Home Chef Review 2023: Is It Worth The Hype? I Tested It Out

Overview

I had a pretty great experience with Home Chef. I was excited to test out the service for myself after seeing ads all over social media. While it’s not perfect, I enjoyed the ease and convenience of the meals I tried.

My weekly menu was varied, and the sign-up and delivery process was smooth. The foolproof recipes brought me out of my comfort zone without being intimidating. I also loved how many customization options were on the menu.

I’m not an expert cook, but Home Chef gave me the confidence to cook new dishes. Compared to the many other meal kits I’ve tested, Home Chef’s recipes were among the easiest to follow.

On the downside, I wasn’t pleased with the amount of plastic Home Chef uses. I also found that Home Chef isn’t a great choice for people with allergies or specialized diets like vegan or keto. However, you’ll find options for these diets on Green Chef’s menu. 

Overall, I think Home Chef is a great meal kit delivery service that will suit many people thanks to its variety of cuisines, customizations, and quick and easy recipes. Read on to get my full, tried-and-tested take on this service.

Meal Options

On Home Chef’s sign-up page, there used to be 2 different plans: Home Chef and Fresh and Easy. You might even have come to Home Chef’s sign-up process through its Fresh and Easy page. Don’t worry, they’re the same brand. I was a little confused to begin with, but here’s the difference:

• Home Chef is the main menu with the full range of cuisines, cook times, and meal types. It gives you the freedom to choose meals from both Home Chef and Fresh and Easy menus.
  

• Fresh and Easy is more limited, as it focuses only on quick and easy meals. However, if you sign up through Fresh and Easy, you’ll still be able to access Home Chef’s full menu; signing up for 1 plan or the other only changes your preferences.
  

Home Chef offers a range of meal kit types for every skill level – from standard 30-minute kits to ready meals, making it one of the most versatile meal kit delivery services out there. The majority of dishes are customizable and there are plenty of extras you can mix and match to build your own meals.

For this review, I’ll be looking at Home Chef as a whole, but check out my colleague’s Fresh and Easy review if you’re only interested in that.

With Home Chef, you have about 30 meals to choose from each week. The menu is organized by meal type, including meal kits, easy prep kits, bundles, and extras.

Meal kits are Home Chef’s main offering. They come with recipe cards and all the ingredients needed to bring these dishes to life (with the exception of some pantry staples, such as oil).

In addition to standard meal kits, Home Chef includes 3 or 4 Culinary Collection meals each week. For an additional charge (sometimes just a few bucks per serving, though it can be more), these recipes offer premium ingredients, such as mahi mahi, sirloin steak, and truffle potatoes, and have slightly more complex recipes.

Here’s a full list of Home Chef’s offerings:

• Culinary Collection – premium meal kits with higher-quality ingredients

• Express – meal kits ready in 15 minutes or less

• Fast & Fresh – oven-ready and microwave-ready meals

• Oven-Ready – meals that arrive in an oven-ready tray

• Family – dishes that are only available in 4 or more servings

• Plus – include premium ingredients

Meals are individually priced, and the premium items predictably have a higher price point. These include Culinary Collection meals, as well as anything designated “Plus.”

Home Chef lets you order up to 6 recipes per week and up to 6 servings of most recipes, regardless of how your selections break down between these menus. This is more than most of its competitors. You can schedule your menus up to 5 weeks in advance.

You can also take a look at the full step-by-step recipe for any of the meals online, which I think is pretty cool. It makes it easy to decide whether a recipe is right for your skill level or the amount of prep you’re willing to do.

Each recipe clearly notes the pantry items you’ll need to have. Most of the ingredients are provided in your meal kit, but there are some kitchen basics – like olive oil or a baking sheet – that you might need for some dishes.

Home Chef gives you an equipment list for every dish as well. I didn’t see any recipes that called for unusual appliances. If you have a very basic kitchen, though, you may want to double-check recipes before you order.

Recipes are generally pretty Americanized, but there are a few international options, including Italian and Asian cuisine. You’ll find options like Ranch-Crusted Pork Chop or BBQ Ranch Chicken Tacos with Crispy Jalapeños. I thought there was a good range of flavors, and as the menu changes weekly, there’s always something new to try.

You can easily find family-friendly kits with the new Family Menu. This filters the menu to bring up 10+ dishes each week that serve 4 people. I don’t have kids, but the dishes on this menu seem perfect for a family, with plenty of crowd-pleasing options for picky eaters.

I’d describe the quality of ingredients as “fair to good.” I had a few complaints about the produce in my shipment (more on that later), but that’s not my main issue. My biggest complaint is that I wish Home Chef was more upfront about its animal welfare practices and the origins of its meat products.

