7 Best Meal Delivery Services in Tampa 2024

Meal delivery services make it easy to prepare high-quality meals for the whole family. My colleagues and I have explored and tested a wide array of meal delivery services. I’ve curated this top 7 list for Tampa to help you find the perfect service for your lifestyle and preferences.

Factor is the top meal delivery service on my list since it offers chef-prepared ready-made meals, fresh ingredients, and a range of healthy add-ons for a boost of nutrition on the go. 

Read on to discover the 7 best meal delivery services in Tampa. Whether you're a busy professional, a parent with a packed schedule and growing kids, or simply someone who enjoys great home-cooked food, there’s something on this list for you.

The Best Meal Delivery Services in Tampa Reviewed

1. Factor – Best High-Quality Fully Prepared Meals in Tampa

Factor stands out as a top pick for nourishing, protein-rich meals. You can easily plan ahead since Factor posts its menu for the next 4 weeks. This feature can make meal planning much simpler for those following specific diets.

What’s on the Menu?

You'll notice that over half of the dishes on the menu have the Protein Plus label. These meals are perfect for those who lead an active lifestyle and do intense workouts. The meals are delivered fully cooked, allowing you to heat and enjoy them within minutes.

Each meal is tagged to show diet accommodations and potential allergens. For example, Factor's Santa Fe Beef Bowl is suitable for Keto, Calorie Smart, and Protein Plus plans. You'll need to click on individual meal images to get more information, such as ingredients, nutritional information, and heating instructions.

Factor also offers a great selection of add-ons like smoothies and protein packs. While there’s a Vegan & Veggie plan, most add-ons cater to the keto crowd. You’ll find keto cheesecakes, cookies, picnic bundles, and more. For an in-depth look into Factor’s service and ingredients, you can check out our tested review.

What Makes It Special?

On the menu, you’ll find classic American fare as well as internationally-inspired flavors from the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia. The variety of flavors is impressive, and the meal quality is excellent – especially for a microwave-ready service. 

The New label highlights the first-time debuts of Factor recipes, which is great if you appreciate variety. Some meals have the Gourmet Plus tag. These are made with higher-quality proteins but do cost a little extra.

Factor’s customer support is super responsive and reliable. There are desktop and mobile apps, and you can reach representatives 24/7 via live chat or most of the day via phone. I also found its chatbot and FAQ section informative and helpful.

Is It Good Value?

• Chef's Choice – recipes from each diet plan
• Keto – low carb, high fat, and moderate protein recipes
• Calorie Smart – recipes with 550 kcal per serving or less
• Vegan & Veggie – meatless meals with a range of plant-based options
• Protein Plus – meals with at least 30 g of protein per serving
• Flexitarian – meals designed for a flexitarian lifestyle

2. Green Chef – Best Organic Meal Kits in Tampa

Green Chef's best features are its dietary accommodations and use of organic ingredients throughout its entire menu. Green Chef uses only USDA-certified and CCOF-certified organic produce in its dishes, ensuring that all ingredients are hormone and antibiotic-free.

What’s on the Menu?

Each week, you'll find 45+ meals on Green Chef’s menu. Many recipes are suitable for several diets, and each is labeled with helpful tags. For example, Green Chef's Spiced Black Bean Bowls with Chimichurri is tagged Gluten-Free and Veggie and is also noted as being ready in 15 minutes. 

As someone who enjoys Mediterranean food but primarily adheres to a Keto diet, I like the option to choose recipes like Green Chef's Mediterranean Chicken (pictured above). It’s available on the Keto, Gluten-Free, and Mediterranean menus.

Green Chef also has a great add-on menu that partially rotates each week. You’ll find breakfast items, lunches, proteins, side dishes, salads, and some desserts. You’ll also find that many add-ons are keto-friendly.

What Makes It Special?

If eating organic is your dietary priority – Green Chef is the best service on this list. Green Chef is a premium service, so check it fits within your budget before you buy. When we tested out Green Chef at home, we discovered that the first-rate ingredients led to more flavorful meals.

