FreshDirect Review - Tasty Meal Kits at Great Prices

The FreshDirect website isn’t as slick or modern-looking as what you’ll find at its rivals, but it’s very functional and easy to navigate. The menu is broken down into different categories like four-minute meals, salads, rotisserie, pizza, breakfasts, and sandwiches and pricing is clear and clicking on any item brings up a detailed list of nutritional information. Simply select the meals that catch your eye and head to the checkout. 

The provider has apps available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Functionality is nearly identical to the desktop version and both have received high praise in user reviews.

Creating an account only takes about five minutes and just requires some basic personal information and your payment details. There are no contractual commitments and FreshDirect won’t close your account for inactivity like you might find on other platforms. You can log in and order whenever you wish. 

Once you’ve created an account, you’ll have access to saved orders and favorites, which can be real time savers if you’re a regular customer. Plus, you’ll get easy access to the customer service team via your dashboard.

FreshDirect Meal Plans and Meal Selection Options

There aren’t actually any proper meal plans to choose from here; you’ll have total freedom to choose anything you’d like from the menu. The experience is much closer to that of a regular eCommerce store. You’ll browse the meals you want, add them to your basket, and pay for everything on checkout. Choices are broken down into meal kits or prepared dishes and we’ve covered the basic features below:

FreshDirect Meal Types

There’s a huge range of different menu types, cuisines, and dishes to choose from and each menu has its own list of specialties. There might not be a lot of international variety or much of a range of exotic or exciting dishes, but there’s more than enough to keep most people happy.

To kick off the list, meal kits come in three categories:

Standard meal kits – A selection of dinner-time options that anyone can cook. Some examples include:

Smart and simple meal kits – Designed to be cooked in about half the time of other meal kits:

Stir-fry – Exactly what it says on the tin, a mix of different types of stir fry:

The prepared meals section is broken down into an impressive 15 categories including four-minute meals, appetizers, breakfast, deli salads, pizzas, soups, and pot pies, to name a few. You can check out a full list over on the website but we’ve covered some customer favorites below:

The service focuses on simple meals that are easy to prepare, but choosing which ones you’d like can be a little intimidating when you have a menu of hundreds of dishes to choose from. To make things easier you can filter on categories like:

Plus, you can filter meals based on nutritional content, prioritizing across 17 categories including fiber content, vitamin C levels, protein, salt content, and serving size. If you’re still struggling to choose, simply click the ‘most popular’ button to find out what other customers are buying.

How Much Does FreshDirect Cost?

It’s difficult to give you a set price list or budget because every dish and meal kit is priced individually. The minimum order is $30, plus a shipping charge between $5.99 and $15.99 depending on location, but beyond this, it’ll be entirely up to you how much you want to spend. Plus, there are no weekly subscriptions and you can place as many orders as you’d like, or buy up in bulk for the coming weeks.

Individual meals will cost on average around $7.99-$8.99 per portion and we’ve broken down some price ranges below to give you an idea of how much it might cost. We’ve assumed a shipping rate of $5.99 in each case:

FreshDirect doesn’t have the widest array of choices for those on specialist diets, so if you want enough to feed yourself for a full week, you might want to try another platform. That being said, there are a few interesting options here:

Fresh Direct has a reasonably simple ordering process. Upon opening the website, you use the search bar or drop-down tabs to look for your groceries. They also offer a wide variety of beverage options, including alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and spirits. Once you find what you are looking for, you add each item to your cart. If something is unavailable, the item’s product photo will be black and white.

After you have gathered all your items in the cart, you will head to check out. The total in your cart must reach a minimum of $30.00 before taxes and fees. You may also include a donation in your order to local Food Pantries, which is a terrific way for FreshDirect to give back to the community. The first step is to schedule your delivery using the time slots provided for that week. Then, you provide your shipping and billing information to finalize your order. They send over a confirmation email shortly after, and a reminder before the delivery is scheduled to arrive.

I placed my order on September 20, 2021, and had the option to select which date and time slot I would prefer for delivery. I chose September 23, 2021, as that was the most convenient option for me, but earlier slots were available. It was estimated to come between 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. My order ended up arriving at almost precisely 12:30 pm, which was right on time!

I was home and prepared to accept my delivery, so I did not have to worry about leaving it outside. Although, FreshDirect provides an option while placing the order to determine what steps you would like them to take if you are not home in time for the delivery.

My order arrived in a reusable grocery bag with the FreshDirect logo on it in terms of packaging. The bag is good quality and spill-proof. I will definitely save it for future grocery shopping trips!

The ingredients were simply placed in the bag, which was not an issue since I only ordered a few essentials for the week. Although, the fresh produce, including avocados, blueberries, bananas, mushrooms, zucchini, were each carefully wrapped.

All the produce we received was very fresh and of good quality. In addition, I also ordered some snacks and a pack of turkey bacon which were perfectly fine upon delivery.

Everything I ordered tasted great! I especially enjoyed how juicy the fresh blueberries were upon arriving. Since they were carefully packaged, the berries lasted quite a few days, and I paired them with some waffles for breakfast.

As mentioned earlier, the produce arrived super fresh. I was particularly concerned about the avocados since they tend to ripen quickly. Luckily, they came ripe but not overly ripe to the point that they were turning brown inside. I was very pleased and satisfied that they took the time to send over quality avocados.

FreshDirect did provide some supporting materials along with the delivery. They consisted of a brochure discussing the company more, a coupon code for your next order, and a Hello Fresh Coupon. While I was surprised about the Hello Fresh coupon, it was nice that they provided an option to try another meal delivery service. I did not know that the two services were related until researching it later that evening.

Since Fresh Direct is more so a grocery delivery service, I was not cooking any pre-planned meals. Although I made the mushrooms with some of the steaks I received from Butcher Box. I added the mushrooms to a wok with some fresh green beans, bell peppers, and a drop of olive oil. Then, I seasoned them lightly with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Some of the remaining flavors of the steak were also present in the pan.  They came out delicious and paired exceptionally well with the NY strip steaks.

One of the best additional features about FreshDirect is that it acts as an online grocery store too. You can find thousands of different items including fruit and veg, meat, poultry, cheeses, dairy products, baked goods, deli items, beers, wines, and more. The grocery store works in exactly the same way as the meal kit service and you just add each item to your basket. This means you can keep your recipe cards and buy individual ingredients separately which could save you money.  

What’s more, the platform regularly runs sales promotions, seasonal meal offers, and coupons for bargain hunters out there.

The FreshDirect customer service team is pretty attentive and has a reputation for good response times. If you send an email, you can usually expect a response within one hour during business hours. Plus, you can reach out via live chat or over the phone if you have a more immediate query.

The platform runs quite lengthy operating hours and can be reached between 6:30 am and 12:30 am ET. You can access all of FreshDirect’s customer service options via the website, the app, or through your member dashboard.

Since FreshDirect works like a regular eCommerce store there are no contracts and no subscriptions. You can cancel or amend existing orders, but this must be done several days prior to your delivery date in order to not be charged. The provider will email your deadline date, or you can check it via your online account. There are no other penalties for canceling the service and you won’t receive regular boxes.

If there’s not enough variety for you at FreshDirect, or you’re looking for some more complex dishes to try out, you might want to check out one of the rival platforms below.