Home Chef’s Extras section is a massive menu of add-ons, featuring everything from breakfast items and desserts to a variety of meats and seafood. There are also snacks, bread, and beverages. If you want quick lunches, you can check out the Bundles that pair items like pre-mixed salads and pizzas for a super easy meal.

You can even mix and match the extras to create your own meals by choosing a protein, salad, side, and dessert.

Customization

When you sign up, you can choose to exclude some ingredients from your meal options.

For example, you can choose to omit shellfish from your orders. If you check to exclude this ingredient, Home Chef will not include any shellfish recipes in its recommendations. You may also be able to customize certain dishes by swapping out the shellfish for another protein.

But keep in mind that Home Chef is also not an allergen-focused meal delivery service and can’t guarantee cross-contamination. While you can exclude meal kits that include any of the above ingredients, people with severe allergies may want to pass on this service.

Additional filters include Calorie Conscious, Carb Conscious, Vegetarian, and <30 minute recipes, and when you’re logged in, you can further filter the menu by criteria such as cook time.

You’ll see a few logos on recipe cards that highlight things like celebrity chef collaborations and Greatest Hits (Home Chef’s most popular recipes). The menu also includes plenty of at-a-glance information for each recipe, including common allergens like wheat, milk, and eggs.

Recipes with a green tomato “Fresh Start” icon are approved by dietitians and described by Home Chef as “lighter spins on classic favorites.” They’re ideal if you’re looking for healthy or lower-calorie options.

Lastly, you’ll see that about ¾ of the menu has protein-customizing options where you can swap, double-up, or upgrade your protein. Simply click View Customize It Options to see what’s on offer.

Most protein swaps require an upcharge, ranging anywhere from $2.99 to $17.99 per serving for luxury options like filet mignon. More on prices later.

The menu is pretty good for vegetarians. The Customize It menu often includes Impossible Burger, which further expands Home Chef’s vegetarian offerings. I counted 7 veggie dishes when I checked the menu (not including Impossible swaps), but this does change week by week. It’s easy to filter for veggie dishes by clicking the Vegetarian tag at the top of the weekly menu.

Vegans might be able to find a few dishes that suit them by swapping in Impossible Burger or selecting the “no protein” swap, but many dishes also contain dairy, so you’d have to be prepared to make a lot of swaps at home, which isn’t as convenient.

Home Chef’s menu is also not particularly suitable for other specialized diets like keto or paleo – if you’re looking for meals that cater to these diets, Green Chef has dedicated plans for plant-based, keto, and paleo lifestyles, while Factor’s prepared meals are ideal for those looking for quick, no-prep keto, vegan, and veggie dishes. 

Pescatarians will have a little more luck, with plenty of shrimp and salmon options on the menu. Home Chef is also a solid choice for a low-sodium diet, as you have control over the amount of salt you add to each meal kit.

Customer service will also send an email if any of the foods have changed in your order. So, if an ingredient is different from normal, i.e., something that is usually organic is now not available as organic, you will know in advance with enough time to change your order. More on Home Chef’s excellent customer service later.

Unboxing

Home Chef’s packaging is user-friendly and neatly organized. Each recipe’s ingredients are divided and stored in separate plastic bags for convenience. Any meat in your shipment is placed under a divider with its own ice pack to ensure it stays safely cold.

It was quick and painless to transfer the bags to my fridge. They took up more space than if I separated out the produce, shelf-stable items, etc. from each recipe, but the convenience is easily worth the extra space. 

Each recipe card has an expiration date, so you know which dishes to make first. You obviously want to enjoy all your meals within the week, but some ingredients will stay good for 5 or 6 days, while others should be eaten right away. I had some issues in this regard that I’ll delve into later.

In terms of packaging, I wasn’t too happy with the amount of plastic. Besides the cardboard box itself, almost everything else is wrapped in plastic. Plastic is often unavoidable for food safety reasons, but other services – like HelloFresh – use more paper and rely less on plastic.

It seemed like each and every single little item had its own plastic bag, and all of them were contained within a hefty, Home Chef-branded pouch (also made of plastic, of course). As an eco-conscious person, I don’t know if I could rationalize the amount of waste in each Home Chef shipment.

For more recycling details, you can visit Home Chef’s FAQ if, like me, you want to know what to do with all shipping components as you’re unpacking.

Cooking and Eating with Home Chef

Okay, let’s get to the meat of this review: the cooking and the taste. The customization options mean there are many potential choices, so I spent quite a while browsing before making my decisions. Here’s what I ended up ordering:

• Diced Chicken Gyro
• Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Tortellini
• Cauliflower Curry Rice Bowl

Shortlist of My Favorite Meals

Cauliflower Curry Rice Bowl

Everything I cooked turned out delicious, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the Cauliflower Curry Rice Bowl. It’s an Express recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to get on the table.

