Sakara Review 2024: Does it Live Up to the Hype?

Overview

You might be considering Sakara but feel uncertain about its offerings. It's common to want a deeper dive before committing, especially with so many meal services vying for your attention. This Sakara review aims to give you a clear understanding of what the company truly brings to the table.

I've thoroughly researched and reviewed Sakara. No stone remains unturned. I've explored its meal variety, customization options, the different plans it offers, ease of use, shipping, delivery, and much more. I wanted to give you a complete overview of exactly what you’re getting into here.

Overall, Sakara might appeal to specific individuals. Its price point is on the higher end, making it a luxury choice for some. Yet, with its focus on plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, and whole food-based meals that prioritize health, many may find its cost justified. If you're in pursuit of quality and health-centric meals, Sakara could very well be worth it for you.

What’s on the Sakara Menu

Sakara is a plant-based nutrition program. It offers a ton of different health-related programs and meals to help you achieve better health. Virtually everything you get comes in the form of ready-to-eat prepared meals. 

The main meal options include breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most meals can be consumed warm or cold, according to the website. And everything you find on the site is 100% plant-based (vegan).

It offers 5 Targeted Nutrition Programs to suit various preferences:

• Signature Nutrition Program

• The Metabolism Reset

• The Fresh Start Cleanse

• The Performance System

• The Gut Health Reboot

In addition, it currently also offers 3 Limited-Edition Programs:

• Level II: Detox

• The Bridal Program

• Take The Sakara Quiz

The company claims to use high-quality ingredients. For example, it claims that all meals are organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, and free from refined sugars. That’s something I can definitely get behind.

But these special health plans aren’t all the company offers. It provides lots of different supplements, snacks, and accessories.

Supplements

• Metabolism Super Powder

• Energy Effervescents

• Complete Probiotic Formula

Snacks

• The Protein Super Bar Collection

• Metabolism Protein Super Bar

• Detox Protein Super Bar

Accessories

• Golden Hour Turkish Towel

• Mugs, toiletry pouches, sweatshirts

• Salad stirring utensils and hand-held milk whippers

Lastly, it offers the “S-Life Mag”, which is a blog chock-full of interesting information. It includes info about well-being, different recipes, and educational materials.

The Sakara Quiz

The quiz provides an in-depth questionnaire of around 28 questions. These questions help the company offer a personalized nutrition plan. It’s not really personalized to you personally – rather, it takes your answers into consideration to recommend 1 of its existing plans.

Meal Options

The menu is split into 3 categories – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every day, you get access to 1 of each. However, you only get meals for 2, 3, or 5 days per week (with a subscription), or 2, 3, 5, 10, or 20 days for one-time purchases. For example, the dinners for the next week when I checked the menu were as follows:

• Day 1: Sedona Chipotle Chili with Olive Oil Cornbread

• Day 2: Sakara Bibimbap

• Day 3: Revitalizing Pasta Salad with Hibiscus Tea

• Day 4: Inner Harmony Onion Soup served with a side salad and gluten-free focaccia

• Day 5: "Butter" Chickpea Curry with Seasoned Basmati Rice

One thing I should mention are the breakfasts. These aren’t very nutritious. They seem to mostly comprise things like donuts, parfaits, cookies, and cakes, which are devoid of meaningful micro and macronutrients and aren’t satiating in the least. Items like this are more likely to make you hungrier later in the day, making it even harder to stick to a diet.

Aside from that, there really isn’t a particularly large selection of meals, let alone cuisines. You can see some Latin American-inspired, Korean-influenced, French, and Indian dishes. However, since there’s such a small selection, the cuisines you get change each week.

In terms of ingredient options, there’s a decent variety considering it’s all plant-based. Don’t expect any high-protein, ketogenic, or low-carb foods, though. A plant-based diet isn’t supportive of any of those things.

There are also no bulk sides or extras. You can get snacks and supplements, just no extra side dishes.

