The Ultimate Showdown Between Goodfood vs HelloFresh vs Chefs Plate
With the abundance of meal kits across Canada, it can be very hard to choose which one best fits your needs. Each meal delivery kit offers different advantages and disadvantages, but it all boils down to which meal box best suits your lifestyle. In this article, I’ll evaluate Canada’s biggest meal delivery kits based on the plan, quality, and my experience with each of them.
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| Company | Plan Options | Ideal For | Cost Per Plate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HelloFresh | -Meat & Veggies -Veggie -Family -Quick & Easy -Pescatarian -Flexatarian -High Protein -Calorie Smart Meals | Complete kitchen noobies | $10.33 | Visit Site |
| Chefs Plate | -Meat & Vegetables -Vegetarian -Family | Beginner cooks on a budget | $8.99 | Visit Site |
| Good Food | -Easy Prep -Classic -Family | Adventurous cooks | $11.38 | Visit Site |
Contents
What Is A Meal Kit?
A meal kit is a box that’s delivered to your door with pre-portioned ingredients and a recipe card, designed for you to cook a restaurant quality meal in your home kitchen. A meal kit subscription service allows you to create a plan and select recipes based on lifestyle, diet, and preferences each week. Some meal delivery services also offer fully prepared meals. Meal kits are convenient because they produce less food waste and reduce time spent grocery shopping.
There are a plethora of meal kit options to choose from across Canada but the top 3 meal kit delivery services are HelloFresh, Chefs Plate, and GoodFood.
Let’s look at these in more detail:
HelloFresh
HelloFresh was founded in Germany, and is known for its fresh, high-quality ingredients. HelloFresh offers a wide variety of chef-curated meal options per week.
Meal Plan Options
This meal kit delivery service offers 8 meal plan options:
- Meat & Veggies
- Veggie
- Family
- Quick & Easy
- Pescatarian
- Flexatarian
- High Protein
- Calorie Smart Meals
Customers also have the option to eliminate beef, pork, fish, shellfish, and seafood from their meal plan.
Regardless of the plan you choose, you can still select any meals from any plans.
Pricing Plans
With HelloFresh, you select the default number of recipes you’d like per week and the serving size of each recipe. You can choose 2 – 4 servings and 3 – 5 recipes per week. Your plan can be changed week-over-week as desired. The cheapest pricing plan is 5 recipes with 4 servings, which costs $9.75 per serving. The most expensive plan is 3 recipes with 2 servings, which costs $13.83 per serving. This means the more servings you order, the cheaper they become.
Delivery Areas
HelloFresh delivers to 95% of the Canadian population, anywhere in the United States except Alaska and Hawaii as well as in Europe, Australia, and Oceania.
Packaging
HelloFresh meals come in an insulated cardboard box with ice packs. The ingredient packaging is said to be recyclable; however, in my experience the plastic isn’t high-quality enough to be recycled. The ice packs have come to me in two ways: gel-based and water-based. The water-based ice packs are much easier to discard in the sink, whereas the gel-based pack needs to be emptied in the trash and rinsed before being recycled.
Recipe Quality
In my opinion, HelloFresh has the highest recipe quality of the 3 options. The recipes are easy to follow, and many offer the option to swap proteins or add extras. Each week, there are between 40 different recipes to choose from.
Ingredient Quality
Some ingredients from HelloFresh are sourced within Canada. For example, herbs are from Evergreen Herbs, a family run business in Surrey B.C. and Cambridge, ON, bread is from Quebec’s BOULART bakery, and honey is from Canada’s own Bee Maid.
Ease Of Use
Ordering is easy with HelloFresh. They have a website and an app, where you can select meals, skip meals, change delivery details, and edit your account. Changes need to be made on the Wednesday before the following week of meals, but you can select meals/skip weeks up to 6 weeks in advance.
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Chefs Plate
Chefs Plate is a Canadian meal kit company that was founded in 2014. Chefs Plate meals are budget friendly and easy to cook, with a similar experience to HelloFresh.
Meal Plan Options
Chefs Plate offers 3 plan options:
- Meat & Vegetables
- Vegetarian
- Family friendly
There is also the option to eliminate pork, beef, fish, and shellfish from your plan; or selecting a poultry-and-veggies-only plan.
Regardless of the plan you choose, you can still select any meals from any plan.
Pricing Plans
With Chefs Plate, you can select the number of servings you want per recipe, and how many recipes you want to receive per week. You can choose between 2 and 4 servings per recipe and 2 – 5 recipes per week. Any plan of 4 servings costs $8.99 per serving and any plan of 2 servings is $9.99 per serving. The pricing plans are only defaults, so you have the option to change your selection as often as desired.
