8 Best Gourmet Meal Delivery in 2024: Get Inspired!

4. Home Chef – Best Meal Customization

Home Chef is your go-to if you're aiming to whip up gourmet meals in the comfort of your home. This service brings an array of meal kits and oven-ready dishes that are simple and swift to prepare. Dive deeper into the Home Chef experience in our taste-tested Home Chef review.

What’s on the Menu?

Home Chef's interface presents a user-friendly <30-minute menu filter. Use this tool, and you'll see the quickest meal options at your disposal. It offers dishes that can be prepared in as few as 15 minutes, like the Diced Chicken Gyro, or the Oven-Ready Dilly Alfredo Salmon, which needs just 20 to 30 minutes in the oven.

If you don’t mind longer cooking times, look for the Culinary Collection label. These are the best dishes on the site. They feature the most expensive ingredients, like sirloin steak, mahi mahi, shawarma, gnocchi, and delicious homemade burgers. Also look for the “Plus” label on Express dishes.

You can explore dishes from Japanese, Italian, French, Asian, traditional American, Latin American, and Greek culinary traditions. The meals generally strike a balance, appearing about as refined as Blue Apron's dishes yet not as adventurous as Green Chef's recipes, making them appealing for children too.

What Makes It Special?

The Customize It feature gives you the flexibility to swap proteins in select dishes. Take the Fig Jam and Blue Cheese Burger for instance. It can be based on regular ground beef, impossible burger, ground turkey, or ground pork instead.

Scan through the weekly menu, and you'll notice a number of additional options. These range from salad and bread bundles to desserts, protein packs, and more. It's safe to say that Home Chef showcases possibly the most impressive selection of add-ons on the market.

Is It Good Value?

Premium dishes and upgrades come with a cost. Our reviewer tried Home Chef’s Crispy Chicken and Black Garlic Crema, which is a premium Express Plus dish. This cost them an extra $2 per serving than standard dishes. They further upgraded it from regular chicken to antibiotic-free for an extra $0.99/serving.

As for order size, the smallest you can place with Home Chef is for 2 meals for 2 people per week. This can be scaled up to 6 meals for 6 people. The cost per meal starts at $9.99 per serving. Note that each dish is priced individually, and it remains unchanged regardless of your order’s size.

5. Marley Spoon – Best Selection of Gourmet Meals

If you’re looking for gourmet meals, Marley Spoon is a good choice. Most of its meals can be made in less than half an hour, and it offers an absolutely massive menu.

What’s on the Menu?

Marley Spoon lets you take your home-cooking to the next level. Options here include Italian, French, Asian, Greek, Mediterranean, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Indian, and classic American. I’d say that Marley Spoon’s meals are more kid-friendly than Green Chef’s, for example.

The Fast! Shredded Beef Quesadillas (pictured) is from the Premium offerings. Every week, you’ll get the choice of around a dozen of these. This is the fastest way to find Marley Spoon's gourmet meals. But even then, its meals are gourmet and delicious, yet not “over the top," so to speak.

It also offers a few prepared meals each week, like the Ready Made! Chicken Rigatoni Alfredo. But if you're looking for just prepared meals, you might want to consider Factor.

What Makes It Special?

Marley Spoon offers a wide variety of dishes, from meat and seafood to vegetarian, vegan, and low-carb options. You can read more about all the options in our tested Marley Spoon review.

Each time I check, the service boasts more than 50 customizable dishes, significantly broadening its menu variety. To find these options, simply search for the Customizable label on the recipes.

Marley Spoon is eco-friendly. It's a carbon-neutral company that uses sustainable practices and works on green projects around the world. It also focuses on using seasonal, sustainable ingredients.

Is It Good Value? 

You’ll also get lots of extra items you can add to your order. For instance, there are muffins, cookies, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, roasted veggie pinwheels, pasta salads, cupcakes, smoothies, brownies, and more.

You need to order at least 2 meals for 2 people per week from Marley Spoon, up to 6 meals for 4 people. If you choose the largest order, you'll save money and only pay $4.99 per serving.

6. HelloFresh – Best Family-Friendly Meals

HelloFresh emerges as a more budget-friendly, family-oriented alternative to Green Chef, albeit still gourmet. It caters to a wide range of dietary needs, delivering a variety of recipes that can be whipped up within a mere 20 minutes.

What’s on the Menu?

You'll encounter easy-to-navigate recipes, fresh, top-grade ingredients, and a diverse array of cuisines. Don’t be surprised to find recipes inspired by Asian, Mexican, and Italian cuisines mixed in with traditional American dishes.

The plethora of meal and add-on options HelloFresh provides is quite impressive. Extra offerings extend from breakfast items such as granola, to lunches, salads, desserts, sides, and even some prepared meals.

You can narrow down your options by referring to informative labels and tags accompanying dishes. Keep an eye out for Premium Picks for gourmet meals, but Best Recipe 2024 and Hall of Fame are also worth noting. If you’re after quick meals, choose the 10-Min Lunch or 20-Min Dinner options. Tags like Veggie, Protein Smart, and Calorie Smart highlight the meal’s main features.