Green Chef’s meal kits are easy to put together. The ingredients arrive fresh, along with premade sauces and spice blends. Some vegetables arrive pre-washed and chopped, saving you prep time compared to dealing with whole veggies.

The average prep time is about 30 minutes per recipe, though there are easy prep meals and 10-minute lunches on the menu. Green Chef doesn’t offer microwave-ready dishes. If you want ready-to-eat prepared meals, check out Factor’s menu.

Is It Good Value?

Meal plans are flexible and allow you to mix and match recipes, giving you access to the full menu. Green Chef has the following 8 plans:

• Keto – low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat dishes
• Gluten Free – recipes without added gluten
• Plant Based – vegetarian and vegan recipes
• Protein Packed – high-protein meals ideal for omnivores
• Quick & Easy – meals ready in under 25 minutes
• Mediterranean – dishes featuring mainly veggies, fish, and healthy fats
• Calorie Smart – recipes that include less than 650 calories per meal
• Gut & Brain Health – nutrient-dense high-fiber recipes

Prices start at $9.99 per serving. The minimum order is 3 recipes for 2 people and the maximum is 4 recipes for 6 people. Standard shipping is $9.99 per delivery.

3. Blue Apron – Best High-Quality Meal Kits in Tampa

Blue Apron offers restaurant-quality meal kits and prepared meals. It has great customization options, letting you make an omnivore-friendly recipe vegetarian and vice versa. And you can buy meals from its Market without becoming a member.

What’s on the Menu?

Blue Apron is well-known for delivering high-quality meal kits with dishes you could find at a restaurant. Each shipment comes with straightforward recipes that are easy to cook at home. You’ll find meals with various prep tags like:

• Nutritionist’s Pick – specially selected by an in-house nutritionist
• Ready to Cook – pre-chopped ingredients included
• 45g of Protein – protein-rich meals
• New & Notable – newly-introduced recipes

The recipe cards that come with your meal kits make cooking easy. If you follow the instructions, you’ll be cooking gourmet meals at home in no time. And Blue Apron also has a selection of fresh Prepared & Ready meals you can simply heat and eat. You can find meal kits and ready-to-eat options in the Blue Apron Market, too.

The range of cuisines includes American, Mediterranean, and Asian-inspired recipes. Our detailed review delves further into Blue Apron's menu selections. Despite the range of exotic flavors, many of the recipes are family-friendly and suitable for kids, too.

What Makes It Special?

It’s great that Blue Apron posts its menu for the next 4 weeks. Since each week has a new set of recipes, I like being able to plan in advance. This is especially useful for holidays like Mother’s Day or Thanksgiving, when special seasonal meals are on offer.

Around 10 recipes each week offer customization options, including protein swaps/upgrades and the Make it Vegetarian feature. For instance, you can replace the ground beef with a red pepper pattie from Actual Veggies in the Pimento Cheeseburger to make it veggie-friendly.

Blue Apron’s biggest drawback is its limited dietary and allergen accommodations. While you can choose from a few diet plans and prep styles, you can't exclude common allergens like gluten, nuts, or dairy. If you have severe allergies or dietary restrictions, check out Green Chef’s diverse diet plans.

Is It Good Value?

Blue Apron provides great value for money. It has 4 meal plans catering to individuals, couples, and families, which are:

• Meal Kits for 2
• Meal Kits for 4
• Prepared & Ready meals for 1
• Add-Ons (servings vary)

Wellness and Vegetarian are subsets of the Signature plan, meaning they don’t have any unique dishes. Choosing either of these as preferences at sign-up means Blue Apron will only recommend those dishes for your weekly subscription. As a result, these menus are smaller, with around 4-5 recipes per week. You can check out the Market for extra meal kits, microwavable prepared meals, and food bundles.

You can order 2 to 5 weekly meal kits for either 2 or 4 people. Pricing starts at $4.00  per serving for the largest weekly plan of 5 servings for 4. If you go for Prepared & Ready meals, you can buy 4, 6, 8, or 10 recipes per week. Note that fewer servings result in a higher price per serving, and a $10.99 shipping fee will also apply to each delivery.

