EveryPlate Review 2024: Testing & Taste Update

Overview

My colleague tested EveryPlate 3 times, and they were impressed each time with the simple, satisfying recipes this budget-friendly meal kit service provided. Each week’s menu features 25+ dishes, including crowd-pleasing comfort foods like burgers, pasta, and tacos, plus add-ons like salads and soups. Premium recipes, such as steak or salmon, are available for a small upcharge and offer more creative sides. Other than vegetarian meals, specialized diets like vegan, keto, or gluten-free aren’t well accommodated.

During their at-home testing, my colleague found the service convenient, but it wasn’t perfect. There are 5 plans, such as Quick & Easy and Calorie Smart, but you can always choose from the full menu. Swapping proteins or sides is possible for some dishes, but options like allergen filtering are absent. Our tester found it slightly inconvenient to manually sort through the menu to find meals that fitted their preferences. 

Our most recent order arrived late, but the ingredients stayed fresh. Ingredients need sorting on arrival, but I’m pleased to report there was much less plastic used than in previous orders. Cooking was mostly straightforward, but the “6-step” recipes often involved several sub-steps and required more effort than expected.

Overall, our tested experience with EveryPlate highlighted its strengths as a budget-friendly option with simple, comforting meals. Most of the dishes were tasty and filling, although my colleague did have to deal with some missing potatoes. While it’s not ideal for those with dietary restrictions or a desire for gourmet flavors, it’s a solid choice for affordable, family-friendly cooking.

EveryPlate’s Menu: Super Cheap & Tasty Meals

EveryPlate offers a modest menu of 25+ meals per week, which is partly how it keeps the prices so low. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. In the past, I’ve found that some meal delivery services have too many choices, and searching through the menu each week can become time-consuming.

Sticking to a basic menu and affordable ingredients helps EveryPlate keep its prices low, but it doesn’t feel as restricting as you may think. Yes, you’ll find some sort of burger on the menu every week, but it could be anything from a classic Smashburger to a Vietnamese-inspired turkey burger.

EveryPlate also allows you to add some variety with its Premium dishes. You’ll find around 3 of these per week. These dishes come at an upcharge of around $3.99 per serving. Still, you’re promised high-quality proteins like salmon, steak, or barramundi with more exciting sides such as rosemary mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies.

Meal Options: 5 Plans, but Not a Lot of Options for Special Diets

EveryPlate offers 5 different plans:

• Meat & Veggies – the full selection of meals

• Veggie – vegetarian dishes only

• Family Faves – family-friendly, kid-approved meals

• Quick & Easy – easy cleanup dishes and recipes that take 30 minutes or less

• Calorie Smart – nutritious meals of 650 calories or less

If you choose any plan besides Meat & Veggies, you’ll get a smaller selection of meals. These menus simply filter out dishes from the Meat & Veggies menu. Whatever plan you choose, you can select any item on the weekly menu. 

People with dietary restrictions likely won’t find EveryPlate a good fit. While there is a solid range of vegetarian recipes on the menu, there are few to no options for more specialized diets. Strict vegans and keto dieters, for example, should check out Green Chef instead.

EveryPlate’s recipes focus on simple, filling comfort food. Families with picky eaters will appreciate the pasta, burgers, and other kid-friendly options. However, if you enjoy more sophisticated dishes, you might find EveryPlate’s fare a bit basic for your tastes and you’d be better off with a more gourmet service like Marley Spoon.

Preparation and cooking times for EveryPlate kits range between 20 and 45 minutes. If you are in a hurry, look for recipes with the 25 Min or Less tag. 

EveryPlate also has Add-Ons like sides, soups, and salad bundles. This is a nice option that can help you stock your pantry and refrigerator and save you extra trips to the grocery store. While its salads and sandwiches are great for lunch, there are also breakfast entrees and kid-friendly snacks such as Pizza Bites.

Customization: EveryPlate Isn’t Very Customizable

EveryPlate’s menu highlights the important details of each recipe, with clear indicators for spicy and vegetarian dishes and those that are quicker to prepare or take less than 25 minutes.

What you can’t do, however, is filter the menu for specific allergens. Sure, it doesn’t take too long to manually look through the 30 weekly dishes for the ingredients you can’t eat or don’t like, but a filter would definitely make things easier.