I’d also like to point out that this is not a kid-friendly meal delivery service. Kids should not be aiming to fix metabolic issues, detox their bodies, or “cleanse themselves of toxins”. If your children have specific health concerns, please see a pediatrician. Please do not try to diagnose and/or treat your children’s health condition(s) on your own.

It’s also not advisable to provide children with an overly restrictive, plant-based diet. Animal byproducts contain a ton of vital nutrients that children absolutely require for optimal health and development. This includes meat, eggs, cheese, dairy, grass-fed butter, and more. A plant-based diet will unnecessarily hinder their development and well-being.

Besides all of that, meals are single-serving only. These meals and plans are geared only toward adults. It would be impractical, unnecessary, and unnecessarily expensive to provide these meals to children.

Customization

There aren’t all that many choices when it comes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’s also no way to customize the individual meals for 2 reasons: everything is chosen for you, and the meals are prepared. That means substitutions for certain ingredients just aren’t possible.

That said, I do like that you can add any of the extras to your order. This includes accessories, supplements, and snacks. It’s also interesting to me that prices are included on the website. Some other competitors don’t reveal pricing for extras and add-ons until after you sign up.

Sadly, the company’s products don’t cater to anyone with allergies. The site states that it doesn’t recommend its products or services to anyone with severe food allergies, as cross-contamination is possible.

It’s crucial to pick the right program for you from the start. If you haven’t had the chance to yet, be sure to review all of its programs and services before diving in.

With all of that in mind, I do like that there are at least a few ways to filter the menu, or “shop”, as it were. You can filter by bestsellers, nutrition programs, supplements, snacks, accessories, beauty, gut health, and more.

Unboxing

You get all of your meals inside of a cardboard box, ready to simply heat and eat (or eat cold!) I found that everything is nicely organized and neat and comes in individual packages and containers.

The boxes used for delivery are designed with insulation and come with ice packs to maintain the food's cool temperature during transit. Don't worry if you find the ice packs have thawed by the time they reach you; this just means they've been working to protect your food.

For the best taste and freshness, you should place the meals in your fridge soon after they arrive. The company doesn’t really state how long the meals stay fresh – however, each item has a "Best By" date printed on the package.

Lastly, the packaging can be recycled. Food containers, made from recycled plastic bottles (PCR PET), ensure freshness while reducing waste. Instead of ending up in landfills or oceans, these bottles become recyclable meal containers.

Delivery boxes are crafted from recycled corrugated cardboard, with liners also made of recycled materials. Everything – boxes, liners, and containers – can be recycled curbside. The ice packs are non-toxic and recyclable. To recycle, you can pour the gel into your drain or trash and recycle the film with #4 plastics.

Cooking with Sakara

All the meals and extras come fresh. Nothing is ever frozen, so you won’t need to worry about thawing anything out.

To cook each meal, simply heat the meal using the instructions. Follow the specific instructions on the underside of the meal label (take off the lid and flip it over) for the suggested heating instructions.

Keep in mind that you can eat most meals cold, too. You’re always welcome to warm them up, though, if you prefer.

Whatever you decide, don’t heat your meals in the existing containers! Sakara recommends heating each meal on the stovetop or oven. If you prefer using a microwave for convenience, always transfer meals or food into a microwave-safe tray or dish first.

Shortlist of My Favorite Meals

I know it seems like I’ve been coming down hard on Sakara, but there’s a lot to love here. Here are a few of my favorite options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast: Warming Gingersnap Parfait

This one is served with roasted pears, raspberries, almond butter, gluten-free rolled oats, almonds, cashew “cream,” and warm spices. I find this to be the perfect breakfast since many of the company's other options are unhealthy cakes and cookies, which aren’t very filling.

Lunch: The Signature Burger

Here, you’re getting a plant-based burger served with Bleu "cheeze," eleuthero ketchup, and root veggie fries. I would have liked to see regular, potato-based fries here, but I also don’t mind root veg!