4. HelloFresh – Best Family-Friendly Meal Kits in Tampa

HelloFresh excels as a family-friendly meal delivery service. It offers a great balance of quality ingredients and affordability. The menu has over 100 recipes and other items to choose from each week, including Hall of Fame favorites and globally-inspired dishes.

What’s on the Menu?

HelloFresh offers an array of international cuisines beyond traditional American fare. You'll discover Mexican, Indian, French, Middle Eastern, Korean, Mediterranean, and more. The on-site cookbook boasts over 2,500 past recipes you can check out without a subscription.

As you look through the menu, keep an eye out for Hall of Fame recipes. These are HelloFresh’s most popular dishes. They regularly appear on the menu due to customer demand, making them an excellent choice for your initial order.

HelloFresh’s recipes are clearly marked with preparation time and skill level on the main menu. Clicking a meal image reveals ingredients, nutritional information, and allergen details. Prep times range from 15 to 50 minutes, with most meals taking around 30 minutes to complete.

What Makes It Special?

Navigating HelloFresh’s site and finding meal information is a breeze. However, the absence of filters can make it challenging to pinpoint specific recipes, requiring you to manually scroll and search the whole menu. Check out our tested review to read about our experience trying HelloFresh’s service at home.

The service's comprehensive FAQ section is a convenient resource for quickly finding the information you need. It answered many of the questions I had about delivery, billing, order placement, ingredients, and more.

HelloFresh's customer support is available 24/7 and is highly responsive. You can contact representatives through chat or phone. Additionally, the company offers a top-rated app for download on Google Play or the App Store.

Is It Good Value?

There are 6 menus available, and you can select as many of them as you want:

• Meat & Veggies – primarily protein and vegetable recipes
• Veggie – vegetarian staples
• Family Friendly – crowd-pleasing dishes for kids and adults
• Fit & Wholesome – calorie-conscious dishes ready in under 25 minutes
• Under 20 Minutes – meals prepared in under 20 minutes
• Pescatarian – meat-free options and Mediterranean cuisine

As someone with a particular diet, I found the menu fairly difficult to navigate. I avoid gluten, sugar, and simple starches, and I had to read through every ingredient list to find meals that would work for me. Green Chef has better filters and more allergy-friendly options for people like me.

You have the option to order 2-6 recipes per week for either 2, 4, or 6 people. The more your order, the lower the price; for example, new users can get 6 meals for 4 people for just $107.75 when using our link.

5. Home Chef –  Best Protein Customization Options in Tampa

Home Chef lets you order up to 36 meals each week, making it ideal for larger families. Additionally, you can supplement your weekly menu with add-ons like breakfasts and desserts.

What’s on the Menu?

You'll find meals on Home Chef's weekly menu with different serving times. This Tampa meal delivery service categorizes recipes as Meal Kits, Express, Oven-Ready, Fast & Fresh, Lunch, Bundle & Save, and Extras. Express, Lunch, and Bundle & Save are the quickest to serve, while Meal Kits and Oven-Ready recipes typically require more time, up to 50 minutes.

The menu primarily consists of American cuisine that caters to a wide range of tastes. The French Onion Beef Meatloaf, for instance, is a crowd-pleaser perfect for children. You can also customize this dish with alternative proteins, like ground pork or ground turkey.

For an elevated dining experience, Home Chef provides premium meat options like sirloin steak or filet mignon as protein upgrades. If you love experimenting with your cooking skills, you can also order ingredients from the Extras menu, including proteins, vegetables, and sides.

What Makes It Special?

Home Chef stands out with its Customize It feature. This lets you switch or double-up the proteins in many dishes. For example, you can replace chicken breasts with ground beef, add an extra serving of tilapia, or exchange ground pork for ground chicken.

Bear in mind that protein customization often means an upcharge. Check out our tried and tested review for more information on this, and the available menu options.

Home Chef lets you select a delivery day to suit you. Depending on your zip code, you’ll be able to choose any delivery day between Monday and Friday. You can stay updated on your delivery status through text message notifications from the carrier or Home Chef's mobile app.