You can double up on protein, add a protein to veggie meals, or swap sides for a few of the recipes after checkout. However, as my colleague discovered, this might mean swapping potatoes for broccoli (and paying extra) rather than having them both, which is a little disappointing. I think that services like Home Chef offer more variety and control when it comes to customizing your meals.

Avoiding shellfish? That’s totally doable with EveryPlate. But if you’re subscribing to a vegan diet or living with a gluten allergy, then you’ll be better served by a more specialized service like Green Chef. Having said that, people without dietary restrictions will find a lot to love on EveryPlate’s menu.

EveryPlate’s Menu at a Glance 

My Unboxing Experience With EveryPlate: A Really Pleasant Surprise!

My colleague was pleased with their EveryPlate delivery. The box arrived looking fresh, clean, and undamaged. The box's contents were well-organized, and although ingredients aren’t separated by recipe like HelloFresh, it’s easy enough to find what you need. Despite the box arriving later than expected, the ice packs were still fully frozen. 

The packaging was eco-friendly and minimalistic. The flyers advertising other companies were an unnecessary addition, but they can be recycled along with the cardboard. Ingredients were either EveryPlate or HelloFresh-branded, apart from regionally sourced produce. The recipe cards were clear and high-quality, a similar standard to those provided by HelloFresh.

The EveryPlate box was efficiently organized. Meats were placed at the bottom next to the ice packs to stay cool, with other items arranged above in a cardboard tray. This tray fitted perfectly into the fridge, making it easy for my colleague to store all the ingredients together. Non-refrigerated items like nuts or rice were also kept in the tray for convenience, although they could be stored in the pantry.

In the past, my colleague expressed significant concerns with EveryPlate’s packaging. As I explore various meal delivery services, I share this concern about sustainable packaging. Their initial experience with EveryPlate vividly illustrates why this issue is increasingly important to us.

Below is a photo of my colleague’s first EveryPlate box. You’ll notice it’s difficult to see any of the ingredients underneath the massive pile of carrots – each and every one packaged in its own plastic wrapper! This level of waste could be enough to stop people from reordering.

I’m pleased to report that this overuse of plastic has now stopped. My colleague had 2 further EveryPlate orders and was happy to find that all the produce (including the pile of carrots) arrived loose inside the box.

This minimal packaging also makes it much easier to recycle everything. The box itself is curbside recyclable, and you can follow simple instructions on EveryPlate’s FAQ page to recycle other things, such as the insulated liner.

Cooking & Eating With EveryPlate: Satisfaction (Mostly) Guaranteed

EveryPlate's recipe cards are clear and remind my colleague of HelloFresh. When cooking with EveryPlate, you'll need a few basic pantry items like oil and salt. This is pretty standard for most meal delivery companies. But you might also need to provide things like mayo, ketchup, or flour. If you prefer everything included, I suggest you consider Blue Apron instead. 

EveryPlate claims each recipe has "6 simple steps," but expect each step to have several tasks. This is fairly typical for meal kits, though. My colleague, an experienced home cook, found the recipes manageable but thought that beginners might find them a little bit tricky.

Overall, the meal quality was great, and portions were generous, usually ranging from 500 to 1,000 calories. However, there were a few hiccups with ingredient quantities, like not having enough potatoes for the dishes ordered. When issues like missing items arose, customer service only offered a minimal $5 voucher, which my colleague felt didn't quite make up for the inconvenience.

One downside is that you often need to pay extra for veggies, which can be a drawback if you're trying to eat healthily on a budget. The vegetarian dishes were notably more creative and well-rounded. I’d say that if you're considering EveryPlate, it's a solid choice for the cost-conscious, but be prepared for a little extra kitchen work and possibly adding your own veggies for extra nutrition.

Shortlist of My Colleague’s Favorite Meals

Here’s a rundown of all the recent meals my colleague tried from EveryPlate:

Melty Mozz & Mushroom Panini

Labeled as a “Customer Fave,” this dish featured mozzarella, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and garlic mayo on sourdough, paired with baked potato wedges. It was the most complex recipe of the week, delivering robust umami flavors from the mushroom and onion mixture, enhanced by the sourdough and garlic mayo. 

The potato wedges were identical to those in another meal, so they added extra spices for flavor. They also used more onion and thyme than recommended, improving the dish's taste significantly. This recipe scored an 8.5/10 as toasting the bread before assembly could add extra crispness and support the filling better.

