extensive menu, and affordable prices, it would be HelloFresh. Just note that it’s a meal kit service, but you can prepare many of its dishes quickly. But if you want to know more about TGK, make sure to keep reading!

The Good Kitchen’s Menu: Well-Balanced Meals for a Good Range of Diets

The menu offers a selection of American and Mediterranean cuisine, with some splashes of Mexican and Asian. You’ll notice new dishes each week, but the real change happens with the seasons since The Good Kitchen only uses ingredients that can be grown and harvested seasonally.

TGK works with thoroughly vetted local farmers to create nutritious meals that only need 3 to 5 minutes in the microwave, which makes it convenient for people who follow a specific diet.

Most meals are well-balanced and contain clean proteins (grass-fed beef, pastured pork, lamb, turkey, and antibiotic- and hormone-free poultry and eggs) with veggies or starch on the side. Most produce is organic and GMO-free. You can only order entrees from The Good Kitchen. There are no add-ons or sides available.

Meal Options: The Good Kitchen Makes It Easy to Find Meals That Suit Your Diet

All the meals arrive fully prepared and are gluten-free, peanut-free, and soy-free. You’ll also find good options for the keto and paleo diets, Whole30 Approved, Plant Based, and Mediterranean. In total, the menu has dozens of single-serving meals to choose from.

The menu is based on American cuisine, with a few Italian and Mexican options. There’s some level of diversity, but there are no add-ons or snacks to sweeten the deal. If you want a larger menu and lots of add-ons, you should check out Factor.

I like that each dish has a detailed list of ingredients and nutrients with easy-to-spot details on calorie content, proteins, and carbs. This is extremely helpful if you’re on a strict diet like keto or paleo, but also if you’re counting calories and want low-fat dishes.

Click on the dish to learn more about its ingredients and nutrition. Besides those, you’ll find a scale showing a macronutrient ratio that typically contains fat, carbs, and protein quantities.

The Good Kitchen Only Allows for Basic Customization

The Good Kitchen doesn’t give you much room to play with your food. You can only filter out some ingredients based on allergies, adversities, dietary preferences, and protein. However, due to a fairly limited number of meals, if you activate 2 or more filters, your list of options will get even more limited.

If personalizing ingredients is important to you, consider registering for a Home Chef account. With this service, you can remove up to 9 common allergens from your meal plan and even switch ingredients in many dishes.

You can order TGK meals based on the diet you’re following or mix and match. However, most meals fit several dietary preferences. For instance, a serving of the delicious Beef Burger with Sweet Potato Hash fits the Whole30 Approved and Paleo diets.

Another area of customization is delivery frequency. Choose to receive meals weekly, every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks, or even as a 1-off order.

The Good Kitchen’s Menu at a Glance 

Unboxing: Well-Organized & Recyclable Boxes

The meals from The Good Kitchen are produced each week and delivered fresh to your doorstep. For this, the cardboard box is insulated with recyclable gel packs, and the food is individually packed in vacuum-sealed plastic trays. Each tray is wrapped in a cardboard sleeve containing the ingredients, nutritional values, and all the necessary instructions for heating, refrigerating, or freezing.

The use/freeze by date is listed on the sleeve of each food tray. Place all the trays you don’t want to open by the specified use-by date in the freezer. Keep in mind that frozen meals have a shelf life of 1 month and need to be thawed to room temperature before heating.

All the materials used for packaging are recyclable, including the vacuum-sealed microwave-safe plastic trays that store the food. Make sure to read the instructions that come with the box on how to safely dispose of everything.

Cooking With The Good Kitchen: Just Heat, Eat & Enjoy

Given that the meals arrive prepared and ready to heat, there’s not much cooking going on. In fact, it takes about 5 minutes to have a delicious ready-to-eat meal, and you don’t have to worry too much about clean-up (especially if you eat directly from the tray).

