Sunday, February 8, 2015

Blue Apron vs Gobble Meal Delivery Review and Comparison

Many days I am at work anywhere from 10-14 hours, sometimes longer. The inclination after a tiring day for many of us is to snack incessantly on random goodies (guilty!) or to pick up less than healthy take out or just go out to eat. The idea of thinking up something to cook is certainly low on my list of things I want to do, much less go to the store to pick up groceries. Several of my friends turned me onto Blue Apron, which is a "meal delivery" service of sorts. Basically you sign up and they send you a box of ingredients once a week to make 3 meals that serve two people. They have weekly menus offering 5-6 different choices of dishes with vegetarian, and omnivore options. You fill out a quick survey specifying food preferences when you sign up and they send you some combination of 3 meals each week. There are options for 2 persons or a family plan, but no plans available for one person. The box they send includes all the items you need to make the meal, but you do have to wash and chop stuff. Blue Apron meals come together in 30-45 minutes depending on the recipe. 


Blue Apron: Sauteeing!

Blue Apron: Finished product! Korean Style Tteok: Spicy Pork Ragu with Gai Lan


Blue Apron: Banana Leaf Steamed Cod with Spiced Rice, Yu Choy and Coconut


This differs from Gobble -where they boast 10 minute meals, one pan, and minimal-no food preparation. 




Everything is nicely packaged and there are ice packs in there to keep everything fresh and cold.

Meals are individually packaged with Gobble - very convenient.


That's my problem with Gobble...it feels more like food assembly than cooking to me since many components of the recipe are already prepared/pre-cooked. I also feel the dishes Blue Apron sent resulted in restaurant quality meals (see my pictures above) while Gobble meals seemed more like frozen meal quality. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of our Gobble meals to show. I received one set of meals from each service prior to this review. The other nice thing is that both services send you free invites to give your friends to try their service after subscribing for a while. You have the option with both programs to skip weeks - you can do this ahead of time, and you can always unskip weeks as well. You can easily sign up, receive a week of recipes, and skip the next few weeks to see if you like the service. If you do this, you can preview the next week's menu of recipes with Blue Apron; with Gobble only as the upcoming week approaches do they send you an email notifying you of the coming meals -and then you can unskip the next week if there are recipes you are interested in. Of course, you can just opt to receive meals and be surprised when your delivery comes!    

Oh! I almost forgot to talk about the pricing. Both are reasonably priced. Blue Apron is $59.94 for 2 persons/3 meals ($9.99 per person per meal) with free shipping. The Family plan is for 4 people and you have either a 2 or 4 meal option at $8.74 per person per meal. Gobble is $11.95 per person, so for 2 persons/3 meals it comes to $71.70, and for 4 people/3 meals $143.40 - I'm guessing the higher price is because more of the recipe is done for you. These prices include the tax/shipping so the $59.94 is the total price you pay per week with Blue Apron and the same for $71.70 with Gobble. While it may not seem as cost effective as you buying all the ingredients for a recipe at the grocery store - there is a lot less if any food waste. I know many times I've tossed bunches of dried out parsley, or unused celery among other unused and spoiled produce after cooking. It seems so wasteful to me and money down the drain in reality just the same. 

Overall, I think these are great services for the busy person who still wants the satisfaction of a great tasting home cooked meal. It would be nice if there was an option for a single person I think, but the prices are reasonable for two, and if you don't have someone to eat the second meal, the food is good enough that you won't mind eating the other portion as well! On that note - the portion sizes are good and you will definitely be full. Trust me, I'm an eater! After trying both services, I definitely think Blue Apron is the better program. Their websites are very similar but Blue Apron's is better, and I really like that you can preview the menus with Blue Apron. These services take the guesswork out of meal planning which for me, is hugely helpful, and their recipes are quite inventive. 

I really think you would enjoy at least trying one of these programs - Gobble currently only delivers to California and Nevada, while Blue Apron delivers to most states. I would love to hear you what you guys think! Leave me a comment with your thoughts.     

28 comments:

  1. This was a really helpful review. The pricing for both services seems to be very reasonable considering you would drop more than $10 at a restaurant for even a cheap meal out. I wonder if they offer organic options for their proteins. Thanks for the helpful post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi There! Thanks so much for the comment! You're absolutely right - the price is fantastic and very reasonable, especially for folks who eat out on the regular. They don't specifically mention organic produce/protein but Blue Apron does showcase some of the farms they source their ingredients from on their website so that is nice at least.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Great review. I was just checking out gobble when I decided I should probably look into other options before finalizing. So glad I did! I am more than willing to do a little more prep to save money and since it will be just me seeing meals ahead of time will make deciding what weeks to skip super easy. I will be going with blue apron instead. Thank again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rosebud! Thanks for reading and I hope Blue Apron works for you! Let me know if you need a referral code for a free week!

