Green Chef Review – Are Organic Meal Kits Worth It? (2020)

Green Chef Bottom Line

A keto and paleo specialist offering all-organic ingredients… but fewer menu choices than competitors. 

What I Like

• Generous first delivery discounts

• Very easy-to-follow instructions – even for kitchen novices like me!

• Completely organic ingredients 

What I Don’t Like 

• $7.99 delivery charge per week

• Unable to add meals from other plans to your menu 

Green Chef Delivery 

Green Chef offer deliveries from Monday-Saturday, with certain days available according to where you live: 

Blue Apron also does Saturday deliveries, and I like that I can have the chance to cook over the weekend, so this was a huge plus for Green Chef, in my books. 

Deliveries arrive between 8am and 9pm, and unlike Hello Fresh or Blue Apron, Green Chef doesn't come with a trackable app link (although I’m not sure this is strictly necessary in any case, it’s just a nice added bonus). 

Green Chef Pricing

Meals at Green Chef officially start from $10.99 a serving (on the Family Plan) and go up to as high as $12.99 a serving (for the keto and paleo plans). 

The prices do get cheaper once the first order’s discounts are added, but these portion prices are definitely at the more expensive end of the spectrum. Like Sun Basket, Green Chef offers all-organic ingredients, so that explains the higher price. The quality of the ingredients, health-related and non-GMO, close-to-nature ingredients make it worth it. But if eating organic doesn't bother you, you might find the prices a little off-putting. 

Plus, there’s a flat fee of $7.99 for delivery a week. So all in all, this is one of the pricier meal delivery services on the market. For cheaper meal kits, check out my review of Hello Fresh, Dinnerly or Every Plate first.

Green Chef Meal Variety

Green Chef really prides itself on its organic ingredients and USDA-certification: 

As far as the meals on offer go, you wouldn't know they were any different than other meal delivery services (other than from the higher price tag, which I went into above). 

Each meal takes around 30 minutes or under to prepare, and consists of all-organic ingredients. 

What I really liked were the plans available: 

It's super rare to see keto and paleo-specific plans with meal delivery services, so I was pleasantly surprised. I liked that there was a veggie/vegan option, and a family plan too - Blue Apron still offers one of my favorite family plans of all time though, but what was on offer here was good-looking too. 

I selected the Family Plan to see more of what I could expect. It seems that on this plan, there were only 6-7 recipe choices available per week.

I was a little annoyed to find out that I couldn't add a meal from another plan to my order (unlike you can with a service like Home Chef, where you can mix and match as much as you like). It’s a bit inflexible, and your best bet (if you're looking for a bit of variety) is the Balanced Living plan, with 8 meals to choose from, including vegetarian and low-carb options. 

In fact, Green Chef even explain this when you’re choosing your meals... 

...but it makes it sound like a completely normal thing, that you can’t mix and match recipes from other plans. Oh well.  

I don't know about you, but I’m pretty sure that 6-8 options isn’t a huge variety, especially when Home Chef offered me 20 options per week.

It was the same with the other plans too – just 7-8 options to choose from. It's not that the options looked bad, on the contrary, they looked incredibly inventive and tasty, it’s just that I felt there could have been a bigger range of options. 

As such, there were obviously no helpful filtering options… as there just wasn't that much choice to filter. 

One thing I will say is that Green Chef really looks like it’s trying to be as healthy as possible. While other meal delivery services had a lot of heavy-looking pastas and other carb-heavy dishes, Green Chef doubles down on the lean meats and proteins, whole grains and veggies. I think this would be a perfect meal kit delivery service if you're on a healthy eating diet, or you're watching your cholesterol or fat intake. 

Each recipe card will give you a lot of important information too: 

Although, if you're a total amateur in the kitchen, you're unlikely to have some of the ‘what you’ll need’ gadgets. A potato masher? I didn't have that. Thermometer? Definitely not. I had to make do with other things, and I would have appreciated some pre-warning, maybe as to the level of difficulty this recipe would be (in terms of kitchen preparation).  

