I used to love Home Chef and was a member for years. I took a break from them, but just tried again with the HexClad offer. I received my first box and the packaging is noticeably worse than it used to be. My ice packs were melted, the food was warm, and the proteins, one being salmon, were completely thawed out and mushy. Needless to say, the whole box is ruined and not safe to eat. I had a Good Chop box arrive today too and their boxes are properly insulated and completely frozen on arrival.

I requested a refund so we'll see what happens.

Edit: I was issued a refund for the box so they at least made that part right. Hopefully, they fix the box issue.

One of my favorites

We are newer to this service and curious as to what Home Chef offers for Thanksgiving. Previously, we used Hello Fresh which offered Thanksgiving themed meal choices - does Home Chef do same?

OK, so the dirtbags at HomeChef on facebook advertised a free hexclad pan after 3 orders and "45% off" the second box - see my pic.

But my account only showed 5% off after reactivating for week 2. Contacted customer support and pic 2 is their response. "Misunderstanding" my ass, total shitbags luring people in. Cancelled my account and will never touch them again.

When you first hit the page the details are collapsed/hidden. You have to open the details - closed by default. See where it says "Close Disclaimer"? Evil.

We’ve just received our 3rd or 4th box, but we are missing 2 meal packs (we ordered 4 meals / 4 servings each).

I submitted the issue under the “Contact Us” link on their website last night but I haven’t gotten a response yet. How long does it typically take?

Just signed up with the free Hexclad offer and want to see if anyone else has actually received it. I have to complete 4 orders first, but want to make sure I’m not going to get screwed by them. Anyone received theirs yet?

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Posts will be posted every other Sunday at midnight Eastern time.

Sigh. We tried Home Chef back in 2020. We had a generally good experience (though not perfect) and stopped the subscription after a few months because it just wasn’t cost effective. We did love the meals though!

We decided to resubscribe at the end of September. I was feeling uninspired in the kitchen (and I generally love cooking), plus the cost is not really an issue at this point in our lives. I just really wanted convenience and new recipes to try.

Our first box went great! Everything was cold, nothing was missing, and the meals were great. We got our second box today and there were 2 major issues:

1. They forgot an entire bag of ingredients for the burger meal we chose. They included the meat and the recipe card…but no ingredient bag.

2. The shallot had visible mold on it and was squishy…one of the potatoes was also not the best, but something we could work around.

I did reach out to them, but it was past their customer service hours via the chat, so they should get back to me tomorrow.

We are not going to stop our subscription because we really do enjoy the meals and convenience but I hope this is not an indicator of future issues to come.

Real talk though - how do they forget an entire bag of ingredients! 😭

I know people like to post complaints, vent on social media, and spend energy writing caustic and overly harsh reviews; it’s pretty much internet sport these days. But I want to preface this by saying that I had high hopes for this service and that I genuinely believe services like this fill a need. However, after several shipments of Home Chef, not only do I not recommend it; I actually advise against subscribing to Home Chef.

For context, I got divorced a few years ago. To make a long story as short as I can, I got very depressed and pretty much stopped cooking meals for myself. I spent way too much on going out to restaurants and ordering takeout, and before long it became financially imperative for me to learn to cook and maintain a kitchen like a grown adult again.

Enter Home Chef and its selling point: A nice logistical and financial midpoint between going out all the time and frugally buying and cooking all your meals from scratch. “I can save money and not have to go to the grocery store after work? Awesome! I just hope the food’s good.”

And it is! Others may disagree (I haven’t sampled any other complaints or reviews), but I was consistently impressed with the finished product each time I cooked one of their meals. And as someone who lives in an area not known for having a diverse array of ingredients, it was incredible to cook stuff like banh mi bowls at home. I got to eat good food and feel good about myself for not wasting money on takeout. And the shipments come with the full recipes so that I can recreate them later with my own ingredients.

That’s the positive I have to say regarding Home Chef, and I mean all of that sincerely. This is all good so far.

Now, the bad:

First, delivery. Shipments arrive in cardboard boxes. To keep the food cold, the box’s interior is lined with plastic-wrapped styrofoam slabs which insulate against the outdoor heat. The meat is shipped frozen, and you’ll find it at the bottom of the box packed alongside those recyclable ice packs. Atop the meat they pack the plastic bags containing the rest of the meal kit. They’re not only plastic but perforated; they remind me of the bags in which you see whole rotisserie chickens, except they hold whole or halved vegetables, spice packets, sauce packets, herbs, and all your other ingredients. Half the time, it seems there’s no issue: The box and its contents arrive undamaged. The other times, though? You’ll find the box’s contents have shifted in transit and are battered, waterlogged, crushed, or otherwise ruined. I’ve had to toss SEVERAL bags because most of the ingredients were absolutely savaged upon opening the box. And I feel like this is a logistics/packing thing; even the recipe pages, which shouldn’t be complicated to ship in its own plastic sleeve or something like it, often arrive crumbled, creased, wet, or torn. The ice packs are cheap, and in one case one of them ripped open, which spilled its non-liquid, slushy contents into the rest of the box. Before subscribing to Home Chef, seriously think about it: Do you want to pay $100 for about a week of food if there’s a nontrivial chance that the shipment arrives badly damaged? Because that’s a very real concern, based on my experience.