Is It Good Value?

Home Chef is not the best choice for strict dietary restrictions. Although you can customize proteins, other ingredients can’t be excluded or swapped, (unless you do this at home). You will see Gluten-Smart and Keto-Friendly tags on some meals but note that the Gluten-Smart recipes aren’t certified gluten free. For niche diets, Green Chef is a better option.

Home Chef meals start at $9.99 per serving, but each meal is individually priced. You can order 2 to 6 recipes per week for 2, 4, or 6 people, meaning you can get up to 36 servings per week. This is much more than the average meal delivery service!

6. BistroMD – Calorie-Conscious Heat-And-Eat Meals

BistroMD specializes in meals for weight loss, and unlike many weight-loss services, the food is really tasty. What's more, the provider caters to various diets, including vegan, gluten free, and diabetes-friendly. Moreover, it understands that the caloric needs are different for men and women and offers separate plans.

What’s on the Menu?

BistroMD’s menu includes 7 curated menus of low-calorie, dietitian-designed meals. Recipes arrive in an insulated package, frozen and fully prepared. All you need to do is make freezer or fridge space, then heat in the microwave when you’re ready to eat.

BistroMD has meal plans to accommodate several different diets. You can choose from Signature, Gluten Free, Heart Healthy, Keto Flex, Diabetic, Vegan, and Menopause plans. Be aware that the Keto Flex plan is essentially a low-carb, medium-fat program and won't induce ketosis.

I’m always skeptical of frozen meal delivery services since you don’t know how long the meals have been in storage. That’s why I prefer the prepared meals from Factor, which ships everything fresh and never frozen.

What Makes It Special?

BistroMD's recipes are designed for a 1,200- or 1,400-calorie diet. Each meal has an average of about 300 kcal but ranges from 280 to 500 kcal per serving. Full nutritional information is displayed on the website as well as on the reverse of each meal’s packaging.

Ingredient substitutions aren’t available for any recipe on the menu. To keep you on track with your weight loss objectives, each recipe is meant to be consumed exactly as is. While having a fridge full of heat-and-eat meals is super convenient for maintaining any diet plan, the lack of ingredient substitutions can be a dealbreaker for some.

Despite its customization restrictions, BistroMD serves balanced meals made up of whole foods. Proteins, complex carbohydrates, and good fats are all included in meals, and their macro proportions are all in line with the meal plans you select.

Is It Good Value?

Overall, BistroMD is a convenient diet meal delivery service designed for people trying to lose weight. All meals arrive fully cooked, frozen, and individually portioned for your convenience.

You can choose 2 or 3 meals for 5 or 7 days per plan. If you select the maximum number, you’ll get 20 meals, as BistroMD lets you have 1 night to eat what you wish. For more details about ordering, you can check out our thorough tested review of BistroMD.

The maximum plan of 20 meals costs $6.59 per serving. The price per serving goes up for smaller plans, so keep that in mind when budgeting. This service handles all meal choices, making it ideal for individuals who have difficulty deciding what to eat while on a diet.

7. Purple Carrot – Best Vegan Meals in Tampa

Purple Carrot is the only service on my list that offers 100% plant-based meals. It offers both meal kits and microwave-ready options. If you subscribe to a meal plan, you’ll also get access to Purple Carrot’s line of Less Prep meals.

What’s on the Menu?

Every week, there are over 20 meal kit recipes to choose from, including some 5-minute breakfasts and 15-minute lunches in addition to the standard dinner menu. We tested out Purple Carrot and were pleased with the variety of recipes even though the menu is smaller than other services.

Purple Carrot’s prepared meal options are a more convenient way to eat plant-based. This separate menu has 16 recipes each week, suitable for lunch or dinner. These single-serving meals are ready in as little as 2 to 3 minutes, making them perfect for vegans on the go.

You can also buy frozen recipes from this service. In general, it has several of these meals on offer, 7 the last time I checked. Don't forget to check Plantry items since it has various great extras, such as homestyle chilly, milk latte, glazed donuts, and various juices.