The serving process is quick and simple. Grab your meal out of the refrigerator, take off the cardboard sleeve, place the tray in the microwave (peel back the film 1 inch at the corners), and set the recommended temperature and time. Once the time is up, let it cool down for a couple of minutes and enjoy!

Remember to defrost a frozen meal before heating it. To do that, thaw it at room temperature before placing it in the microwave. You can also heat up your meals in the oven, but make sure to transfer the contents from the plastic tray to an oven-safe dish. The plastic tray isn’t oven-safe.

You’ll find instructions about how to heat your meals using different tools on the cardboard sleeve.

If you don’t mind preparing your own organic food quickly, consider opening a Green Chef account. It has various organic ingredients on offer, including eggs, seafood, meats, and produce. And you can cook most of its meals and add a personal touch within 30 or so minutes. But if you wish for a wider selection of ready-made recipes to choose from, then BistroMD could be your favorite.

Shortlist of My Favorite Meals

The selection of meals is suitable for lunch and dinner, and you can easily find delicious foods that are fewer than 600 calories or have a high protein content (depending on your dietary needs). Honestly, it was rather difficult to make a shortlist, but I managed to bring it down to just 3.

My first choice is Beef Bolognese with Spaghetti Squash, a dish that’s only 340 calories but feels like an exotic dish! The bolognese sauce contains premium ground beef and is slow-cooked, so it captures all the flavors. Plus, it pairs well with the light spaghetti squash, which looks amazing.

My second choice is Pork Loin with Sweet Potato Mash and Green Beans. The pork loin is rubbed with a combination of mustard, cayenne, chili, and paprika to make it so tender that it melts in your mouth. And on the side, you have green beans and sweet potato mash.

Last but not least, the Chimichurri Chicken Thighs with Fingerling Potato Hash comes in third place. I love this one because the chicken combines amazingly well with the fresh herbs and the fingerling potato hash.

Prices: The Good Kitchen Is Expensive

The Good Kitchen is one of the pricier meal delivery services on the market. While browsing its menu, the most affordable meal I found was the Turkey Sausage Scramble, which costs $12.95. The priciest dish by far was a family-style Roasted Salmon, which had a price tag of $27.95.

The meal delivery service charges a flat-rate shipping fee. At the time of my research, the delivery fee was $9.99. If you live in CA, AZ, OR, TX, or WA, then it’s $14.99 for shipping.  

Overall, I like that you can order whatever you want on the menu. But the fact that you can only order boxes of 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 meals is less convenient.

Shipping & Delivery: Streamlined & Flexible

The Good Kitchen uses UPS services to deliver all over the contiguous US. You can also get an order delivered if you live in Hawaii or Alaska, but you have to get in touch with customer service first.

Choose whether you want a one-time purchase or a recurring subscription when placing an order. You also have the option of setting the delivery frequency, which can be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

You’ll get regular reminders about changing your preferences for the following order if you choose a recurring subscription. If you don’t change anything, an order will be generated automatically based on your preferences. Overall, it’s fairly easy to change your menu since you can mix and match between diets.

Still, keep in mind that the cutoff date is 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, and the food will be delivered the next week. So, any changes to your account status or menu must be completed by then. Otherwise, you’ll get another order before the new settings apply.

You get a couple of emails when your order starts its journey to your door. One contains the tracking number, while the other includes instructions about your food and how to recycle the packaging materials.

How The Good Kitchen Works (Step by Step Guide)

You can choose 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 meals every week. If you opt for a subscription, you have full freedom over which meals to add to your box, and you won’t feel pressured to keep the same options from one order to another.

It’s also easy to make changes, skip a meal, or cancel without being guilted into staying.

How to Sign Up (Just 5 Simple Steps)

The Good Kitchen will create an account for you once you place your first order. So, it’s a 2-in-1 process that saves you some time and effort (not too much, though).

