Best Meal Delivery Services in San Francisco 2023: Updated

Choosing one of the best meal delivery services in San Francisco can seem daunting. But it really doesn't have to be like that. Whether you like meal kits, or prepared meals, or you want to find a service that fits your specific budget, there are options for everyone. 

My team and I have researched and validated the 10 best options for this year and have rounded up the results. No matter what dietary requirements you have, I’ve come up with some options that will suit you or your family’s needs. Whether you like meat, veggie, vegan, pescatarian, keto, paleo, or even weight loss meals, you’ll find it all here.

Blue Apron is my overall top pick for this year. If you like cooking, it offers meal kits, and there are prepared meals if you prefer convenience. On top of that, you’ll get access to Blue Apron’s Market items, which include spices, wines, kitchen utensils, appliances, and even seasonal holiday boxes.

The Best Meal Delivery Services in San Francisco Reviewed

1. Blue Apron – Best Overall Meal Delivery Service

Blue Apron is the highest-quality meal delivery service available in San Francisco for several reasons. It offers meal kits along with prepared meals across various cuisines and plan options. About half the options are meal kits, and the other half are prepared meals you can heat in the oven or microwave.

Plan options include Signature, Wellness, and Vegetarian, and some of the diets on offer include meat, fish, Beyond Meat, WW-recommended, Diabetes-Friendly, and health-conscious.

If you have a severe allergy, Blue Apron may not be a good fit, though. That’s because all ingredients are processed in the same facility. However, it provides allergen information on each recipe's nutrition labels, which you can see before ordering.

Our reviewer found that there’s a good selection of international recipes, along with classic American-style dishes. You’ll find cuisines like Italian, Latin American-influenced, Korean, Japanese, French-style, North African/Middle Eastern, Chinese, and more. This will help you stay excited to receive your meals each week. There’s a good mix of kid-friendly meals and ones that are aimed at more sophisticated palates.

The Blue Apron Market offers up tons of extras. Here, you’ll get wine boxes, seasonal holiday meal boxes, pantry items like spices, kitchen tools, utensils, and even small appliances. I’ve never seen any other competitor offer this many add-ons. If you’re looking for pots, pans, and even aprons, you can get those here too.

Finally, the minimum order is 2 meals of 2 servings each – but you can order as many as 4 meals of 4 servings weekly. If you opt for the maximum order, you’ll save more money at around $5.74 per serving. Note that shipping isn’t included in the price.

2. Factor – Best Prepared Meal Delivery Service

Factor could be the perfect fit for you if you’re into health and fitness. It offers several health-specific diet plans like Keto, Calorie-Smart, Protein Plus, Vegetarian, and even Vegan. Its meals are also prepared, so you won’t have to spend any time cooking or cleaning.

Each meal contains around 350 to 900 calories, though most fall somewhere in the middle of that range. As someone who’s lost 35+ lbs myself, I appreciate not having to weigh your food and track your calories. I’ve definitely never liked doing so myself.

The meals are also all gluten-, antibiotic-, and hormone-free, and they’re of higher quality than most other heat-and-eat meals according to our reviewer’s observations. Though the pricing can be a little bit higher than some other prepared meal services, I think the quality of the ingredients makes up for it.

If you’re looking for any specific cuisines, there are a bunch to choose from. Options here include Italian, lots of classic American dishes, Latin American-inspired, Cajun/Creole, Jamaican/Caribbean, and Indian.

I’d say around three-quarters of the meals could still be considered kid-friendly. Although they’re not specifically geared toward children, none of the prepared meals are too “over-the-top”, fancy, or spicy.

Factor offers several extras and add-ons as well. These include pancakes, keto sausage and egg skillet, chorizo verde breakfast bake, egg bites, smoothies, keto cheesecakes, keto truffles, macaroons, and cookies, as well as meats like chicken wings, smoky pork and bison jalapeno bratwurst sausages, and roasted herb chicken.

Finally, the minimum Factor order is 6 single-serving meals per week, but you can get up to 18 every week. The more you order, the more you’ll save per serving. For example, if you go with the largest order of 18 meals, you’ll only pay around $6.19 per serving.

3. HelloFresh – Best Family-Friendly Meal Kits

HelloFresh takes standard meal kits and gives them a unique spin. It offers a huge selection of 50+ <30-minute recipes per week, most of which are family-friendly. It even has a specific Family-Friendly meal category.

Aside from that, you can also choose from several other plans, depending on your needs. For example, there are Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Fit & Wholesome, Quick & Easy, and Pescatarian, all of which can be mixed and matched to your heart’s content.

Each meal has been carefully designed by professional chefs. The chefs have created meals that fit vegetarian, low-calorie, and family-friendly preferences. You’ll be able to see what category each meal falls under on the main menu as everything is labeled.