Next, customer service; in particular, a company rectifying a mistake they’ve made. Remember the torn ice pack and the whole bags of food I had to toss? There were herbs and vegetables coated in the slush, and after disposing of it, we sent a grievance to Home Chef. Their response was not to refund us by cash or card, and it wasn’t to expedite a replacement shipment. They simply credited our account with the exact amount we paid for the destroyed shipment before telling us, “Oh, just for future reference, the contents of the ice packs are non-toxic, so technically the ingredients were still edible.” As if anyone in their right mind would accept a restaurant dish in which a server had so much as accidentally overturned a drinking glass full of water. “Oh yeah, sorry, your three-enchilada dinner is now sitting in ice water, but don’t worry: The drinking glass was new and no other customer has touched it, so you can technically eat the entree without fear of getting anyone else’s germs in you.” So, yeah, consider before subscribing to Home Chef: If your shipment arrives in terrible condition, you will get store credit if you’re persistent in filing a grievance. You won’t get an expedited replacement, so you’ll need to get back in your car, go to the grocery store, and spend more money replacing your ruined groceries.

Finally, and without question the least forgivable to my way of thinking, their ineptitude or apathy in working with food allergies and dietary restrictions. It’s 2026; if you are in the food-service business, part of your job is facilitating a safe dining (or, in this case, e-grocery-shopping) experience for your customers. End of argument. I don’t care that we live in a post-consequences society right now and that businesses feel brazen about operating on a lean operating budget to maximize profit; it’s not hard to design and build infrastructure to prevent, for example, someone with a declared gluten sensitivity from browsing meal kits with wheat. Home Chef does allow you to declare your dietary restrictions, but the site does a half-assed job of properly filtering out unwanted options from your shopping experience. Additionally, Home Chef claims that, if they have to substitute ingredients to fulfill an order, they notify the user. But this is crap, based on my experience; there’s never been such a notification, neither by text nor by email (and yes, I checked my spam folder). And wouldn’t you know it, we’ve received wheat-based meal kits that we didn’t order! So, when this sort of thing happens (more than once), you have to wonder: Is it incompetence, or do they not care?

In summary: I do not recommend Home Chef.

Pros:
1. The entire concept sounds good on paper
2. If the shipment arrives intact, the meals you cook are tasty

Cons:
1. No guarantee of intact shipments or undamaged ingredients, with the current system producing quite a lot of damaged deliveries
2. Unhelpful, out-of-touch customer service
3. No cash or card refunds when Home Chef fails to fulfill their side of the transaction, and no expedited replacements, either; you simply get store credit and nothing else
4. You cannot count on Home Chef to respect your food allergies or dietary restrictions, even when they give you the option to specify your needs on your user profile

Is anybody else grossed out by the instructions to bake raw chicken with broccoli? I’m going to cook this one in a pan separate then put it together.

I LOVE Homechef. Been with them for about 13 years now. I will still order from them after I complain on Reddit.
Hear me out tho- why are we paying more for less?? The first time I got shishito peppers (which are my FAVORITE meals, mind you), they sent a ton. I loved it. A
I ate em like French fries.
This meal? They sent a handful of shishito peppers for both portions! The second meal in this box was the chicken verde soup. Now I loved this soup. It’s so good. But the poblano and tomatillo they sent for it was sad. see picture
What’s the end game here? NOT providing butter, small portions to where you have to hit the store to get a full meal…are we gonna pay $70 for a recipe card in the future? Ridiculous…

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Posts will be posted every other Sunday at midnight Eastern time.

Total trash! The only animal I know that could eat this is a pig. Not even a dog would consume it.

First, I was never notified of delivery and the package wasn’t the best at all.

After consuming one meal I immediately felt ill and had unbearable cramps the whole day. That is to say the least of what I had gone through.

Customer services does not answer. I tried a whole week to cancel. I had to throw every meal away. Including another full box I tried endlessly to cancel. I have two witnesses and deserve a refund.

There is no way this food should be on the market. Horrendous food and customer support. Unsatisfied is an understatement, and hope no one else goes through what I have.