Creamy Chicken Curry in a Hurry

This was an underwhelming dish, marketed as "Quick Prep." It featured pre-chopped chicken in a curry cream sauce over jasmine rice with a scallion garnish. The time-consuming rice cooking makes the meal feel less convenient. The simplicity also conveyed a "budget" feel, lacking any fresh vegetables aside from the scallions.

The rich curry sauce made with curry powder, tomato paste, cream, and butter stood out in the dish. However, the chicken breast, though pre-chopped, was less favored compared to tastier chicken thighs. My colleague gave the meal a 7/10, suggesting additions like bell peppers could enhance the dish's flavor, presentation, and nutrition.

Sweet Sesame-Lime (and Chicken) Salad

My colleague tried this "Easy Cleanup" and Calorie Smart choice. It featured a mix of baby lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, scallions, and cilantro with a sesame-lime dressing and peanuts. They added chicken for an extra $2.99 per serving but thought that the fresh veggies were a refreshing contrast to the other basic meals.

The salad was delicious, but the chicken add-on was disappointing. The chicken lacked special cooking instructions and included some inedible bits, which affected the meal's quality. Despite this, my colleague rated the dish 7.5/10, believing better chicken could’ve boosted the score to 8.5/10. They also managed a near miss with missing sesame seeds, having their own to use.

Sweet & Smoky BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

My colleague had mixed feelings about this meal. This Quick Prep and Calorie Smart dish came with BBQ-spiced whole chicken breasts on a bun, caramelized onions, BBQ sauce, and baked potato wedges. They noted the option to add vegetables like broccoli or asparagus for a small fee, though these would replace the potatoes.

Adding their own slaw-style salad significantly enhanced the meal for my colleague. This raised their rating from 6.5 to 7.5/10. They suggested that using chicken thighs or including coleslaw or greens in the meal kit could further improve the dish by adding flavor and freshness to the sandwiches.

Creamy Mushroom Steak  

This premium Creamy Mushroom Steak recipe cost an additional $4.99 per serving. The meal featured steak in a mushroom cream sauce accompanied by roasted green beans and was supposed to include potato rounds. They appreciated that the premium meal came with a side of vegetables, a nice touch compared to some of the more basic options.

Unfortunately, the potatoes were missing. My colleague added bread instead, but this was disappointing, particularly for his girlfriend, who had been looking forward to the potatoes. This meal rated 8/10, but it likely would have scored a 9/10 had the potatoes been included, as they were curious about the difference in taste between "rounds" and "wedges."

Recipes Summary

Prices: EveryPlate Is One of the Cheapest Meal Deliveries Around

Shipping & Delivery: A Mixed Experience

My colleague had a mixed experience with EveryPlate's delivery. Delivery options are limited to Tuesday through Friday, less frequent than HelloFresh's 6 days a week. EveryPlate uses its own tracking system and regional couriers instead of major carriers like UPS or FedEx. While tracking was functional via EveryPlate's website or app, it only specified the delivery day, not a specific time.

There were also some delays with the delivery. The package arrived a day late, though my colleague was informed promptly by email that the contents would remain at a safe temperature, which proved true upon receipt. No special delivery considerations were necessary as the location was straightforward for couriers.

It was all very straightforward, but you’re still paying a charge each week for shipping. There are some companies that ship at no extra charge (or work this charge into the overall price), so this does eat into your “savings” a bit.

How EveryPlate Works: Step by Step Guide

As a subsidiary of HelloFresh, signing up is streamlined and pretty painless. If you have any experience with meal delivery services, EveryPlate’s signup process should look familiar.

How to Sign Up (Just 5 Simple Steps)

1. Select your plan: You can choose the full Meat & Veggies menu or narrow down your options with the other choices.

2. Create your account: You’ll have to input your email address and create a password to continue.

3. Enter your address: Your delivery day options will depend on your zip code.

4. Choose a delivery day: Delivery days are location-dependent.

5. Input your payment info: The option to pay with ApplePay or PayPal is a nice touch for convenience.

Now for the fun part – choosing what you want to eat! Here is where you can also change the sides or add a protein to your recipes to suit your personal taste.

