11 Best Meal Delivery Services, Tested by an E Restaurant Critic

More Meal Kits I Liked Sunbasket Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Sunbasket (~$14 per serving): Sunbasket focuses heavily on fresh, organic ingredients, and offers a whole lot of variety in its menus. Its recipes are attentive to saucing, and to basic good cooking techniques such as deglazing. Like Hungryroot, it also offers breakfasts and snacks to supplement meal options with little extras such as coconut yogurt and sous-vide egg bites. The meal kit also lets you filter out allergen-containing items. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe loved the flexibility and add-ons. During my most recent test, I enjoyed an excellent Greek chicken and orzo salad dish—and wonder of wonders, the prep time was actually the actual prep time (about 30 minutes). The focus on organic ingredients does make Sunbasket one of the more expensive meal kit options, and the annual Thanksgiving meal kit was a lovely and welcome extravagance at $200. Factor (~$14 a serving): Factor is a prepared meal delivery plan run by HelloFresh, with ready-to-eat meals that look a lot like TV dinners. But there's a twist: The trays have never been frozen. They were made fresh in a commissary kitchen and were shipped out with cold packs, yielding a result that's kind of like restaurant leftovers. Proteins in particular often maintain their texture quite well, including a chimichurri filet mignon I couldn't believe I microwaved. Some meals, especially carb-avoidant or keto meals, are oddly mushy. (For what it's worth, my gluten-free colleague, Scott Gilbertson, wrote that he had the best luck with Factor's Mexican fare.) But meals centered on proteins and whole starches, like potatoes or rice, alongside veggies like green beans or brussels sprouts, tended to fare quite well. So did stir-fry-style meals. In fact, a recent test of Factor's high-protein plan was my favorite experience with the meal kit and included wild rice and excellent pork loin. I do wish Factor would shed its reliance on the microwave, however: When I went off-script and used a Ninja Crispi air fryer or convection oven, I had much better results than with the nuker. But non-air-fryer ovens do not seem to offer the same improvement. Like many ready-to-eat meals, it's a bit more expensive than the kits you cook yourself. Fuel Meals Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Fuel Meals ($13 to $14 a serving): Fuel Meals are not the cheapest option among meal delivery that arrives frozen; it's about the same price as never-frozen meals from Factor and CookUnity. But I found that Fuel fulfills a specific niche as well as any of the other prepared meal plans. It excels at no-nonsense, no-fluff, no-added-ingredients, pure-protein-packed nutritive meals. Some of Fuel's meals had as few as five ingredients, consisting of essentially the macro nutrients themselves plus a modicum of oil and salt. A large percentage of meals are marked gluten-free or dairy-free. Does all this mean less flavor? It can. The meals are also often not beautiful, dominated by a large and no-nonsense serving of protein. But Fuel's meal service offers an admirable focus, especially for those bulking up or watching carbs. Meals are substantive, usually topping 600 calories and 40 grams of protein without added sugar or fatty dairy or carb-heavy filler. I feel like if I wore tank tops more often, this is what I'd eat. Wildgrain Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Wildgrain ($13 to $17 per loaf or box of pastries): This is less a meal delivery service than a way to step up a home meal. Wildgrain is a monthly delivery bread bo You receive par-baked bread and pastries from small bakeries all over the country. This is pretty much the same process that likely happens at local restaurants, when your warm bread basket comes out: It's not quite as high-quality as you'd get direct from an artisan bakery, if you live in places with artisan bakeries. But it's also as fresh as it gets, and I had a very good experience testing the box in October 2025, in particular, with sourdough breads perfect for large meals with houseguests. You finish the baking at home, so what you have at the end is ultra-fresh baked bread, biscuits, doughnuts, or scones that are still warm and crisp from the oven. A Wildgrain subscription arrives as a monthly box, filled with four, six, or 12 items that might range from a full sourdough loaf or fresh-made pasta to a pack of six doughnuts or four large croissants. Basically, you build your own box each month, choosing from among healthy sourdough or pasta and decadent pastries. Thistle ($13 to $16 per serving): A prior top pick for solo diners with individually prepared dishes that require little to no prep, Thistle is mostly a plant-based meal kit—but there's a $3 option to add sustainable meats to any otherwise vegan meal. It's also so local and seasonal that the West and East Coasts have different menus, and the whole middle of the country, except Chicago, gets none. (You can check your zip code here to see if you can get delivery.) WIR