Delivery Areas
Chefs Plate is Canadian-only, and delivers to Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba.
Packaging
Chefs Plate and HelloFresh come in the same packaging. Both have recyclable insulated cardboard boxes and non-recyclable ingredient packaging. Ice packs also come in gel-based and water-based packs, which changes week-by-week.
Recipe Quality
Recipe quality is high with Chefs Plate but not as high-quality as HelloFresh. Chefs Plate is focused on simplicity and as a result, flavours are not as complex as HelloFresh. Adding extras and swapping proteins are made easy, but there’s an extra charge to do so. Each week, there are between 20 and 24 different meals to choose from. The recipe card with Chefs Plate is simple and the easiest to follow out of the 3 meal kit delivery services and meals take the least time to prepare (as little as 15 minutes).
Ingredient Quality
Chefs Plate ingredients are fresh, but slightly less high quality than HelloFresh. Pricier proteins like shrimp, salmon, and steak are available at an increased fee. Meat and poultry is sourced from national and local businesses to ensure fresh, good quality ingredients.
Ease Of Use
Chefs Plate is very easy to use. You can use the website or their app to make meal selections, change delivery details, and skip weeks. Like HelloFresh, changes to meals need to be made by the Wednesday before each delivery week, but you can select meals and skip weeks up to 6 weeks in advance.
Is Chefs Plate Owned by HelloFresh?
Yes, Chefs Plate is owned by HelloFresh. HelloFresh acquired Chefs Plate in October 2018.
What is the Difference Between Chefs Plate and HelloFresh?
HelloFresh is the premium, international version of Chefs Plate. For a higher price, HelloFresh offers a wider selection of meals, and higher-quality ingredients; however, Chefs Plate is more budget-friendly and has simpler recipes that take less time to prepare. With Chefs Plate, premium ingredients, like with HelloFresh, come at an additional cost.
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Goodfood
Goodfood is a meal delivery service founded in 2014 in Montreal, Canada. GoodFood has the option for you to select cook-at-home meals as well as ready-made meals for your weekly box. Ingredients are mainly sourced from local farmers.
Meal Plan Options
Goodfood has 3 basket options:
- Easy Prep (time-saver)
- Clean15 (low carb time-saver)
- Classic
- Vegetarian (only available with the Classic basket)
- Family
With each plan, you can choose your serving size and number of recipes. You can select 2 or 4 servings per recipe, and between 2 – 4 recipes per week. If you select 2 recipes per week, you only have the option of choosing 4 servings per recipe.
Pricing Plans
The pricing plans with Goodfood are more complicated than Chefs Plate and Hellofresh.
- Easy Prep: $11.49 – $14.44
- Clean15 basket: $13.49 – $16.49
- Classic basket: $10.49 – $13.74
- Vegetarian basket: $10.74 – $12.74
- Family basket: $9.99 – $12.24
The Clean15 basket is the most expensive, while the family basket is the most affordable.
Despite these complicated pricing plans, you still have the option to select meals across all categories. Each meal is priced individually, so don’t worry too much about your meal plan selection.
Delivery Areas
GoodFood is Canadian, so they deliver to Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Maritimes.
Packaging
Like HelloFresh and Chefs Plate, Goodfood has the same recyclable cardboard box and insulation. Goodfood has gel-based ice packs that go in the garbage. Their ingredient packages are recyclable!
Recipe Quality
Recipes from Goodfood are unique and flavourful. They offer between 20 and 25 different recipes per week. The recipes take between 10 and 30 minutes to cook but aren’t the simplest of recipes to follow. Unlike other meal kits, there are no add-on or protein swap options.
Ingredient Quality
Goodfood has a freshness guarantee program where ingredients are designed to stay fresh up to a week after delivery. Fish and seafood is frozen prior to delivery to maintain freshness upon arrival.
Ease Of Use
Goodfood is fairly easy to use. They have a website and an app for you to select meals and skip weeks. You can skip/schedule deliveries up to 3 months in advance, but can select meals up to 4 weeks in advance. Changes to deliveries can be made up to 1 week in advance.
The pricing plans are confusing and it’s hard to tell which meals are part of your plan and which are an additional fee.
Goodfood
$9.46Per Serving
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The Best Meal Kit Delivery Service: Chefs Plate
You heard it here, folks. Chefs Plate wins the battle against HelloFresh and Goodfood meal kits. In my humble opinion, this Canadian meal kit offers the best price and has the easiest recipes to follow, without compromising on good quality recipes and ingredients.