Here are the steps to follow in order to create an account with The Good Kitchen:

1. Click on the Get Started button on The Good Kitchen’s homepage.

2. Enter your name and your zip code.

3. Browse the menu and choose 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 recipes. If you choose any other number of meals, the system will remind you to check meal quantities. Once you choose, hit Review Order in the lower-right corner of the screen.

4. Check the order and adjust quantities if necessary. Then, click on Continue to Checkout.

5. Enter your delivery address, phone number, and other necessary details. At the end, enter your preferred payment method.

Managing Your Subscription

Log into your The Good Kitchen account and hover the cursor over your initials in the top-right corner of the screen. Then, click on Account Settings to manage your account.

There, you can change your billing info, review your purchase history, and more. Everything is intuitive, and the process is quick and easy.

Keep in mind that changes to your meals, address, delivery frequency, or cancelations must be submitted by the cutoff date (11:59 pm EST on Thursday) to come into effect for the following order. If the next shipment is already processed, the system won’t apply any changes.

Customer Service: The Good Kitchen’s Support Is Okay

I harbor mixed feelings about The Good Kitchen’s customer service system. I appreciate that customers are encouraged to reach out, but there's no guarantee of a response on your first attempt. Furthermore, the absence of a live chat option is a drawback, leaving only email and phone communication channels.

I like the FAQ section for quick answers. If you have an issue with your order, take photos and send a detailed email. The company will try to set things right, either with store credit or a full refund, depending on what happened.

You have the option to cancel your account without having to talk with a customer service agent. By accessing your account dashboard, you can pause, skip, or cancel your subscription by locating the Cancel Subscription button situated at the bottom of your order summary.

How TGK Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

• The Good Kitchen vs. Factor: Factor offers 35+ weekly ready-made single-serving meals and a solid selection of snacks, smoothies, juices, and healthy desserts as add-ons. It also has options for several diets, such as keto, low calorie, high protein, and plant-based. You can mix and match between meal plans. Overall, Factor offers more variety and a better price than TGK.

• The Good Kitchen vs. Green Chef: Green Chef has a more diverse menu, with over 45+ unique recipes each week. Plus, it’s more affordable, offering a big bang for your buck. The starting price is $9.99 per serving. So, if you don’t mind spending between 20 to 50 minutes on cooking, Green Chef may be the better option.

• The Good Kitchen vs. HelloFresh: HelloFresh has a much larger menu than TGK’s and features more family-friendly meals and a well-stocked Marketplace section. HelloFresh is a meal kit service, but the recipes are easy to make with well-detailed recipe cards. HelloFresh is affordably priced, especially for larger orders that offer a lower per-serving rate. For example, new users can get 6 meals for 4 people for just $107.75 when using our link. 

The Bottom Line: Is The Good Kitchen Worth It?

The Good Kitchen is a great option for anyone looking to eat healthy meals while following a specific diet (like keto or paleo) or trying to lose weight. I especially like the care and attention to detail that goes into selecting premium ingredients and making the meals. 

However, it’s on the pricey side. So, if you’re a fan of The Good Kitchen’s cooking and overall service, and you have the budget, go for it. But if you’re looking for a budget-friendly meal delivery service with good culinary diversity and variety, you may want to consider services like Factor and Green Chef instead.

FAQs

Does The Good Kitchen support weight loss?

The Good Kitchen’s menu is built around several diets such as keto, paleo, low-carb, Whole30 Approved, and more. So, while the company doesn’t state it directly, most meals support a healthy lifestyle, with a focus on fewer calories and the right amount of protein, carbs, and fats.

Are The Good Kitchen meals frozen?

No. The meals are made fresh each week and shipped fresh to make sure they reach your door in optimal condition. Once cooked, the food is sealed in microwave-friendly trays to ensure the nutrients and taste stay in the food.

How do you cancel The Good Kitchen?

With The Good Kitchen, it’s easy to manage your subscription. Just log into your account, go to Account Settings, and choose the Close Account option. The company is happy to provide its customers with a flexible subscription, so you won’t be guilted into staying.