Dinner: Sedona Chipotle Chili with Olive Oil Cornbread

This comes served with bean medley, poblano peppers, yellow lentils, and chipotle. I love it. It’s an authentic (albeit vegan) chili that I love the sounds of. No complaints here!

Prices

If you haven’t already been able to tell, Sakara is on the extreme end of expensive. However, I feel like for some people, this could work.

Pricing really depends on the specific combination of plans and the number of days you choose. Pricing can range anywhere from around $25 to $30 per meal, all the way up to around $40+ per meal. That’s pretty insane if you ask me.

For instance, the most basic plan – Signature Nutrition Program – is the cheapest. If you opt for a weekly subscription of just 2 days worth of dinners (Thursdays and Fridays), you’re looking at just $67/week. That works out to be around $33.50 per dinner. I can go out and have an amazing meal with an alcoholic beverage or 2 for around the same price.

Yes, sure, once you start adding more days and meals per day, your per-serving price will be lower. But I think that’s pretty negligible. Prices will always hover around that minimum mark of around at least $20 per meal.

Let’s take, for instance, 1 of the flagship programs – the Gut Health Reboot. 20 days worth of meals – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – over 4 weeks costs you a whopping $2,275. That’s astronomical! You also do get 30 days' worth of “Wellness Essentials” with it, but I don’t think that makes up for the price.

Expect most of the plans to be similarly priced, give or take a few dollars here and there. I’d wager that most people would be most interested in the Signature Nutrition Plan.

But…we haven’t even talked about extras and add-ons! The regular Shopify-style storefront prices range anywhere from $20 to $100+ for supplements, $16 to $85+ for snacks, and $25 to $135+ for accessories. Again, that’s outrageous in my experience.

Shipping & Delivery

Delivery is available to all 50 states, which means Alaska and Hawaii as well. Delivery days always depend on your exact location. For example, in Beverly Hills, California, delivery only happens on Mondays. You can choose a start date for your program up to 4 weeks in advance.

If you're on a subscription program, you can skip weeks without any penalty by logging into your Sakara account and selecting Edit Upcoming Weeks.

You need to make any changes before midnight EST on the Wednesday of the preceding week. After that time, the calendar becomes locked for the subsequent week, and the card associated with the account will receive a charge on Thursday morning.

Alterations to your first subscription week are also not possible. To make changes, please reach out to the customer service team.

There’s also a Sakara Life app, which is only available for iOS (iPhones). You can do most things on the app that you can do on the website, including ordering, changing your info, and more.

How Sakara Works

Signing up for Sakara is somewhat convoluted. Follow this guide for a step-by-step tutorial on how to sign up.

How to Sign Up

1. Choose your plan. Hover over Nutrition Programs in the top menu bar. Then, select your plan. In this example, I’ll pick the most popular plan: The Signature Nutrition Program.

2. Provide your zip code and choose your options. First, enter your zip code. Then, pick what meals you want (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any other combination). After that, choose whether you want 2, 3, or 5 days’ worth of meals.

Tip: If you choose One-time Program, you can also see options for 10 days’ or 20 days’ worth of meals (2 or 4 weeks).

After that, add any extras, pick your delivery date, and move on to step #3.

3. Now’s the time to add any addons – or just continue to the checkout.

4. Sign up for an account by entering the required information. Enter your name, email, and password.

5. Complete the checkout process.

Managing Your Subscription

You can manage your subscription by logging in or contacting customer service. Changes to your order can’t be made for your first delivery week – only subsequent weeks. Any changes need to be made by 12 am (midnight) EST on the Wednesday of the week before your scheduled delivery.

Customer Service

There are 2 ways to contact Sakara: email or phone. The phone numbers are 1 (917) 261-3593 or 1 (844)-904-6716. The email address is help@sakaralife.com. Sakara’s hours of operation for phone support are from Monday through Friday from 9 am to 6 pm EST.

