With so many restaurants closed due to coronavirus precautions, this might be the ideal time to try a meal-kit delivery service. Need another reason? There are some big Black Friday deals to be had on some of the most popular meal kit outfits. Companies such as Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, Home Chef and Gobble will put perfectly portioned, ready-to-cook dinners on your doorstep, at per-serving prices that often beat what you’d pay dining out. To get your attention during Black Friday and the 2020 holiday season, many are offering as much as $90 off your first few boxes.
Six meal kit companies, in particular, are offering great Black Friday deals right now with another that kicks in tomorrow (Daily Harvest). I’ll update this list as more pop up on my radar or the deals change. Which one is best? I’ve tried most and they’re all pretty darn good, with slight differences to consider depending on your budget, diet, taste and kitchen skill level. You can check out CNET’s roundup of the best meal-kit delivery services and best healthy food delivery services for more a detailed, er, taste.
In the meantime, if you’ve already tried one or more of these, tell me which ones and what you liked or didn’t like.
Read more: Black Friday 2020 sitewide kitchen sales: Vitamix, Always Pan, Staub, Zwilling and more
HelloFresh
HelloFresh has more total meal kit selections than any other service and most of them are pretty easy to prepare. Want to learn more? Check out our recent deep-dive review of HelloFresh.
The popular meal kit company is swinging in with a big Black Friday deal that amounts to $90 off your first four boxes, including $42 off your first box plus free shipping. That means you’ll be cooking up a storm for a teensy $4.71 per serving. (HelloFresh meals are about $7.50-$9 per serving without the deal.)
Shelby Brown/CNET
Blue Apron offers two- and four-serving boxes with two to three or two to four recipes per week, respectively. Prices range from $7.49 to $10 a serving, depending on how much you order, with shipping included free with all orders except the two-person, two-recipe option.
There’s no promo code for this offer; just click the orange Redeem Offer button at the top and you’ll save $80 over the course of your first four boxes.
Brandy Yowell
As fate would have it, I just tried Gobble for the first time. It’s quite similar to the other services, except that many items come already chopped, peeled, marinated and so on — which can definitely save you some prep time. The two meals I received, Yankee pot roast and cacio e pepe, were terrific. Dinner prices are normally a flat $12 per serving, however, so you do pay a bit extra for that convenience.
Right now, using Black Friday promo code BFA100 you can take $25 off each of your first four deliveries for a grand total saving of $100.
Home Chef
I love Home Chef for its highly customizable meal kits and comfort food recipes with a healthy bent that are easy to prepare. Home Chef is also one of the more affordable meal kit companies — starting at $7 per serving — and even more so if you sign up this week.
Now through Dec. 4, Home Chef is offering $90 off when you sign up for four weeks of meals. That’s $30 off the first two boxes (!) and $15 off both the third and fourth. If you’ve been wanting to try a meal kit subscription, this is a fantastic time to give Home Chef a go. You can pause or cancel at any time, so the risk is low.
Purple Carrot
Good news, vegans: Purple Carrot offers only plant-based meals, and code PURPLE20 not only saves you $20 on your first box, but also provides a donation to Feeding America. Plans start at $10 a serving; shipping is included free even with the lower-frequency plans.
Sun Basket
Sun Basket is a little pricier than some of the other services, with meals ranging from $11-$13 per serving — but in return you’re getting strictly organic, non-GMO fare. And the $35 discount definitely makes your first box more affordable, and it nets you your choice of four items from its extensive snack menu: chips, veggies, chocolate bars and so on.
Use the link below, then click Activate Offer to get the discount and freebies.
Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest is quite possibly the easiest way to eat healthily without ever having to learn to cook. Sign up and you’ll get steady (or one-time) shipments of vegan soups, smoothies, bowls, flatbreads and snacks. Daily Harvest meals are chock-full of healthy, organic ingredients and loads of trendy superfoods like kabocha squash, kale, berries and avocado. All you have to do is blend or heat and eat.
Right now, when you buy one Daily Harvest box and use promo code CYBERWEEK2020 you’ll get a box of equal value for free. That’s a darn good deal, I must say. One for you and one for someone on your shopping list, perhaps?
Freshly
Freshly is not a meal kit, but rather it offers prepared meals like meatloaf and mashed potatoes or buffalo chicken with rice that come already prepared and ready to heat and eat. I can say from personal experience that Freshly meals are filling and fresh-tasting and I’ve grown to love having a few on hand for when I simply cannot.
For Black Friday you can save $15 off per box on your first five boxes of Freshly orders ($75 total) with promo code BF75AF from Nov. 27 – Nov. 29. If you want to give this popular prepared meal service a try for yourself, now might be a good time to do it.
My advice: Take advantage of each and every one of these offers (making sure to pause or cancel after, unless you want to continue). You can see which service you like best and get super-cheap takeout-style meals for weeks at a time.
Your thoughts?
More food service recommendations
Watch this:
This smart oven makes meal-kit cooking easier than ever
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