What Makes It Special?

I love that Purple Carrot relies on fresh veggies rather than processed meat substitutes. The pictured Mushroom Patty Melts use fresh mushrooms to mimic the meaty texture and savory flavor of a traditional patty melt. Even meat eaters will enjoy this hearty dish.

The microwaveable meals come in recyclable packaging and span various cuisines. There’s everything from vegan Mac n’ Cheese to the Indian-inspired Palak Cauliflower. I like that both the prepared meal and the meal kit menus are diverse and interesting.

Is It Good Value?

The diverse range of cuisines offered by Purple Carrot caters to adventurous taste buds. Meals showcase a variety of vegetables, herbs, and spices, making veggies the main focus. The menu includes Mediterranean, Indian, Asian, and Southeast Asian-inspired recipes.

Purple Carrot isn’t fully organic, but it provides local, seasonal produce when possible. Most non-produce items (beans, nuts, tofu, etc.) are certified organic, and the company is working to overcome shipping constraints to offer more organic and non-GMO products.

Purple Carrot starts at $11.00 per serving, but the pricing depends on your plan. You can order 3-4 meal kits per week for 2 people or 2-3 meals for 4 people. Single-serving prepared meals come in bundles of 6, 8, or 10 meals per week.

Quick Comparison Table

Tips for Choosing the Best Meal Delivery Services in Tampa

When choosing a meal delivery service, finding one that meets your specific needs and preferences is essential. Here are 4 tips to help you make the best choice:

• Dietary needs: Evaluate each meal delivery service's capacity to accommodate your dietary needs, such as vegetarian, gluten-free, or keto options. It's crucial to find a service that offers a variety of meals that align with your health goals and restrictions. A diverse menu can help keep your diet interesting and sustainable. For those who like prepared meals and follow a specialized diet like keto or high protein, I recommend Factor. All its meals take 2 to 3 minutes to prepare.

• Take ingredient quality into account: Choose a service that values fresh and superior-quality ingredients to guarantee delicious and nourishing meals. The source and quality of ingredients can significantly affect the taste and nutritional value of your meals. Services that partner with local farms and prioritize non-GMO produce can offer a higher quality dining experience. Green Chef stands out in this regard, with a commitment to organic and sustainably sourced ingredients, which is a boon for those who are health-conscious and environmentally aware.

• Think about convenience: Look at how easy it is to make meals and how much time you want to spend in the kitchen. A service that requires minimal prep and cooking time can be a lifesaver for busy individuals. Some services offer pre-portioned ingredients with easy-to-follow recipes, while others deliver fully prepared dishes that save even more time. For those looking to minimize their kitchen duties, HelloFresh provides a variety of quick meal kits that cater to several dietary preferences, streamlining mealtime without compromising on taste.

• Consider your budget: Determine how much you're willing to spend on meal delivery and choose a service that fits within your budget. While cost is a significant factor, it's also important to consider the value you're getting. Some affordable services offer menu flexibility and flavor variety that rival more expensive options. Blue Apron falls into this category, offering great value meals, especially for larger orders of meal kits.
  

FAQ

Are the meal delivery services in Tampa suitable for special diets?

Yes, many meal delivery services in Tampa cater to special diets. Green Chef is the top meal kit service for niche diets on my list, and it offers 8 diet-specific plans such as Keto, Plant Based, Gluten Free, and Protein Packed.  

Can I get organic ingredients from meal delivery services in Tampa?

Yes, some meal delivery services in Tampa prioritize organic ingredients. Green Chef, for example, is known for using organic and sustainably-sourced ingredients in its meal plans, ensuring high-quality and environmentally-friendly options.

Are meal delivery services in Tampa budget-friendly?

Blue Apron is one of the most affordable meal delivery service in Tampa on my list, but each service offers a range of price points to suit different budgets (and a live coupon to use). Be sure to compare the prices and features to find meals that fit your budget and don’t forget to factor in shipping costs for each delivery.

10 Best Meal Delivery Services in Tampa in 2024 — Final Score