The meal kits are ideal for beginners and they’re easy to follow, even if you don’t have a lot of experience in the kitchen. Despite lacking some skill, our reviewer found HelloFresh’s recipes foolproof and said that all of the meals turned out looking and tasting great.

HelloFresh offers a range of meal kit types, like Fast & Fresh, 10-Min Lunch, Premium Picks, and Brunch. I like that you don’t just have to choose items for dinner and that you can pretty much take care of any meal time.

If you want to add something extra to your order, you’ll have plenty of choices. You can add things like breakfast, desserts, treats, sides, meal complements, extra proteins, produce, and even spices and seasonings. As far as I’ve seen, HelloFresh has one of the largest selections of add-ons out there.

Lastly, the minimum order is 2 recipes for 2 people per week. You can order as many as 6 recipes for 4 people, though – and if you go for the maximum order, you’ll only pay around $3.32 per serving. Shipping isn’t included in the price per meal.

4. Green Chef – Best for Organic Ingredients

Green Chef separates itself from the competition thanks to its organic ingredients. Not everything is organic, but it promises that its produce and eggs are. It also guarantees that its animals are raised with high welfare standards.

You can choose from several plans including Keto, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, Fast & Fit, Vegan, Gluten Free, and Protein Packed. Green Chef offers one of the most varied menus I’ve seen – and the high-quality ingredients certainly help things along as well. Meals can be mixed and matched across any of the plans, which is ideal if you don’t follow a set diet.

Meals include proteins such as pork, beef, chicken, salmon, seafood, and lots more (including plant-based options). Specific cuisines and meals include Mediterranean such as Mediterranean Chicken, Italian like Shrimp Scampi, Greek like Pork Chops with Tzatziki, and even Japanese like Tropical Teriyaki Sockeye Salmon Bowls.

These dishes might sound complex, but many of the ingredients come pre-prepped for you. If you’re wanting high-quality meal kits over prepared meals (yet still don’t want to spend tons of time cooking), Green Chef could be a great option for you.

You can also get tons of extras like breakfast items and protein packs. Example are Brioche French Toast, Red Pepper and Swiss Egg Bites, Breakfast Tacos, muffins, oatmeal, and extra proteins like salmon, shrimp, Barramundi filets, Bavette steaks, and a variety of chicken and ground meat products. There are a few salads, too – however, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of desserts (other than the muffins).

Your minimum order will have to be 3 meals for 2 people per week, but you can get as many as 4 meals for 6 people. I also like that you get a pretty significant discount of nearly $2 per serving if you go for the max order. For instance, in that case, your price per serving will only be around $5.99.

5. Home Chef – Best Customization Options

Home Chef has meals that fit everyone’s taste buds and flavor preferences. There are lots of cuisines on offer like Italian, classic American, Indian, Asian, and Middle Eastern, and the meals come in the form of easy kits or prepared meals, depending on your desire to cook (or not!).

The foolproof recipes will bring you out of your comfort zone in the kitchen, and our reviewer found the whole sign-up and delivery process to be quick and easy.

There are several types of meals to choose from. You can get Express, Express Plus, and Fast & Fresh meal kits, or oven- and grill-ready prepared meals or entreé salads. The meal kits range in prep time from around 10-60 minutes – however, most fall somewhere in the middle.

If you don’t like the protein in the meals, you can replace it using the Customize It feature. For example, take the Salmon and Wine Butter Sauce dish. You could get that with chicken breast, sirloin steak, or even ribeye instead.

What really jumped out at me, though, is the crazy number of add-ons and extras to order. These include the Cinnamon Coffee Cake Slices and Mocha Latte bundle, spreads, salads, desserts like lava cake, bisque and garlic bread, coffee cake, egg bites, and meat and seafood add-ons.

It’s easy to avoid certain ingredients during the signup process. You can choose to avoid pork, beef, poultry, fish, tree nuts, and more. This doesn’t remove the ingredient from dishes, but it filters the menu so you can see appropriate recipes for your tastes and requirements. You can also choose whether you prefer calorie and/or carb-conscious meals.

Vegetarians and those with allergies will probably find Home Chef’s menu restrictive. A service like Green Chef is a better choice for niche diets as it offers meal kits with several plant-based, gluten-free, and dairy-free options. 

Finally, you can order a minimum of 2 recipes for 2 people per week up to a maximum of 6 recipes for 6 people (that’s a huge 36 servings per week). Pricing starts at around $7.99 per serving if you go with the maximum order.