Managing Your Subscription

EveryPlate's account management page is streamlined and user-friendly. The interface is clear and efficient, making it easy to access plan settings, past orders, and other preferences. Changes to meal plans, dietary preferences, and weekly orders can be made directly from the menu selection page. 

It's also simple to adjust delivery addresses, skip weeks, or amend orders. Deadlines for updates are clearly stated, and push notifications are available. You can rate meals and provide feedback effortlessly, and the platform offers solid support on both desktop and mobile, though desktop is better for navigating menus.

Customer Service: EveryPlate’s Support Is Limited

EveryPlate only offers 2 types of customer support – 24/7 live chat and a weekday landline available from 6 am to 11 pm EST. EveryPlate also has an informative FAQ section covering a range of topics like shipping, billing, and food safety. You need to navigate through the FAQ section to a Contact Us button before reaching the chatbot, which isn’t very intuitive. 

The Chatbot was effective at dealing with my colleague’s missing ingredients. It's fairly straightforward to connect with a real person. EveryPlate doesn't provide email support, but the customer service agents are helpful and friendly.

Canceling EveryPlate is relatively easy and can be done online. My colleague had to complete a survey to finalize the cancelation but received a confirmation email offering a 25% discount on 3 future boxes, a common retention tactic. This is designed to encourage customers to reconsider leaving and is typical of many subscription services. Check out our full EveryPlate cancelation guide for all the details.

How EveryPlate Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

• EveryPlate vs. Dinnerly: Dinnerly’s prices are comparable to EveryPlate, and it has a similar focus on simple recipes with high-quality ingredients, but Dinnerly offers a wider selection of over 100+ weekly recipes compared to EveryPlate’s 25+ options.

• EveryPlate vs. HelloFresh: HelloFresh, EveryPlate’s parent company, offers a larger menu with greater variety and has more adventurous dishes than EveryPlate. However, this comes at a cost, with HelloFresh meals costing more than EverPlate's. 

• EveryPlate vs. Green Chef: With meals starting at $11.99 a serving, Green Chef (another HelloFresh company) is twice as expensive as EveryPlate. But this service is the better choice for those following vegan, keto, high-protein, or Mediterranean diets. It’s also a more suitable service for those with certain allergies, and people who want USDA-certified organic ingredients.

The Bottom Line: Is EveryPlate Worth It?

EveryPlate is fantastic for households seeking an affordable meal kit delivery service. You'll find tasty recipes, an easy-to-navigate service, and a variety of delivery options, all at a competitive price point. Check out our list of the best cheap meal delivery services to compare it with some more options.

However, it's worth noting that there's a lack of vegetables in its meals, and you'll need to pay extra to add them. As my colleague discovered, you might also have to sacrifice your potatoes for a veggie side instead! This might be a drawback if you're looking for balanced meals without additional costs. 

If you're on a tight budget or simply want straightforward, filling dinners at a very reasonable price, EveryPlate is certainly worth considering. However, if you have particular dietary preferences or are a fussy eater, EveryPlate might not meet your needs. For those needs, you might find HelloFresh or Green Chef more suitable.

FAQ

How much does EveryPlate cost?

EveryPlate’s pricing starts at $2.49 per serving, but it goes up for smaller orders. Slightly more expensive Premium recipes are available each week as optional upgrades. But even with the occasional upgrade, EveryPlate is one of the most affordable meal kit services around.

Are EveryPlate meals healthy?

EveryPlate meals are balanced and fresh. The nutritional information for each dish is provided on the recipe card, so you can select dishes that meet your health goals. And EveryPlate’s Calorie Smart menu offers meals at or under 650 calories for calorie counters.

How do you cancel your EveryPlate subscription?

Canceling your EveryPlate subscription is quick and painless. Go to your account settings and click Deactivate Account. The entire process takes just a few seconds. Read our step-by-step guide, and we’ll walk you through the whole thing.

Is EveryPlate owned by HelloFresh?

EveryPlate is HelloFresh’s budget meal delivery service. EveryPlate is considerably cheaper than HelloFresh, but it has a smaller selection of meals and is geared more toward family-friendly comfort food made with simpler ingredients.

Does EveryPlate come frozen?

EveryPlate meal kits arrive chilled in an insulated box designed to keep meals cool for up to 48 hours until you can get them into your refrigerator. This ensures that your EveryPlate ingredients stay fresh until you are ready to start cooking.