This EveryPlate review will dive into how EveryPlate works, a review of its best features, and some pros and cons.
There are so many things to think about with meal kits, so we tried it for you.
If you're considering this meal delivery service, take a look at the breakdown of our experience to see if it might be right for you and your mealtime needs.
How EveryPlate Works
EveryPlate is similar to many other meal kits with a weekly subscription-based model and the ability to skip a week, make changes, or pause/cancel your membership when needed.
All of the necessary ingredients are pre-measured and shipped to your doorstep along with recipe cards so you have everything you need every week to create great meals.
They stick to the basics and keep quality at the core of their service, focusing on quick, approachable recipes that you can make in 6 steps or less.
A Review of the EveryPlate Service
This EveryPlate review will focus on a variety of areas in which we gauge all meal kits that we try.
We'll discuss each category and let you know how they stack up from our personal experience with the service.
Let's dive in!
Easy or Complicated Ordering?
One positive thing that stood out right off the bat is the ease of their ordering process.
I'm a sucker for any process that's streamlined and simple, so this was very much appreciated.
You simply choose your plan & delivery day, enter your information, and you're good to go.
If you'd like to change your meals, you can do so after signup, and that's very easy to do as well.
Varied or Tight Meal Selections?
I was quite impressed with their meal selections.
Especially for a budget meal kit service, they have a lot of variety to choose from.
There are 13 different options to choose from each week, all with a good variety of different proteins and vegetables.
You can even swap out for a different vegetable with some of the recipes!
They also have premium and premium plus options each week, which I thought was a pretty cool feature. For a few bucks more, you can upgrade a meal to scallops, shrimp, steak, or something equally delicious.
As people who try to eat pretty clean, I was looking for a pretty specific type of meal when choosing my selections, and I didn't feel frustrated or limited in my choices at all.
Any Dietary Accommodations?
While EveryPlate doesn't have plans specifically to accommodate certain dietary restrictions, they have so many options that it's easy to tailor your choices to your specific diet.
They also have full ingredient lists, nutrition facts labels, allergen information, and full recipes easily viewable within each meal choice when you're looking through your options, so you can see exactly what to choose and what to avoid.
If you have a food allergy or dietary restriction, don't shy away from EveryPlate.
They really do make it simple to see exactly what comes with what so you can make an informed decision.
Types of Servings Offered
At this time, EveryPlate only offers plans for either 2 or 4 people.
At first glance, this may seem restrictive, but it actually works just fine for most people.
For example, our family is 2 adults and 2 young children. Either plan works fine for us, depending on whether we want to make an additional side to stretch the portions or have a little extra leftovers for the next day.
For larger familes, the same principle can be applied. For example, let's say you have 6 children. Depending on their appetites, you could go with the 4-serving plan and give each child a half portion, or get a 4- serving plan and an additional 2-serving plan and combine them together.
While I would hope for more options yet to come, these options aren't as restrictive as first meets the eye.
Packaging: Less Plastic?
Personally, I love their packaging style.
They use much less plastic than many other meal kit and prepared meal delivery service companies due to their more family-style packaging.
Instead of organizing each meal's ingredients into separate bags, they put everything in one cardboard box (meat separated, of course) and you organize it yourself.
This is such a less wasteful method than using plastic bags for everything.
It also helps cut their costs so they can continue offering less than $5 meals.
How Do the Taste & Creativity Weigh Against the Cost?
EveryPlate is a meal delivery service that surprised me.
I've tried some budget meal delivery services, but these recipes don't taste like budget meal options.
The meals we chose had a pretty good balance of nutrients, typically with a protein, vegetable, and starch.
It was nice to see a variety of different vegetables, such as broccoli, asparagus, and carrots. One of our dishes even had kale (that was everyone's favorite!).
The creativity isn't lacking, either.
We were very happy with the level of creativity within our recipes; they're very approachable, yet fun.
For example, we had a dish (we made this one in our video review) that was basically roasted chicken breasts with carrots and potatoes, but they elevated it by coating the chicken in caesar dressing and a panko/parmesan mix (I'd highly recommend trying this at home, wow!).
That meal was beyond amazing, but still super easy and quick.
As far as taste overall, our entire family (kiddos included) were very happy with all EveryPlate meals that we tried.
We actually didn't have any meals that we didn't like (we aren't picky by any means, but I do have a culinary background and we're both serious foodies, so we tend to judge).
Everything was awesome!
Easy to Understand Recipes
I could honestly rave all day about how great these recipes are.
They're easy to follow, simple to understand, and clear/concise.
You can follow along pretty easily even while chasing after two kiddos, I can attest to that.
All of their recipes are 6 steps or less, and they focus on approachable food, so you'll never be performing crazy cooking tactics; you'll feel perfectly comfortable.
Even as a former chef, I appreciate this fact because dinnertime as a parent can be quite stressful, and most of the time it's not appropriate to try to do something time-consuming, so EveryPlate really hit the nail on the head with that aspect.
Parents: you'll definitely want to check them out just based on that!
Freshness, Quality & Sustainability of Ingredients
I was quite impressed by the freshness and quality of the ingredients, given that EveryPlate is presented as a budget meal delivery service.
Meal kits sometimes have the issue of ingredients breaking down in transit, so that's always something to look for.
This wasn't an issue with either of our EveryPlate orders, however (we had 2 orders).
All of our ingredients were fresh and seemed high-quality.
In terms of sustainability, it's really a given that none of these ingredients are organic, as they are a budget meal kit service.
That being said, if you're looking for a budget meal delivery service, organic ingredients probably aren't at the top of your expectation list.
Regardless, EveryPlate definitely holds its own when it comes to quality and freshness.
Lowest Priced Meal Kit Service?
At $4.99 per serving, EveryPlate is definitely one of the most affordable meal kit services available currently.
Many other kits cost upwards of $10+ per serving, albeit with more features.
This kit hits all the right marks and it's not only low cost, but it's also high value because what they provide isn't low quality by any means.
What We Liked
The first thing that stood out to me with EveryPlate is the fact that they display the estimated time for a recipe right on the thumbnail when looking at your recipe choices.
This means if you're specifically looking for quick recipes, you can choose them easily without opening each one to check.
Also, I love the fact that they have a good variety of different proteins and vegetables.
And you can even swap your side out for something else with many recipes!
Mostly, I really appreciate the fact that this doesn't taste like a budget meal kit.
The recipes were delicious and high quality; they didn't seem lacking in any way, and that's coming from a foodie family.
What We Didn't Like
One thing I didn't like much is the lack of options with the serving sizes.
It really would've been so much more convenient (kind of the point of the service) if they offered either a 3-serving plan or the ability to add a meal onto your normal plan.
Secondly, I didn't like the shipping fee, although I do understand why they charge it (to keep their costs lower).