6. Fresh and Easy – Best Quick Meals

Fresh and Easy is a special collection of low-prep meals designed for busy nights. These include several options like Fast & Fresh, prepared meals like oven- and grill-ready options, 15-minute meal kits, and super simple entreé salads.

Since Fresh and Easy is part of Home Chef, you get access to the entire Home Chef menu. Our in-depth review explains how you can mix and match the meals across any of Home Chef’s plans.

In fact, you can order anything you like from Home Chef’s menu, including its sides, add-ons, snacks, desserts, protein add-ons, and anything else. If you’d specifically like to order Fresh and Easy meals, just look out for the Express, Express Plus, Oven-Ready, and Fast & Fresh labels on the menu.

The fastest meal kits will be the Express and Express Plus, and the Oven-Ready and Fast & Fresh meals take slightly longer. Overall, you can expect Fresh and Easy meals to take anywhere from 10-30+ minutes (but no more than around 35).

Fresh and Easy doesn’t have quite as many options for cuisines as other services, but you do still get a respectable number. For instance, if you stick to just the Fresh and Easy meals, you can still get Latin American-style, Greek, southern American, Italian, classic American, and French-style dishes.

Lastly, you can expect the same minimum order as Home Chef at 2 recipes for 2 people per week up to a maximum of 6 recipes for 6 people. Pricing starts at around $7.99 per serving if you opt for the maximum order.

7. BistroMD – Best Meals for Weight Loss

BistroMD is a service that’s targeted toward weight loss. Dietitians have carefully created meal plans, which are focused on helping you reach various health-related goals using prepared meals. There are several plans to choose from. These include a plan for Men and Women, Heart Healthy, Gluten Free, Keto Flex, Diabetic Friendly, and Menopause. 

You can order meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner – either 5 days or 7 days per week. Examples include Meatloaf with Honey Bourbon Glaze and Turkey Breast with Herbed Brown Gravy. Desserts and snacks are available too, like Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake, special Protein Punches, nut bars, cookies, nuts and seeds, and tons more.

If you’re looking to lose weight, each program includes support from a dietitian. You’ll be able to discuss any specific issues you’re facing with them.

While I like the program, I wasn’t a fan of the confusing signup process. You’ll be bombarded with offers to upgrade your plan with a bunch of items that you may not necessarily want or even need. Our in-depth review helps walk you through the process, so you can avoid signing up for something you don’t want. 

The minimum BistroMD order is lunches and dinners for 5 days, but you can order those for 7 days as well. Alternatively, you can get the Full Program for 5 or 7 days as well, which includes breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. If you choose the maximum order, expect prices of around $8.24 per serving.

8. Marley Spoon – Best Martha Stewart-Approved Meals

Martha Stewart has partnered with Marley Spoon in an effort to deliver some of the highest-quality meal kits available. In my opinion, the company has succeeded in doing so with over 45 recipes to choose from every week.

Each meal kit has been carefully designed with Martha Stewart’s input and uses her sauces and spice mixes. There are a couple of “Ready Made!” prepared meals on the menu, but most are standard meal kits that take around 30 mins. If you’re interested in speedier options, you’ll be better off with a service like Fresh and Easy.

There are plenty of cuisines you can choose from since the menu is so large and diverse. For instance, there’s Lebanese Hashweh (a one-pot rice dish), Mexican tortas, and Korean-inspired stir-fries. Our reviewer goes into more detail about the menu and the information you’ll find on each recipe. 

The menu has options for larger families, vegans, vegetarians, dieters, and more, so you’ll probably find something that works for you. If you’re brand-new in the kitchen, look out for <30-minute recipes. These are usually simpler to prepare and don’t require tons of equipment or experience.

It’s also nice to see that there are also several add-ons, which is quite a new addition to the menu. Though not the largest selection, you can still get items like rice pudding, Popcorn Chicken, cupcakes, appetizer boards, and pork buns.

While it’s not easy to filter the menu by diet, every recipe is labeled with multiple tags. These include Low-Carb and Calorie, No Gluten Added, Kid Friendly, Healthy, Nutritious, Dairy Free, Optional Spice, Veggie, Vegan, and several more. This is more variety than I’ve seen from some other competitors, so kudos to Marley Spoon.

Finally, the minimum order is 2 meals for 2 people up to a maximum of 6 meals for 4 people per week. Prices start at around $2.99 per serving if you go with the maximum weekly order, though.

9. Purple Carrot – Best Plant-Based, Vegan Meals

Purple Carrot’s entire mission is to deliver high-quality plant-based, vegan meals that don’t rely on “fake” meat products. Each meal makes the veggies the star of the show, and you can really tell just by looking at the menu.

