Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It? My HungryRoot Review

The website itself is easy to navigate and has a list of recipes you can browse through; this will give you an idea of the kind of meals you can expect.

However, you’ll need to actually make an account to be able to view the full menu offering

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of information detailing how the plans work, either, or the options available to you, and you’ll need to do a little bit of digging through the FAQs to find out more. Plus, you have to sign up before you’re able to answer the questionnaire that will determine your menu choices, which might put some off.  

There’s currently no mobile app available either, and all of your orders will need to be managed via the website.

Creating an account is simple enough and should only take a few minutes. Once logged in you’ll be prompted to answer a short questionnaire that asks how many people you’re cooking for each week and how many meals you need alongside dietary and allergy requirements. This can take around 5 – 10 minutes to fill in and will result in your first order being auto-generated.

There are no meal plans here and you’ll instead be offered a number of ingredients based on your dietary preferences and how many meals you’d like. The dietary options that determine your basket choices are:

Ingredients are generally focused on easy-to-make home cooking recipes, and you won’t find a huge variety of thrilling new ones to try. That being said, the recipes are filling, delicious and healthy. We’ve covered all the meal type categories below, along with some of the most popular options:

For the most part, you can let HungryRoot auto-select your meals for you and you’ll usually get a respectable variety of ingredients to try each week. However, some customers might find that meals start to repeat, especially for those on specialist diets like pescetarian, as the recipe list isn’t as extensive for some categories. You might want to browse the list yourself, or shop for ingredients you think can be mixed and matched to make other dishes. 

Price can vary considerably depending on how many meals you’ve selected and how many people you’re cooking for. Once you’ve decided how many meals you’d like, and what your dietary requirements are, you’ll be assigned a number of ‘credits’ to select ingredients. 

These can be a little complicated at first, so it’s probably best to let HungryRoot choose your ingredients for your first couple of orders at least. Generally, each meal tends to average out at a cost of around $9.99 per portion and delivery is free. Below we’ve detailed the minimum order as set out on the HungryRoot website, but costs and plans above this minimum limit will vary and aren’t disclosed before you sign up.

HungryRoot is probably one of the most allergen-friendly home delivery services in the industry, catering for nuts, shellfish, soy, dairy and gluten. Vegetarians, vegans and pescetarians are covered too with an impressive range of dishes that can be cooked up using the ingredient list. 

While the service makes every effort to provide fresh, organic produce, it should be noted that this isn’t a weight-loss platform. Calorie counts are included with recipes, but no nutritional information is provided. So, if you’re looking to shed those pounds, you’ll need to do your own research or try a specialist diet platform.

If you’re looking to save money and eat healthier by cooking at home, meal delivery services are your best friend. Not only can they help you to achieve your healthy eating goals, but meal delivery services like HungryRoot make the process much easier. 

Whether you’re a kitchen newbie or a certified home chef, HungryRoot has a lot to offer. One of the things that appealed to me most about HungryRoot was that they don’t just send what you need for dinner—they send the full-sized ingredients. 

Unlike other meal delivery services that send over two potatoes, HungryRoot sends a whole bag of potatoes. This means that you can make even more meals with the leftover ingredients, so your money extends even further than it does with other services. Let’s get right into what I thought about my HungyRoot experience!

The ordering process with HungryRoot was straightforward and simple. First, you fill out a short quiz to help the algorithm determine which kinds of foods to put in your box. The quiz asks about your dietary needs, goals, and which types of proteins you like to eat. 

HungryRoot’s quiz also asks which types of meals you prefer to eat throughout the day, which I thought was nice. HungryRoot clearly puts a lot of thought into curating their grocery boxes for the customers, which is especially important since you can’t choose your own meals.

One thing I feel that it’s important to note is that HungryRoot requires you to pay before it shows you the meals you will be getting. Considering you already don’t get to choose the meals, it would definitely be nice to see what you’re paying for first.

Hungryroot allows you to choose your delivery day, which is always a plus. I chose Tuesday and was informed that because of the holiday (Labor Day) my package would be a day late. As promised, it showed up at my doorstep on Wednesday. The package came as I expected; in a make-shift cooler inside the box. There was thick paneling on all four sides, with a few large ice packs to keep everything fresh.

When the day finally arrived, I was excited to rip the box right open. Unfortunately, I was met with a bit of a mess. The spinach artichoke sauce sitting on top had been turned upside down and spilled out onto a few other items, attracting some unwanted ants into the box. I cleaned it up and everything else seemed to be packaged well, so hopefully I won’t find any ants in my bean salad tomorrow. (Update- I didn’t.) 

