The 6 Best Build-Your-Own Meal Delivery Services In NYC
Jan. 15, 2014, 11:52 a.m.
NYC has plenty of handy meal delivery services that will help you assemble dinner without forcing you to leave the house, ever. Here are our favorites.
It is a made-up indisputable fact that the average New Yorker spends about 33.3 years of his or her life waiting in line at Trader Joe's (another 1/3 of his or her life is comprised of arguing over whether it's "IN" line or "ON" line). But you don't have to wind around 14th Street for an hour if you don't want to—the city's got plenty of stellar meal delivery services that'll set dinner on your table without forcing you to leave the house. Here are our favorites; as always, leave yours in the comments.
BLUE APRON: Blue Apron is the chef's meal service, whether you're an accomplished cook or just learned how to boil spaghetti. The site's pretty simple—after you subscribe to the service, you can pick three of their weekly recipes, which include options like Moroccan Beef Tangine or stuffed cabbage with sweet-and-sour tomato sauce, and indicate how many people you'll be cooking for. The Blue Apron team will provide all the ingredients—most of which are locally-sourced—for you along with recipe cards and step-by-step instructions for preparing your meal. The subscription service runs $9.99-a-person per meal, and you can opt for vegetarian meals or their poultry, meat or fish plan; you can even put the service on hold if you plan to spend a week living solely off pizza.
Visit blueapron.com for details.
PLATED: This is another one of those IKEA-esque meal services, providing all the nuts, bolts and planks of wood you need to assemble dinner (thankfully, the assembly instructions are a little less cryptic). Like Blue Apron, Plated patrons will receive dinner kits filled with ingredients and recipes for dishes like balsamic skirt steak with fresh corn polenta and salmon teriyaki; unlike Blue Apron, though, Plated doesn't require you to sign up for a subscription, and you can order your dishes a la carte at $15-a-plate—a $10-a-month subscription gets you $12-a-plate meals, and you can skip a week whenever you wish. Bonus points: Plated sticks with organic, free-range and hormone-free meat, fish and poultry.
Visit plated.com for details.
FRESHDIRECT: FreshDirect has made a name for itself helping New Yorkers avoid long lines at grocery stores for years now. But it's not just good for sticking fresh produce and boxes of cereal on your doorstop; FreshDirect's also got a solid selection of ready-made meals perfect for anyone who's main cooking utensil is the microwave. The company offers everything from 4-minute microwaveable meals to heatable pizzas, and if you are into using a real oven from time to time they've got a bunch of ready-to-cook meal kits, too. No subscription necessary, and meals are priced a la carte.
Visit freshdirect.com for details.
NATUREBOX: if you want an elaborate snack that stop shorts of a full meal, newish company NatureBox will send monthly snack boxes to your doorstep at only $19.95-a-pop. And no, we're not talking about Doritos taco chips or Cinnabon balls—NatureBox works with nutritionists to provide healthy goodies like chia seed crackers, raspberry fig bars and curry snack-and-nut mix. You can cancel your monthly delivery or put it on hold whenever you want, and if you find they've somehow sent you a particularly disgusting selection of sorts, they'll even refund the box for you.
Visit naturebox.com for details.
THE PORTABLE CHEF: This NYC-based meal service is similar to Blue Apron, Plated and the like in theory, but instead of providing you with the tools to cook your own meal, the Portable Chef crew prepares a fresh breakfast, lunch or dinner that's ready to heat-and-eat on the spot. Founder Uri Attia whips up a monthly menu of schmancy dishes like beef bourguignon, scallops with champagne sauce and chicken cutlets made with marsala and bacon, which he'll deliver to you at $30-per-plate; you can also get customized meals made depending on your dietary restrictions and food prefences, and he offers special 5-7 per week meal plans for people looking to lose weight or combat illness. You can opt for an a la carte meal selection or a subscription; do note, though, that delivery does run $20.
Visit portablechefnyc.com for details.
SWEET ROOTS NYC: Another New York-only deal, Sweet Roots is designed especially for people looking to fine-tune their nutritional intake. The team will curate a weekly menu for you based on your lifestyle, dietary and health needs, sending you the step-by-step recipes along with pre-prepped organic, local ingredients devoid of preservatives. They offer a wide variety of dishes, which can include anything from vegan tofu bahn mi to roast pork tenderloin, and meal options run the gamut from breakfast to dinner.
Sweet Roots is a little pricier than some of its less customized counterparts—breakfasts run $12-a-plate, lunches are $16-a-plate and dinners are $25-a-plate, with the option of added half portions for an additional price, and delivery in Brooklyn and Manhattan runs $10.
Visit sweetrootsnyc.com for details