Honest Chefs Plate review: Worth $2.99 a meal?

Remember back in November when I wrote Hello Fresh reviews? Not long after that, we started seeing ads for a “$2.99/meals by Chefs Plate” and decided to give this meal prep service a go. So, keep reading for my honest Chefs Plate review: We loved the low cost but were less impressed with the flavors and freshness than competing meal services.

Read to the end to get up to $80 off of your first box!

*Disclaimer: If you use my referral link, I may receive a discount on any future boxes I order. Other than that, I am not receiving any compensation for this post.

Get my discount code here!

Overall review

Just like with my recipes, I’m all about getting right to the point. So here’s what I think: Chefs Plate is good, but not comparable to Hello Fresh, which has more flavor and better overall freshness. I would use it again with a discount, as it does cut down on food waste and saves us a ton of time, but would not pay full price for these recipes. Like other delivery services, I am not impressed by the amount of packaging waste.

Read more on why I think this below!

Reasons for trying Chefs Plate

You may be wondering why someone who runs a cooking, foraging and traveling blog is even considering using a meal-delivery service like Chefs Plate (fair enough!). To sum it up, while I’m finishing my MA program I’m living in Toronto with my partner, meaning limited access to foraged goods. Our schedules are also jam-packed right now and the cost of food is rapidly increasing.

Additionally, we’re living in a suite with very limited kitchen appliances. I’m talking a convection hot plate, an electric pan, a microwave, and a finicky toaster oven. Not exactly ideal for gourmet cooking…

So, here are my main reasons for choosing Chefs Plate:

1. Convenience
   • When I can, I prefer cooking and baking from scratch with local ingredients. But, between balancing university and work, time is a luxury I just don’t have right now. There is little time for grocery shopping, meal prep, and cooking.
   • Even though we’re centrally located, the grocery stores within walking distance are pricey and we don’t have a vehicle. Meal prep services offer us cheap meals while taking the shopping burden out for dinners.
   • We move… A lot. We love that we can cancel or pause memberships whenever we’re out of town or in the middle of a move.
   • Like Hello Fresh, you get to choose the day of delivery, can save favourite meals, and get recipe cards to add to your cookbook.
     • It sort of irritates me that there isn’t an option to follow the recipes virtually. We’re not going to keep the large bulky cards, so it just contributes to unnecessary packaging waste.
2. Fresh Ingredients and Variety
   • There’s only two of us in the house and we are only living in this house for three months. We also have a teeny tiny freezer, so it’s tough to freeze extra food. This means that we won’t be buying in bulk (otherwise it will be wasted when we leave) and that it’s tricky to cost effectively buy fresh ingredients. You either buy small portions (which is expensive) or get super creative with meal prep.
   • Since it’s just two of us and we don’t have much freezer space, we’ve noticed more food waste than normal (which I disdain…). We hoped that with a meal delivery service we would get exactly the groceries we need.
   • With no oven and just one hot plate, our options are pretty limited (rice and pasta loose their novelty quick!). Chefs plate lets you choose your meals each week, so you can have as much or little variety as you’d like without having to have a surplus of spices and ingredients on hand.
   • You get to choose the type of menus you enjoy (Meat & Veggies, Family-friendly, Pork free, etc.) and can switch them up any time.
3. Cost
   • Chefs plate often runs generous deals and discounts that make it an affordable option for weeknight dinners. You can also get free boxes gifted from friends and get discounts the longer you use the service.
   • While the regular plan is pretty pricey for what you get, the deals make it affordable (our first box was free!). I break down the prices later in this post, BTW.
   • Groceries are super expensive right now. Even though we shop at markets, discount grocery stores, and look for sales, we were finding our grocery bill to be hefty. This is an easy way to get a healthy meal that fits our dietary restrictions without it costing a ton.

What comes in a meal kit?

Meal kits come with fresh ingredients that are already portioned and a recipe card for each recipe. It is almost everything you need to create a delicious meal, except for basics like salt, pepper, and milk (depending on the meal). They give you the pre-portioned ingredients required for each meal.

When you pick which meal options you want for your food subscription box, it will tell you exactly which preportioned ingredients comes in each HelloFresh box. It will also tell you what is missing, so you can grab anything you don’t already have on hand.

How does the meal kit delivery service work?

Once you sign up, you get to choose your meal options from the Chefs menu. Based on your meal preferences (which you choose when you pick your meal subscription), you will get the amount you chose automatically added to your box. You can switch these out for others if you’d like!

Then, you choose which day your Chefs Plate meal kit should be delivered.

For ours, I wanted a new recipe for every meal.

Here’s some of what we ordered in our first 3 weeks:

Week 1

1. Peanutty pork satay-inspired bowls
2. Tuscan-inspired roasted veggie paninis
3. Chicken souvlaki-inspired bowls

Week 2

1. Thai-inspired beef bowls
2. Banh mi-inspired pork burgers
3. Curried paneer bowls

Week 3

1. Roasted poblano black bean soup
2. Pesto beef burgers
3. Seared pork and mashed potatoes

Cost of Chefs Plate

So, like I mentioned, there are lots of deals and discounts from this company. They usually don’t charge for shipping and offer generous discounts per meal. But let’s break down the regular cost too.