Because actually, when it came to cooking the recipe, it really wasn't that difficult.  

I chose to try out:

• Creamy Stuffed Chicken 

• Steak and Farro Salad

• Italian Shrimp with Pesto 

The Verdict

I found these to be some of the easiest recipes to put together that I’ve experienced with meal delivery services. 

While other recipes have really confused me, Green Chef gave me very detailed, step-by-step instructions, complete with useful images: 

It was perfect for an amateur like me, explaining how to even mix the ingredients together! I also felt that there was very little preparation time, and it was one of the quicker meal kits I’ve experienced. 

Having said that, I did end up using a lot of different pots, pans and utensils. At one point, two of my vegetable sides had to be cooked separately and it created a lot more mess and clearing up than I had anticipated.

I managed to make every meal I received perfectly, mostly thanks to the helpful images showing me what each step should look like. 

How it Works 

Green Chef's sign up process is pretty similar to any other meal delivery services: add in your email, zip code, or sign up with Facebook (a touch I quite liked!).

You then need to select your preferences. Before I did so, however, this happy little banner popped up: 

Green Chef’s right, my neighbors are awesome! I really appreciate this gesture as of the other meal kit delivery services, only Fresh and Easy really gave me massive discounts on my first order – you can see what I’m talking about in my Fresh and Easy review.

You’ll immediately see your discounts applied. Choose your plan from the below options... 

...and then something a little strange happens. You're asked if you'd like two or four-people servings, but not how many meals a week you'd like (with other services, I’m usually given the choice of two meals a week, three or four. At Green Chef, it just assumes you want three): 

What this means is, if you want more than three meals a week (or less), it's a bit tricky: if you want four meals a week, you’ll need to order another box...with three meals in it, and you'll end up receiving six. That’s the first time I’ve seen the number of meals you order pre-selected and inflexible. 

You’ll then be asked to select your preferences: 

After this, choose your delivery day. I was offered Wednesday to Saturday deliveries, between 8am and 9pm, then add in your shipping address, pay, and then it's time to choose your recipes! 

What’s in Green Chef’s Box 

For a company whose name includes ‘green’, and who prides itself on how eco-friendly it is (and organic), the packaging my delivery came in was almost as good as I’d expected to any of the other meal delivery services I’ve ordered from. 

The cardboard box it arrived in was insulated with a material called ClimaCell for insulation, which is curbside recyclable, a touch I haven't seen elsewhere. And the separate ingredients were wrapped in paper bags, not plastic, as with other companies.

Once I opened one of the paper bags, I was annoyed to see that inside sat some plastic bags, which I had hoped they could avoid, but it’s not so different from most of the other meal delivery services, so it seems to be an industry issue. 

Customer Support

Green Chef has a very in-depth FAQ page, with sections for each type of question you may have – delivery-related, food-related, and more. 

As far as contacting them goes, you have several options: 

I decided to call them and I had my conversation picked up within 10 seconds of calling which really impressed me. The customer service agent was clearly smiling while speaking to me, and she seemed genuinely happy to help me and find a solution to my issue. 

That was pretty impressive service. It’s not the pre-recorded tones of Martha Stewart for Marley Spoon… but it's also not the 40+ minute wait I had with Home Chef! 

Canceling Your Plan

I couldn't find anywhere to cancel my Green Chef plan, so I checked the FAQs. 

I was advised to go into my Account Info, and scroll all the way to the bottom. I found this:

I thought this could have been much simpler, and done online. In any case, I called and canceled my plan within 30 seconds of dialing. The customer service agent was polite, and genuinely seemed happy to take my call… I was super impressed at the speed (Home Chef kept me waiting for over 40 minutes!)

Expert Bottom Line on Green Chef 

Green Chef might be a little on the pricier end of the meal delivery services I’ve reviewed, but it was definitely one of the healthiest and easiest kits to cook. Plus, an all-organic service is a huge bonus.

I'd say this a great option for paleo and keto dinners, and maybe even vegans, but for anyone else without a specific food need, you might want to look elsewhere for a lower-priced meal kit delivery service.