What Makes It Special?

The company offers 6 plans. These include Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Family Friendly, Fit & Wholesome, Under 20 Minutes, and Pescatarian. For an in-depth understanding of each plan, check out our tried-and-tested HelloFresh review.

You can preview the upcoming 6 weeks of menus with HelloFresh. And, unlike many of its competitors, it typically switches up the meals each week instead of reusing meals from previous weeks.

Is It Good Value?

If you follow a specific diet, like low-carb, low-calorie, or pescatarian, HelloFresh has your back. However, if food allergies or intolerances are a concern, it’s recommended that you check the ingredient list of each meal before you place an order. 

HelloFresh lets you order meals with 2, 4, or 6 servings, so even if you live alone, you can enjoy a 2-serving meal with leftovers for the next day. Order between 2 and 6 meals per week, and if you choose a larger order, you’ll pay the lowest per-serving price. For instance, if you order 6 meals for 4 people, your first box costs $107.75 with our link.

7. Purple Carrot – Best Gourmet Vegan Meals

Purple Carrot offers gourmet meal kits and prepared meals that are all 100% plant-based. There are several meal kits are offered each week that take much less time than traditional meal kits. The dishes it provides are gourmet-inspired and draw from culinary traditions worldwide, as explored in our tested review.

What’s on the Menu?

Every week, Purple Carrot presents a selection of 24 meal kits and 16 prepared meals. Each dish is vibrant and filled with “veggie first” ingredients. Unlike some other providers, it doesn't use mock meat products – instead, vegetables take the starring role. Take the New England Lobster Rolls (pictured). The primary ingredient is palm hearts, which is a celebration of this vegetable.

The meal options from Purple Carrot are globally diverse. For instance, you can experience the Middle Eastern favorite Chickpea Massaman Curry, which you can prepare in just 30 minutes. It also offers familiar American comfort foods, such as Creamy Mac and Cheese, some of which are suitable for younger diners as well.

In addition to dinner options, Purple Carrot extends its offerings to include lots of add-ons. Examples include breakfast, lunch, and snacks. It also provides a variety of extra items that you can add to your order, including salad dressings, vegan cheeses, oatmeal, cookies, and more.

What Makes It Special?

Purple Carrot is an eco-conscious company. It uses recyclable and biodegradable packaging while offering clear disposal instructions. It also minimizes food waste by supplying precisely portioned ingredients. Moreover, it advocates for the environmental and health advantages of consuming more plant-based foods and fewer animal products through its website.

Purple Carrot actively contributes to The Farmlink Project. It's a program that connects farms with excess produce to communities facing food shortages. 

Is It Good Value?

You can get both gourmet meals and more basic options from Purple Carrot, which is what I love most. There are plenty of options to suit the taste preferences of your entire family, including your kids.

Purple Carrot has 2 separate minimum orders for prepared meals and meal kits. The minimum order is 3 meals for 2 people each week for its meal kits, or at least 6 single-serving prepared meals (up to a maximum of 10) per week. To get the most value for your money, it’s more cost-effective to choose the larger meal kit order size. This will lower the price to $11.00 per serving.

8. Dinnerly – Best Affordable Gourmet Meals

Finally, we have Dinnerly, which offers the most affordable meal kits on the market, many of which have gourmet elements. You should know, though, that you won’t find the absolute “best” meals here, which is why it ranks lower on my list. 

What’s on the Menu?

Dinnerly boasts a diverse array of simple meal kits, ideal for families and kids, with no extra frills. You can anticipate a variety of globally-inspired dishes, including Italian, French, Japanese, Middle Eastern, and others, albeit Americanized to satisfy a wider taste range.

One of my favorite gourmet meals for this week is the Tortelloni Pesto Primavera (pictured). It’s from the “PremiYUM” selection, which promises a more unique and gourmet dining experience.

Bear in mind that Dinnerly is light on add-ons and extras, aligning with its budget-friendly approach. If you fancy a variety of add-ons, consider exploring Home Chef.

What Makes It Special?

Each dish has a difficulty level clearly stated on the official website. You don’t need to be an expert chef to whip up these premium meals. The meals mentioned above fall under the Easy category, as do most Dinnerly meals. However, the difficulty levels span from Easy to Hard.

Dinnerly, a subsidiary of Marley Spoon, offers a similar range of customizable meals as its parent brand. To explore meal personalization options, select the meals marked with the eponymous label.

Is It Good Value?

What you do get is a highly affordable service great for the whole family. But despite its cost-effectiveness, Dinnerly does not compromise on quality. It even occasionally uses organic ingredients. To find out more menu details, check out our full tested Dinnerly review.

Keep in mind, though, that the choices of prepared meals are limited, usually around 3 to 4 per week. If you're seeking a broader array of pre-cooked meals, Factor is a worthy alternative.

The smallest order you can place with Dinnerly is 2 meals for 2 people per week, up to 6 meals for 4 people. Dinnerly's unbeatable pricing can be further reduced by opting for the largest order size, costing you only $2.12 per serving.

Quick Comparison Table