Regular price of Chefs Plate

Number of People	Cost Per Serving for 2 Recipes Per Week	Cost Per Serving for 3 Recipes Per Week	Cost Per Serving for 4 Recipes Per Week	Cost Per Serving for 5 Recipes per Week	Cost of Shipping	Total Cost
2	$9.99 Box price comes to $39.96	$9.99 Box price comes to $59.94	$9.99 Box price comes to $79.92	$9.99 Box price comes to $99.90	$6.00	$39.96-99.90 per week
4	$8.99 Box price comes to $71.92	$8.99 Box price comes to $107.88	$8.99 Box price comes to $143.84	$8.99 Box price comes to $179.80	$6.00	$71.92-179.80

This information was taken directly from their website and reflects prices in February 2023.

You will also need to be aware that some meals cost extra. Be sure to think about this when you’re choosing your meals for the week as it will raise the cost.

Deals and discounts

In an effort to attract new customers and retain regulars, Chefs Plate offers a lot of discounts. It is quite common for them to offer free shipping or an “Get up to $ off” type deal where they offer a large discount on the first box and then a smaller discount each time.

We were given a discount since it was our first time offered – We got a free box! Note: I made this table to match my Hello Fresh review so I could compare the two, but we actually ended up ordering 4 meals a week this time around (it’s a hectic time of year for us…).

Here is what I would have paid for the first three weeks for two people with three meals a week:

	Box Cost (3 meals x 2 people = 6 servings)	Discount applied	Shipping	Total Cost
Week 1	Free	-$59.94	Free	$0.00
Week 2	$59.94	None	Free	$59.94
Week 3	$59.94	None	Free	$59.94

This means that for 3 meals a week for 3 weeks, we would have paid $119.88.

Since our grocery bill has been wildly high due to where we live, our limited time, and our desire for variety, for us it was worth it. But, since the box would costs almost $10 per meal without a discount and we weren’t super impressed with the freshness or flavor, we will be cancelling our subscription.

What if I need extra meals?

If you know that you’ll be cooking for extra people that week, you can also add meals or sides. There is a cost for each extra meal (depending on the coupons you have activated and the type of meal you choose it will change).

You can also add extra proteins or the rotating specials like desserts, fries, or flatbreads, for example.

Types of meals

Here are the kinds of meal preferences you can choose from (though you can switch out any recipes you don’t want anyways):

• Meat & Veggies
• Family Friendly
• Vegetarian
• Pork Free
• Beef Free
• Fish Free
• Shellfish Free
• Poultry and Veggie

You can also order a Holiday box (regular or gourmet) if you need help with Holiday meals! For example, they have a Valentine’s menu right now.

What are the negatives to Chefs Plate?

At the regular cost, the price is quite high for what it is. Especially if you are feeding a family! Considering we were less-than-impressed with the majority of meals, we would rather use other meal services or shop at the store. They were just pretty bland.

There is also a lot of garbage. Everything is pre-packaged. One standout thing I noticed is that Hello Fresh makes an effort to be eco-friendly and even explains how to recycle everything and how they are trying to reduce waste. Chefs Plate doesn’t seem to care as much.

We try to be conscious of our grocery impact when shopping in stores. For example, when I grocery shop I don’t use plastic bags (I use reusable mesh bags for produce or no bag at all since things get washed at home). We also buy bulk when we can and choose recyclable packing where possible. Since even the sauces are individually portioned, there’s multiple small bags to toss every meal.

Something that really frustrated me was the lack of freshness of some items. Like I said in the photo caption, having items go bad within the 1 week you have them is pretty silly. The greens on the right were pretty gross, which was irritating because they were for a side salad.

Finally, if you are on a strict diet (keto, paleo, etc.), then you won’t be able to get the meals you need.

What if I need to cancel or pause my membership?

You can pause or cancel at any time. The flexibility of this is pretty great, because if you need to pause or cancel it’s super easy. After three weeks they will give you a discount for friends, though, and this gets discontinued if you cancel your membership. So keep this in mind!

Use my code for a discount on your order!

Want to try Chefs Plate for yourself? Leave a comment below and I’ll send you one of my free boxes. I only have a few left, though!

Conclusion: Is Chefs Plate worth it?

For two people with busy schedules and limited income, yes, Chefs Plate has been worth it as long as we have a discount code. That being said, we don’t intend to rely on this service every week (especially when we can’t take advantage of discount codes). Plus, since we were less satisfied with flavors and freshness than competitors, we’d rather pay a few bucks more for other meal services.

And, because of the amount of plastic waste that comes from this box, we will only be using it when we don’t have access to more environmentally-conscious food options.

I found it tricky to find Chefs Plate reviews that aren’t sponsored posts. So, I hope this information is helpful!

If you have also tried this service, I would love to hear your thoughts too! Chat with me on IG or comment below.

Thank you for reading. ♡

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