I chalked up the saucy spill to a shipping blunder (I’m looking at you, UPS) and moved on. The rest of the items looked great, save for a few cucumbers that seemed to be a bit beyond their moment. I do want to note that I was missing the box of Banza that was supposed to be in my box, so I had to sub in my own pasta for one of the meals. 

Unlike many meal delivery services that organize the ingredients for each meal together in smaller bags, HungryRoot had all of the ingredients just sitting in the box in no particular order. I’m assuming that this is because HungryRoot is meant to be more of a grocery delivery service that provides meal ideas, rather than a true meal prep delivery service. 

The quality of the food was great. HungryRoot uses healthy ingredients from trust-worthy brands that you could find at a grocery store like Sprouts or Whole Foods. I loved getting to see the names of the products I was eating and knowing that I could go pick them up at the store if I ever wanted to enjoy them again.

In terms of flavor, I would say HungryRoot mostly nailed it but missed in some aspects. The tacos lacked flavor because of the lack of spices, so I definitely think HungryRoot could have made a huge difference by tossing in a few spice packets. However, the taste of the produce and most of the packaged items were delicious.

Aside from a couple mushy-looking cucumbers and the spilled sauce, everything else seemed to be in great condition. The ingredients were fresh and it was really awesome to get full-sized ingredients that I could actually find at the store if I wanted to enjoy them again. 

I’m a big fan of the concept of meal delivery services like HungryRoot because they provide you with everything you need to make your meals, but still allow you to do the cooking yourself. This eliminates the possibility of food waste from over-buying and saves me from the stress of figuring out what to cook.

While HungryRoot does not offer instructional videos, they do feature an entire collection of recipes on their website. All of the HungryRoot recipes are easy to understand and display the nutritional facts, as well photos of the ingredients you need. 

The recipes provided by HungryRoot were all straightforward, quick, and easy to make. There was no dish that took more than 15 minutes of effort on my part. Some of the meals were better than others, so let’s get right into my thoughts about each of them. 

This meal was easy to make and only took about 10 minutes from start to finish. Convenience-wise, I’d give it a 5/5. Flavor-wise, I’d give it a ⅗. The flavors were lacking here, but the meal was filling and overall satisfying. 

I loved this meal! All I had to do was toss the brown rice/quinoa packet into the microwave, chop a few cucumbers, and throw everything together. The zucchini bean salad brought a ton of flavor and the caesar dressing packet was awesome. This meal was ready in about 3 minutes and tasted fantastic. Even my veggie-hating boyfriend approved of this one.

Honestly, I was torn on how to rate this one. The flavors were incredible; Hungryroot’s vegan spinach artichoke sauce was absolutely divine. However, Hungryroot forgot to send the Banza I needed to make the dish, so I feel like I have to dock them a star for that. I made the dish with orzo instead and it turned out fantastic. 

I’ll be blunt, this was the meal I was looking forward to the least. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was a little unexciting and I had already had the feta turkey burgers before. Hungryroot didn’t allow me to edit the meals they selected for me, so that’s something to take into account. All in all, it was a tasty meal that was easy to make. 

Overall, I had a really good experience with Hungryroot. The meals were tasty, healthy, and easy to make. The process starts off with a quiz to help Hungryroot determine the right grocery plan for each individual customer, which is a huge plus in my book. 

Would I have liked to make changes to my meals? Yes. Did I enjoy my experience regardless? Absolutely. If you’re on the hunt for a meal delivery service that provides full-sized products and easy-to-make recipes, Hungryroot is a great choice.

You can browse a range of extra desserts, teas, coffees and pancake mixes to supplement your order. Plus, if you have enough credits in your plan you can freely search through the grocery list and add any extra ingredients you’d like. You can opt for items like additional protein, more sauces, extra bread and snack packs to name a few.

You’ll find answers to most queries via the handy FAQ page which covers topics like account administration, payment methods and order amendments. If you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can choose to call, email or text a customer service agent between 10 am and 6 pm ET seven days a week. Agents are friendly, helpful and courteous and will usually respond quite quickly when you reach out, although a live chat option would be nice for more urgent issues.

Before you decide to cancel, you can choose to instead pause your deliveries for up to eight weeks, or you can make edits if you’re not happy with the types of ingredients being provided. If you do decide to cancel, you’ll need to give HungryRoot at least one week’s notice, otherwise, you’ll be charged and the following week’s package will be delivered. 

If HungryRoot doesn’t quite have that variety you’re looking for, or you’d prefer to have your meals premade for you for extra convenience, you might want to try one of these alternatives.