Freshly's Meals Are Like TV Dinners But 1,000 Times More Delicious (Plus, They're Never Frozen)
Ever fantasize about having your own private chef? Yeah, us too. Being able to choose whatever you want to eat and have it expertly prepared and ready for you, whenever you want it, sounds like a food lover's paradise. While this is nothing but a pipe dream for most, in the past few years, a subscription service that is trying to give you a taste of what this might be like has arrived.
Freshly, a meal delivery service, allows users to select a weekly menu of dishes cooked by chefs onsite in one of their production kitchens. The food is then shipped directly to your door for reheating and eating. It's as easy as microwaving a frozen TV dinner, except with Freshly, it's never frozen. We cooked our way through Freshly's offerings for a week and have compiled all of our thoughts to help you see if Freshly makes sense for you.
Pricing
Starting with Freshly is very straightforward. Freshly meals are described as “one serving, for one person, at one sitting” and you simply order the number of meals you want for that week. There are 4 options: 4 meals at $11.50 each, 6 or 9 meals at $8.99, or 12 at $7.99 each with a shipping rate that is calculated at checkout.
Bottom line: Though Freshly's prices were on the steeper side, since the meals were being cooked for us, we were more than happy to spend the extra couple bucks.
Choosing Your Menu
Each week Freshly will provide you with more than 30 options to choose from. If you're just shopping for yourself you could have two totally different meals, but if you’re shopping for more than 1 person and you want to have the same thing, or if you want to double (or triple) up on one of your favorites, you can simply order multiples of each dish. When our team initially looked at our options, we were a little surprised to see that there were no pescatarian or vegetarian options. So we reached out to Freshly. They told us that while their current menu is limited to poultry, beef and pork, they may include these other options in the future. Freshly does, however, account for other dietary restrictions and preferences like dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and no added sugar.
But what Freshly may lack in protein choices they make up for in variety of cuisines and preparations. We sampled recipes inspired by Indian, Japanese, Italian and Mexican cooking, all in one week. We also loved that we could sort the options by some more fun categories like “Feel-Better Food”, “Home Bistro,” and “Takeout Twists”.
Bottom line: If you aren't looking for Vegetarian or Seafood meals, Freshly offers a ton of variety that would satisfy any type of palate.
Packaging
When you open your first Freshly Box you’ll see a perfect stack of your meals, each clearly labeled by a cardboard sleeve. Each sleeve will contain the name of the meal, its full nutrition facts, how long it can last before eating/freezing (typically 4-5 days) and the reheating instructions. Once you remove the sleeve, you’ll see that your meal is kept in a plastic container that is covered by a peel-able plastic film. Both of these plastics are safe to be recycled alongside other plastics after some rinsing. In fact, almost everything else that comes with your box is recyclable except for the denim insulation used for the larger box, however Freshly assures that this denim is “85% biodegradable”.
Bottom line: Not only did we love Freshly's recyclable packaging, we also loved that we could eat right out of the containers safely and easily.
Cooking From a Box
Preparing these meals literally couldn't be simpler. Depending on your meal you will peel a corner of the container back and microwave for between 2 ½ and 3 ½ minutes. After letting your meal cool slightly you can either transfer to a plate or (if you hate dishwashing as much as some of our test kitchen team does) eat it right out of the container. After testing a ton of different meals, we found these instructions to be right on the money in terms of temperature and more or less fool proof.
Bottom line: With just the press of a few buttons, you will have chef-cooked meals on the table in minutes.
Taste
Our testers at Delish we’re pleasantly surprised at how good these meals tasted. One of the things that typically turns us off about prepared meals is that vegetables can often taste bland and be left a little rubbery or limp after microwaving. That was not the case here! The zucchini, eggplant and peas in our Spicy Harissa Pork & Veggie Bowl, were tender and delicious. Additionally all of our protein was perfectly cooked and did not dry out in the microwave. Now, can we promise you that each of these meals will taste as fresh and well composed as a home-cooked meal or takeout from your favorite restaurant? No. But certain things, like the Chicken Tikka Masala we tried, came pretty darn close! Especially for something that took less than 5 minutes to get on the table, we were very happy with how all of our Freshly meals came out.
Bottom line: The Delish Test Kitchen staffers were pleasantly surprised by how fresh and delicious all of our Freshly dishes tasted after coming out of the microwave.
Verdict
Admittedly, going into this test, our team was more than a little bit skeptical. Some of us had grown up on lackluster frozen dinner and dreaded the bland flavors and weird textures that came along with them. Luckily Freshly delivered on their promise to bring you "flavorful, good-for-you food that’s chef prepared, delivered fresh, and ready in minutes.” We thought the Freshly meals would be just as good at your desk for lunch as it would be on your table for dinner with the whole family. If you are someone who is looking for the highest level of convenience in your weekly meals but not willing to sacrifice on freshness or nutrition, Freshly is a fantastic option for you.
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