The curry and toasted coconuts bring a ton of flavor to this dish, which tastes more complex than you’d expect from a 15-minute meal. The microwavable rice was my only complaint, as it was pretty mediocre and bland. However, making rice the old-fashioned way would have added to the cook time.

Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Tortellini

I also enjoyed the Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Tortellini, which is an Express Plus dish. Dishes with a “Plus” tag contain premium ingredients and come with an added fee. The upcharge for this recipe was just an extra dollar per serving, which is quite modest. 

This dish came together easily despite its “intermediate” difficulty rating. However, I had issues with the ingredients, which started to go bad much sooner than expected. Worst of all was the spinach, which was wilting and slimy.

Home Chef recipes include a “cook within” line on recipe cards. This gives you a guideline for getting optimal freshness from your ingredients. This recipe card said 4 days, but the produce was subpar as early as day 2. Enough of the ingredients were usable, however, and the dish came out just fine.

Diced Chicken Gyro

The final dish I made was also my least favorite: the Diced Chicken Gyro. I wouldn’t say it was bad by any means, just less tasty than the curry and pasta dishes I had. This recipe is a standard meal kit (that is, not an Express recipe), but it still came together in under 20 minutes. 

The ingredients to this dish came together quite easily. All I really had to do was cook the pre-sliced chicken breast and assemble. Everything else – spring mix, feta dressing, and cheese crumbles – was ready-to-go. While the preparation was easy, however, the presentation was not.

Recipes Summary

Overall, I enjoyed all the meals I got to try. The shortcuts made it easy and stress-free to prepare each dish. I’m curious if other recipes, like the Culinary Collection, are more complex. If you like the idea of fast and simple recipes, however, Home Chef is a top-notch service.

Prices

The prices shown above are only rough estimates. Home Chef’s menu items are individually priced, so the amount you pay is likely to vary from week to week. This is largely because of the many protein customization options and premium menu options like Plus, Culinary Collection, and Family.

Home Chef’s prices are fairly average compared to its competition. Some items, like salads, are quite affordable at less than $10 per serving. However, dishes with expensive proteins like steak or salmon can run over $20 per serving.

One notable drawback, though, is that there’s no benefit to larger orders. With many other services, you pay a lower price per serving when you order more items. That’s not the case here, which means Home Chef may be less affordable than other services if you order many meals at once.

Protein upgrade prices also vary weekly. While a ground beef upgrade might incur $2.99 one week, it might incur a $4.99 fee the next.

On average, a family of 4 eating with Home Chef 5 nights a week will pay ​​$210.79, including shipping. Depending on where you live and the kind of meals you eat, this number is comparable to what you’d likely pay at the grocery store. Plus, there’s the added time savings of fewer trips to the grocery store

Home Chef often has a deal for new customers (this is the current one: Get 18 Free Meals (50% off your first 4 boxes)!). Also, if you’re a first responder, hospital worker, teacher, or in the military, you can get an additional discount.

Lastly, there’s a small e-commerce sales tax added if you live in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, or Virginia. If you’re eligible, the tax will be listed as an extra line in your order summary.

Shipping & Delivery

Home Chef delivers to 98% of the US. Unless you live in a particularly remote area, you’re likely to be covered. In my case, Home Chef nailed the delivery!

Home Chef lets you pick your exact delivery day, which remains constant each week unless you change it. Many areas will have the option to choose any day Monday through Friday, but smaller cities may have a more limited range. For example, when scheduling delivery to Richmond, VA, my options were Tuesday through Friday.

I received text message updates that included the FedEx tracking information. The messages started the day before my scheduled delivery and I got 2 notifications the day of: 1 confirming my meals would be delivered that day and 1 letting me know they’d been delivered.

The package was left on my doorstep. I live in a small apartment building, and I was happy to not have to carry it up the stairs or worry about a hungry neighbor taking advantage of some free food! 

How Home Chef Works

Home Chef makes it pretty easy to sign up, although you do have to go through the whole process, including adding your payment details, before you can pick your meals for the week.

How to Sign Up

1. Fill in your basic details. The first screen will ask you a few questions to help narrow down the menu. This used to be where you could select the Fresh and Easy sub-brand. Now, if you want to be shown Home Chef’s quicker meals, just select Save Time under the first question.
   
   You’ll also enter your zip code and email address at this stage.