The meals come in the form of either meal kits or prepared meals. You can expect the kits to take around 20-40 minutes at most. Prepared meals can be heated in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Despite being microwave-ready, I found the prepared meals, like the Cuban Style Black Beans with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Mojo Rojo, to be high-quality. 

Purple Carrot has also recently introduced a Less Prep category that doesn’t require as much of your time as standard meal kits. These meals come with pre-made sauces and pre-chopped veg and ingredients that just need to be cooked.

Our reviewer was impressed by Purple Carrot’s diverse collection of meals from around the world. It takes pride in paying homage to different countries, which is a great way for long-term vegans to keep their plant-based diet exciting.

For instance, there’s Thai Tempeh Khao Soi, Italian Gnocchi, Korean Glass Noodles, Middle-Eastern Saffron Rice Bowl, Korean Gochujang Fried Rice, and Indian Chana Masala. I’m an omnivore but wouldn’t hesitate to try any of these meals – so Purple Carrot is good for non-vegans who just want to add more veggies to their diet, too.

The minimum order depends on whether you buy prepared meals or kits. You’ll have to go with at least 6 single-serving prepared meals per week (order 6, 8, or 10 meals at a time), or 3 2-serving meal kits per week. If you go with the maximum order (3 meal kits with 4 servings each), you’ll pay around $8.50 per serving.

10. Dinnerly – Best for Easy Cooking and Cleanup

Dinnerly offers the most affordable meals in San Francisco. But in my experience, just because it’s cheap, it doesn’t mean it’s low quality. It offers a robust and varied menu, with several add-ons, snacks, and sides.

One of the ways in which Dinnerly cuts costs is by offering meal kits only (with just a couple of prepared meals sprinkled in). Each meal takes around 30-40 minutes to make and only has 5 steps. Any prepared meals will take roughly 3-5 minutes to heat up.

Of course, you won’t find as much on the menu as Marley Spoon or HelloFresh, but it’s still pretty good for the price and our reviewer was impressed with Dinnerly’s variety, even when compared to higher-end services. It’s nice to see that you don’t have to break the bank to get a good selection of filling meals.

Speaking of variety, you can also expect a healthy number of cuisines. These include Asian, classic American, Italian, French, Latin American-influenced, and even Greek. There are a number of family-friendly options as well.

There are several options for sides and snacks. These include pimento cheese dip, cookies, waffles, soup, oatmeal, rice pudding, and more every week.

Lastly, the minimum order here is 3 meals for 2 people per week, up to a max of 6 meals for 4 people. Pricing starts at around $2.12 per serving which makes it a very viable option for larger families on a budget.

Quick Comparison Table

Tips for Choosing the Best Meal Delivery Services in San Francisco

• Convenience: Choose a meal delivery service that lets you eat the way you like. That means picking either DIY meal kits or prepared meals, depending on whether you want to spend time cooking and cleaning or not. This article features a good selection of both types of meals.

• Recipe selection: Go for a service that offers a good selection of different weekly recipes, like Blue Apron or HelloFresh. That way, you're less likely to get bored of eating the same thing. Also, keep in mind whether you want standard American fare or various cuisines like Italian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Indian, and even Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.

• Meal preferences: Make sure to select a service that caters to your family's dietary preferences. You can find gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, keto, paleo, and many more options. There's something for everyone in my list.
  

• Affordability: Opt for a service that fits your budget, whatever it is. There are options for everybody here, so I recommend carefully deciding how much you would like to spend on your meals every week. Green Chef’s organic kits, for example, will be slightly pricier, while Dinnerly’s simpler recipes make it one of the more affordable services.

FAQ

Which meal delivery service is the cheapest?

The most affordable meal delivery service on my list is Dinnerly. It offers high-quality, family-friendly meals at very attractive pricing. Meals start at around $2.12 per serving.

What is the most popular food delivery service in San Francisco? 

Blue Apron came top of my list for meal delivery services that serve San Francisco. It features a wide selection of meal kits and prepared meals, pantry items like spices, and Market extras like kitchen utensils, tools, and even appliances. You can also get things like wines and wine boxes. And, during holidays, you can get special seasonal holiday boxes.

What is the best vegan meal delivery service in San Francisco?

Purple Carrot is the best vegan meal delivery service as it’s 100% plant-based. You won’t find any sort of animal byproducts here. If you like meal kits, you can opt for those – and for those busy nights where you just want to eat, you could opt for its prepared meals instead.

How many meals are in a Dinnerly box?

The minimum Dinnerly order is 3 meals for 2 people per week, but you’re free to order as many as 6 meals for 4 people. Keep in mind that the more you order at a time, the lower your price will be per serving. For instance, if you go with the maximum order, your price per serving will only be $2.12.

Best Meal Delivery Services San Francisco in 2023 — Final Score