There’s also an FAQ page that answers a ton of common questions. This includes questions you may have before making a purchase on the site. You can check out the FAQ page for more information.

I took it upon myself to ask customer service a question via email. I noticed that nutritional data is missing from the meals, so I wanted to find out about that. Here’s where it gets interesting: “It goes against the company’s philosophy to provide nutritional data”, as the agent confirmed. But maybe that’s for the better, as it sort of streamlines your nutrition.

At any rate, at least the agent answered really quickly (within minutes). They were also friendly, honest, and professional with their answers, which I appreciated.

How Sakara Compares to Other Meal Delivery Services

Sakara vs. Nutrisystem

Sakara and Nutrisystem are both meal delivery services, but they cater to different wellness goals. Sakara emphasizes plant-based, organic meals designed for holistic well-being and detoxification. Its offerings are gourmet, gluten-free, and prioritize fresh ingredients.

Nutrisystem, on the other hand, focuses on portion-controlled meals and snacks to aid weight loss, with options that cater to various dietary needs. While Sakara targets those seeking a luxury, clean-eating experience, Nutrisystem appeals to those aiming for straightforward weight management. Learn more in our Nutrisystem review.

Sakara vs. BistroMD

Sakara and BistroMD serve distinct nutritional purposes. Sakara champions a holistic approach, spotlighting organic, plant-based meals that accentuate overall well-being. Each dish it offers is not only gourmet but also free from gluten, highlighting a commitment to clean eating. 

In contrast, BistroMD is anchored in medical science, with meals curated for weight loss through a doctor-designed, nutritionally balanced regimen. While Sakara appeals to the health-conscious looking for an elevated culinary experience, BistroMD is tailored for those seeking a structured approach to weight loss. Learn more in our BistroMD review.

Sakara vs. Trifecta

Sakara and Trifecta cater to distinct dietary philosophies. Trifecta provides a range of diet plans, from keto to vegan, aiming to fit various nutritional goals.

The company’s focus is on delivering organic, macro-balanced meals for fitness and health. While Sakara offers a luxurious approach to balanced well-being, Trifecta leans toward performance-driven nutrition tailored to individual dietary preferences. Find out more in my colleague’s Trifecta review.

The Bottom Line: Is Sakara Worth It?

Personally, I believe Sakara can be worth it for some, and not so much for others. It’s extremely expensive, and it uses deceptive marketing and flat-out lies. But for some people, getting holistic, well-balanced, plant-based meals that are supportive of great health is well worth it. Only you can know what’s right for you.

But if you’re looking for a great way to eat highly nutritious plant-based meals, then yes. This company’s offerings can be worth it in that case. For some people, paying a hefty premium for organic, gluten-free, plant-based meals supportive of excellent health is well worth the seemingly extortionate prices.

If you’re looking to get your hands on great plant-based meals, I’ve got you covered. Check out our list of the best plant-based meal delivery services for an in-depth comparison. I think there are options that you’re likely to consider in place of the expensive Sakara.

FAQ

Has anyone lost weight on Sakara?

Yes, many individuals have reported weight loss after following the Sakara meal plan. Its programs emphasize whole, plant-based, and nutrient-dense foods, which can lead to healthier eating habits and potential weight loss for some people.

Is Sakara food worth it?

Yes and no. Sakara food can be worth it for those seeking convenient, nutritious, and plant-based meals. However, its value depends on individual preferences, dietary needs, and budget considerations. Its prices are known to be sky-high, so I recommend reading my Sakara review in its entirety to find out if it’s worth it for you.

Why is Sakara so expensive?

Sakara's high cost can be attributed to several factors. For example, its use of organic, high-quality ingredients, the convenience of prepared meals, and its specialized plant-based meal plans all demand premium pricing. Learn more about how the different meal plans stack up in terms of pricing.