2. Share your preferences. Both questions will filter the menu for you for easier browsing. You can select as many options as you like for each question, however, the more you select the more limited your menu will become.

3. Build your box. Choose how many diners and how many recipes you need per week. Home Chef will give you a guide price based on an average per-serving price plus the relevant shipping fee (the final cost will depend on the meals you choose and any customizations).

4. Add your delivery and payment details. Home Chef also requires a valid phone number. You can pay with Paypal or a range of credit cards. Home Chef will tell you exactly when your payment will be taken (this relates to the date you’ve picked for your first order).

5. Then you’re ready to pick your meals! Now is the time to customize your order with any swaps and to add extras. You won’t know the final cost of your order until you’ve made these decisions.

Managing Your Subscription

Managing any aspect of Home Chef’s service is super easy through its iOS and Android-compatible app and website login. You can even call or live chat with customer support via the app should you have any questions or concerns.

Skipping a week is easy and just takes the click of a button on the website or app. Navigate to Your Upcoming Orders where you’ll see all of your orders listed by date. Click the Skip Week button to cancel that week’s order. If you change your mind, just click Unskip.

This is also the place where you can change your meals by clicking Edit Meals. To remove a meal, click the green Remove button (or Trash icon in the app). Then to add a meal, click Add to Order. On many recipes, you’ll also have the Customize It option. 

One pretty unique thing about Home Chef is that you can also adjust the serving sizes on individual recipes. Most services make you commit to a 2-person or 4-person plan, for example, but with Home Chef you can mix and match serving sizes within one order.

To change your delivery day, hit Manage Delivery under the order date. You can even change the delivery address for a certain week, which is useful if you’ll be staying at a friend’s house or going on holiday but still want your regular order of meals. Changes have to be made by 12 pm CT the Friday before your scheduled delivery date.

Canceling your first order is a slightly different process, and it’s a bit more complicated than just hitting a skip button. This is because when you pick the date for your first order during the sign-up process, it schedules it automatically. 

To skip your first order, simply remove all of the meals from that order. When the deadline arrives, Home Chef’s system will recognize the order as empty and will automatically cancel it for you. And if you have any further questions about rescheduling, canceling, or skipping any orders, you can reach out to customer support in several ways.

Customer Service

Home Chef sets a standard when it comes to customer support for meal delivery services. It offers a detailed FAQ section in the Help Center, real-time chat support, a convenient mobile app, and a dedicated phone line. You can also contact the company through an online form or by email if you prefer.

First off, Home Chef has a fairly detailed Help Center. You’ll find this by scrolling right to the bottom of the home page and clicking on FAQs & Support.

You can look up any topic that piques your interest, and the search feature will provide relevant articles. For example, when I searched for packaging recycling tips, I simply entered "recycling" and easily found the information I needed.

You can also contact customer support via phone if you can’t find the answer you need. The hours are 9 am to 6 pm CT on Monday through Friday and 10 am to 2 pm CT on Saturdays. Live chat support is also available at these times.

To speak to a customer support person through live chat, use the chatbot. The chatbot will try to answer your question and guide you to helpful FAQ pages. If that doesn't help, you can ask to talk to a person for more info.

In my experience, it’s not hard to reach a real person. When I had questions about the Impossible Burger that the chatbot couldn't answer, I got to speak to a person pretty fast.

You can also submit a request support ticket via an online form. It took about 3 days for me to get a response via this method. To be fair, though, there was a disclaimer saying that Home Chef was experiencing a high volume of questions at the time.

I asked whether Home Chef planned to offer vegan options in the future. And while the answer was essentially “probably not,” the customer service agent who responded to me went out of her way to suggest dairy-free and vegetarian options that could work for a vegan diet. 

I appreciated the extra effort from the customer support agent! Plus, you can contact customer services with your query before you’ve even signed up for Home Chef, it’s not just reserved for subscribers. I found this helpful in understanding prices and plans, since how those work aren’t 100% clear on the site.

If you’re not 100% satisfied with your meals, Home Chef does offer refunds. You’ll need to email support@homechef.com within 7 days of delivery explaining the situation and request either Home Chef credit or a refund.

I contacted customer support about the slimy produce in some of my recipes. Home Chef was quick to respond, providing me with a generous $20 credit to be applied to a future order.

It’s also easy to cancel your Home Chef account if you decide you’re done with the service. You can follow our step-by-step guide on how to pause or cancel your Home Chef subscription. You’ll be pleased to hear it’s really straightforward!

Finally, you can use all of these contact options via the app. Instead of waiting until you’re home with your desktop device, you can change any detail of your order at any time on your phone or tablet. The only thing you can’t do through the app is reschedule your first order. You need to contact customer support for that.