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Cdngrl (Canadian Girl?), I was wondering if you might have one of those Blue Apron Free Week coupons available to an older retired couple looking for some decent food on a limited budjet? That would be myself and my wife wo can no longer cook. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day! Alan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alan,
      I don't have a free Blue Apron, but this is free from Hello Fresh. Use it quickly. It expires in two Weeks!
      HUCSRCP. Go to hellofresh.com and enter this 7-letter code at checkout.

      Delete
    2. Hi Alan,
      Sorry for the late response. If you send me your email I can send you a free week of meals for BA! Thanks for reading!

      Delete
  6. Interesting, I much prefer Gobble and feel the quality is really great. I won't touch frozen dinners, and I think it's better than restaurants (though of course, results vary!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! I musta missed your comment. I'm glad Gobble worked out for you. Since writing my post we've had Gobble delivered a few more times, and the quality and convenience was better than my initial impression. Cheers to more cooking at home!

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I agree completely with O'Hara. I much prefer Gobble. Blue Apron meals are hit or miss in taste and use up all of your time and pans. I hate the cleanup. My Gobble meals have always been really great except maybe 1 or 2 times in 2 years. You short-sell how much cooking is involved, as most of the meat and vegetables are raw. Gobble also tries to locally and organically source a lot of the food without making the price too high. Their customer service is nice too. I also work crazy long hours and I will prepare Gobble over any other meal delivery service every time. The quality to time ratio is just what I had been searching for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's great that Gobble has been working for you. I agree - doing BA definitely requires more work and clean up! We still enjoy most of the meals though - at this point we've had many deliveries, and think both are pretty good services.

      Delete
  10. Great review. Helpful. I just received my first Gobble box and the first dinner was good. I chose Gobble because there is minimal prep and with a 3 month old baby I was looking for such ease! I have read a few reviews naming Blue Apron the "winner," so I will have to check it out. Have also heard good things about Sun Basket and Peach Dish. So many too choose from now!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I did Blue Apron a few months and could not get my prep and cook time under 1.5 hrs, plus add clean up of so many dishes and a meal was pushing 2 hours. I think it depends on where you are in life as to which service is superior. If you have young children, Gobble is the way to go - fridge to table in 30 mins with only your meal dishes to wash after. As far as the quality of the meals - I would say that part is a tie. Really comes down to how much time and energy you have in the evenings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! I totally agree. A lot of BA meals require at minimum 30-45 mins to prepare, which can be daunting if you have your hands full. As I have said, since posting my review, my opinion of Gobble has changed and the meal quality is quite good, so I think you're totally right about time and energy for meal prep!

      Delete
  13. I did Blue Apron a few months and could not get my prep and cook time under 1.5 hrs, plus add clean up of so many dishes and a meal was pushing 2 hours. I think it depends on where you are in life as to which service is superior. If you have young children, Gobble is the way to go - fridge to table in 30 mins with only your meal dishes to wash after. As far as the quality of the meals - I would say that part is a tie. Really comes down to how much time and energy you have in the evenings.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I enjoyed Blue Apron very much. It was offered at $40 off regular cost, so I felt it was definitely a bargain. I have a free offer for Gobble. I hope it is easy to cancel though. Based on your pics, it will not offer the gourmet quality meals we enjoyed from Blue Apron

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let us know what you think of Gobble! I think with all these programs you just have to remember to call to cancel if you don't want to continue the service. As a reader mentioned previously, there are now so many options with regards to these services, though i have not personally tried any of the others.

      Delete
  15. Hi, I have two teenagers and I love to cook but don't have the time. With that said, I have tried many of these meal delivery services. Gobble is my favorite simply because they are easy (some times I feel like a chicken without a head running around my kitchen) fast and delicious. Best of all, I can add additional protein to stretch the meals with no problem. There is always plenty of sauce etc.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've also tried both services. I used Blue Apron for several months before trying Gobble. I found that B.A. took longer than 35 minutes to prepare (alone). And, after the first few orders the quality of my "fresh" produce wasn't so fresh. I had a rotten onion with one delivery. I always found that only one - of three meals were great, the rest were just okay. My preference is Gobble. The overall quality is better, I tend to love all three meals, and it in no way reminds me of frozen or take-out. Plus, I don't think I've spent more than 15 minutes putting together a meal.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm LOVING Gobble!!!! This is my 4th week now and EVERY meal has been sooooo good! It also takes us between 10 and 20 mins to make each meal which has been such a lifesaver with two small daughters to make dinner for as well. My husband and I couldn't be happier with Gobble. I've already gotten 4 other people to sign up as well and they all got their first boxes this week and are loving it too! They all said they plan to continue the service as well. This has been a game changer for us!

    Use my referral link before for a free Gobble kit if you want to sign up! :)

    https://gobble.com/invites/G0BqmRLcP

    ReplyDelete
  18. It is extremely nice to see the greatest details presented in an easy and understanding manner. Find it

    ReplyDelete
  19. I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking all over for this! Keep continue. My Fit Foods

    ReplyDelete
  20. This was a very meaningful post, so informative and encouraging information, Thank you for this post.
    how to start a meal kit delivery service

    ReplyDelete