Finally there's an affordable meal kit delivery service that doesn't skimp on flavor (2024)

We'll forever recommend the convenience of meal kit delivery services for saving time on grocery store trips, inspiring us with new recipes, and generally saving us from headaches when weeknight dinner time rolls around. They can be game changers for busy households.

But just like everything else right now, costs are going up—and that includes our favorite meal kits. That's why we were excited to try Dinnerly (available at Dinnerly) , an affordable meal kit delivery service that offers a variety of meals starting at just $5.99 per serving. (For context, our favorite meals from HelloFresh start at $9.99 a person.)

So does a lower cost mean lower quality meals? We tested the service to find out.

About Dinnerly

Owned by Martha Stewart's meal kit delivery service, , Dinnerly is an affordable alternative that focuses on easy, family-friendly recipes that require minimal prep work.

Each week offers a menu with a whopping 100-plus options, including plenty for folks with dietary restrictions like vegan, gluten-free, and low-calorie meals. There are also other helpful labels to help subscribers sift through all the options, like kid-friendly, one-pot meals, and options under 30 minutes.

Customers can choose to customize certain meals to swap featured proteins (replace steak with tilapia, for example), and they can opt for Premi-YUM menu options that come at an additional cost (think family-size chicken pot pie and a graze-able brunch board).

Dinnerly also offers a small selection of microwaveable meals, desserts, and snacks to tack onto your subscription.

How much does Dinnerly cost?

Dinnerly meals start at just $4.99 per serving. This is significantly cheaper than most popular meal kit delivery services on the market, like HelloFresh, Home Chef, and Blue Apron, which all average around $10 per serving (or more).

How we tested Dinnerly

We ordered, cooked, and ate two weeks' worth of meals from Dinnerly. The meals we tested were purposefully diverse, including the vegan crispy honey garlic tofu, a chicken satay bowl with peanut sauce, sweet-soy ginger pork tenderloin, Moroccan-spiced chicken soup, and tilapia piccata with roasted potatoes.

After testing, we canceled our subscription to see how easy the process was. And throughout testing, we took note of things like the accuracy of the estimated time to prepare meals, the correspondence we received from the brand via email, and of course, how tasty the meals were.

What we like about Dinnerly

It delivers tasty meals at affordable prices

When we first realized how affordable Dinnerly meals are compared to most meal kiit services on the market, we were skeptical. After all, we had tried EveryPlate in the past—another affordable meal kit service owned by HelloFresh—and we weren't totally sold. The prices were fantastic, but a lot of the meals fell short. And the menu didn't offer much variety when it came to international flavors and dietary-friendly options.

Dinnerly is different. Each week, subscribers have over 100 meal options to choose from, including unique options—like vegan Thai red curry tofu stir-fry, falafel platters with homemade hummus, and French onion-seared steak.

There are also plenty of classic options for kids and picky eaters, like hamburgers and cheesy ravioli.

And all the meals we tested came out delicious. The Moroccan chicken soup was filled with aromatic spices and plenty of flavor, while the honey-garlic tofu resulted in perfectly textured tofu that had us reaching for seconds (luckily, portions are plentiful).

The recipes are timesaving and require minimal steps

Dinnerly boasts that all of its recipes require just five steps or less, which means no meal is too intricate—even for cooking newbies.

And during testing, we found that all of the time estimates—which ranged from 20 to 40 minutes, tops—were accurate. We even finished some faster than expected sometimes!

We also noticed that the Dinnerly recipes typically required much less preparation work and post-cooking cleanup than we've experienced with other meal kits. That's because they're designed to make easy, fuss-free meals for busy consumers.

Packaging is sustainable

A downside of meal kit delivery services is that they often come with superfluous, single-use packaging that's often bad for the environment (and can clog your trash bins).

Luckily, all of Dinnerly's packaging is SFI-certified, which means they're all made from paper that's sourced from sustainably managed forests, and everything is fully recyclable.

Dinnerly's ice packs are also reusable and fully recyclable; just remove the non-toxic filling before placing the plastic casing into the recycling bin.

What we don’t like

The ingredients do not arrive organized

Perhaps the most frustrating part of our experience with Dinnerly was organizing and gathering the ingredients for each recipe.

Unlike brands like Home Chef, Dinnerly's ingredients do not arrive organized in separate bags to go along with each recipe. Instead, everything is placed (somewhat haphazardly) into a general box, with protein packages placed below it atop the ice packs.

And since Dinnerly doesn't include printed recipe cards with each shipment, we had to have our email handy when we were gathering ingredients and when it was time to cook.

And if a package arrived particularly full, we found that sometimes the contents spilled outside of the box and ended up mingling with the protein packs of fish and meat—not ideal.

You'll need some staple ingredients on hand

Of course, it's pretty standard for meal kit delivery services to omit sending staple ingredients like salt, pepper, and cooking oil (assuming most folks already have these things on hand). But we found that Dinnerly required even more ingredients on hand than expected, like fresh garlic and apple cider vinegar.

Since garlic was featured in almost all recipes sent the week we were testing, we were disappointed that the brand didn't send a head of it along with the rest of the ingredients in the box.

However, the brand did send a list of extra ingredients needed in an email before the box was shipped out, allowing users to be prepared before it's time to start cooking.

Navigating the website for dietary restrictions can be challenging

Since there are so many options offered on Dinnerly's weekly menu, it can be tough to navigate all the options in order to decide which ones you'd like to add to your weekly box.

Currently, there's no way to filter the menu items to exclude certain options. For example, you can't narrow down your search to show only "gluten-free" or "vegan" options. Instead, you'll have to scroll through each option, looking for the appropriate labels manually. (We used our computer's search function to help out with this.)

However, you can adjust your preferences and dietary needs in Dinnerly's settings, so that the algorithm will automatically select meals for you each week depending on your preferences.

Should you subscribe to Dinnerly?

Yes! Especially if you're looking for a meal kit service on a budget

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of Dinnerly meals we tested. Despite the significantly low price tag, servings are large and tasty. And given the impressively abundant menu options every week, there's always something for everyone—whether you're craving Asian-inspired flavors, a good steak, or something that's kid-friendly and easy.

While there are a few minor hiccups we encountered—like unorganized packaging and a somewhat confusing browsing experience—we didn't think any of these were deal-breakers for the service, especially given the price. We were still able to follow the brand's intuitive instructions to achieve tasty, cost-effective meals.

For more options from other brands we've tested, check out our list of the best meal kit delivery services.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.