Pro tip: Home Chef has a blog called The Table, which provides articles about meal planning and cooking tips for beginner and intermediate chefs. This is a great resource if you’ve just ordered your first Home Chef meal kits and want more cooking advice.

How Home Chef Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

Home Chef vs. HelloFresh

Like Home Chef, HelloFresh is one of the most popular meal kit delivery services in the industry. It’s a more affordable option, since prices start at $3.32 per serving, with plans that include Vegetarian, Pescatarian, and Family-Friendly. 

HelloFresh also lets you swap proteins and sides. The cuisine is primarily American with some Mexican, Pan-Asian, and Mediterranean-inspired dishes. It has a larger menu than Home Chef, with 50+ recipes each week.

Home Chef vs. Green Chef

Green Chef is, in my opinion, the best organic meal kit service out there right now. All its ingredients are non-GMO, and the produce is CCOF- and USDA-certified. Prices are higher than Home Chef’s, starting at $5.99 per serving, but you’ll find excellent diet-friendly options like the Keto, Gluten Free, and Plant Based plans. 

Home Chef isn’t great for vegans and doesn’t prioritize ingredient quality, so Green Chef may be a better option for you if the price is right.

Home Chef vs. Factor

Factor is a great option if you like Home Chef’s Fresh and Easy line, but I wish it were even quicker. It's one of our best meal delivery services of 2023 because its prepared meals take just minutes to get on the table.

The prepared meals cater to more diets than Home Chef. They come in single servings, so this is a better option for those dining for 1 or if everyone in your household has different dietary needs. Prices start at $6.19 per serving.

The Bottom Line: Is Home Chef Worth It?

From my experience, Home Chef’s meal kit delivery service is totally worth trying. Everything about it is easy and flexible. Despite the issues I had with a few ingredients, I was really impressed at the quality of the meals I was able to make at home.

Home Chef offers great options for busy people who want to cook at home and eat well without fuss, like the quick and easy prep meals you’ll find in the Fresh and Easy line. It’s also ideal for families with the Family Meals line and the option to get up to 6 servings of most dishes. If you live alone like me, the 2-serving option leaves you with plenty of leftovers – ideal for a working lunch the next day.

However, there are very few to no plant-based options on any given week’s menu, so I can’t recommend Home Chef for vegans. People following other specialized diets, like keto or paleo, will also struggle to make Home Chef work.

Overall, people with no dietary restrictions will find plenty to love on Home Chef’s menu. If you’re still not totally convinced by Home Chef, we tested other top meal kit services and shortlisted the best meal kit providers of the year.

FAQ

How much does Home Chef cost?

Home Chef meals start at $7.99 per serving with a minimum weekly order value of $49.95 (plus $10.99 shipping). After looking in detail at Home Chef’s plans and pricing, I found it to be value-for-money compared to other meal kit services I’ve tried. 

Home Chef’s Culinary Collection, which includes premium meals, costs between $10.99 and $20.99 per serving.

Is Home Chef cheaper than the grocery store?

It can be. When I researched Home Chef’s pricing structure, I found the cost varied depending on which meals you select and how many meals you want a week – so you have control over how much you want to spend. It also sends you the exact amount of food you’ll need, which means you can save money by cutting down on food waste.

Will Home Chef help me lose weight?

Home Chef has some weight-loss options as part of its weekly changing menu. Each week, Home Chef offers at least 3 calorie-conscious (less than 625 calories per serving) and 3 carb-conscious (less than 35 grams per serving) meals.

How to cancel Home Chef?

To cancel your subscription, log into your account and go to Account > Account Settings. The option to pause or cancel your subscription is at the bottom of the navigation tabs. The whole process can be done in 3 steps – as I outlined when I wrote about canceling my Home Chef subscription.

Are Home Chef meals frozen?

Home Chef’s meals ship refrigerated and fresh, not frozen, with the possible exception of some proteins. Depending on their ingredients, some meals can be frozen for longer-term storage. Home Chef recommends refrigerating all your ingredients and enjoying your meals within one week.

What is cheaper, Home Chef or HelloFresh?

HelloFresh is slightly cheaper than Home Chef and somewhat easier to budget for since the price you see is the price you’ll pay. HelloFresh’s starting price of $3.32 per serving applies to those ordering 6 meals per week on the 4-person plan, while Home Chef’s pricing varies greatly depending on the meals you order. 

Feel free to use our discount for HelloFresh: 18 free meals + first box ships free + 3 surprise gifts with code DR18HF and Home Chef: Get 18 Free Meals (50% off your first 4 boxes)! to make trying your first order with either service more affordable.