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.