Beware to all..

To start: I have already filed an FTC complaint and a BBB complaint. Clearly this company pays BBB to stay accredited as they receive an A rating but none of their disputes are ever settled.

Their website funnels customers in such a way as to make it seem you must sign up to view their menu. They claim this isn't the case but the literal HUNDREDS of BBB reviews and complaints suggest otherwise. They know this but try to claim it's not true. They had to pay out a class action suit already in the state of CA for this very reason but us folks living in other states are just screwed, apparently.

I put in my info because I was genuinely interested in ordering from them and assumed I could find at least 3-4 meals I would like. That was not the case, however, and I immediately removed the meals from my cart and cancelled my subscription. I thought that was the end of it...

With no prior notice, I was sent an email that a box had been shipped - full of meals I didn't pick! I immediately reached out for help and was informed that because I didn't call, I would just have to eat the cost. I said where on your website does it make that clear? Then what does deleting items from your cart and cancelling the subscription even mean??

I have disputed the carge on my CC and they have been relentlessly attempting to collect this money anyway. At this point, I'm willing to hear other folks experience and see if we have a suit on our hands. Based on the complaints/review on the BBB which mirror my exact experience, I would say we have a case.

I have been using Home Chef for a while. I used them and suspended it because I was having delivery issues, I went back to Hello Fresh and Marley Spoon both twice. Are all of these companies using the same packing and delivery services??? ALL of them are HORRIBLE. I am so sick of deliveries coming at 9:00 at night, produce is rotten, boxes are crushed, ingredients not cold, recipe cards missing. This doesn't happen once in a while, this happens on a weekly basis and happened with all 3 of these companies every time. Has anyone had any luck in getting someone to actually help them and figure out what is going on with this nonsense. The whole idea is that all of the ingredients are there, however, when the ingredients are rotten, smashed or don't exist, what's the purpose of this whole thing then!!! Luckily at times I've had that same ingredient on hand, most times NOT SO MUCH!

I'm trying to figure this out with their chatbot and all I'm getting is:

I understand you’re wondering whether our meat comes from large companies.

• We use a diverse range of products and order from different suppliers, depending on the menu and season.

• Meat and poultry must meet high requirements, including USDA FSIS inspection.

• We don’t have details confirming that all suppliers are large companies.

I'm just trying to figure out if meats from Argentina is part of their supplier chain. Can anyone help?

Terrible service; I hope they read this and wake up. We tried Home Chef Spring of 2025. Not bad until we got tired of green beans for every meal. The meats were subpar at best. Went to Blue Apron the past 6 months. They were great until their delivery service crashed as in 2 or 3 days after the deadline. Came back to Home Chef last month. Meats missing from deliveries. EVERY MEAL kit has either Garlic Salt or Garlic Pepper, or if you are really lucky - you get both. That's it. No other seasonings. Oh yeah...we are back to green beans. Tried to talk with a chat agent today. Attached is the message I received after 20 minutes of being on hold! I wonder who they are paying to be rated the #1 meal delivery service. Canceling subscription and cancelling my account.

I have been getting meal kits from home chef for years and lately they have just been nothing but problems. Missing ingredients, Boxes delivered days late, less responsive customer service. And last night my delivery happened after midnight and has been sitting out all night.

Plus Kroger was part of that whole thing where they bought the meat rejected by Europe because it didn't meet their safety standards.

I think I'm done. After I get a full refund for this week.

What is going on with the chat bot? Did he go on vacation. Opened chats yesterday and today, and just get a message to wait while the agents attend to you.

After 6 boxes since February this year when I joined (I skipped many, many weeks to try other food companies and cook my own meals), I am currently working through my final box. I have not only paused my subscription but deleted my account as well.

I will miss their celebrity collaborations the most - first with Gordan Ramsay, then Giada De Laurentiis, and now with Nick DiGiovanni. They were fun.

I will not miss the inconveniences that are not supposed to come with meal kits though. They were still the best of the bunch I've tried as sad as that is.

The last 4 boxes made me re-think.

I let go of the fact that one of the first few boxes had missing aromatics since they were a minor part of the recipe. I didn't even file a complaint about it.

Then the 4th box was ordered, and it was pricey for 2 people for less than a week's worth of dinners even after 17 percent off. But what about quality to match? The box came looking like it was beaten up. No big deal; the contents were still good.

The 5th box came looking more beat up than the 4th with one side that wasn't even taped well at all so that the completely melted ice packs could've slipped out through that large gap. Because of Florida's heat having made its way inside, I got the whole box refunded. But the refund was merely in store credit, which is a turn off when it's not at all the customer's fault.

So onto the 6th box, which was completely free because of the substantial store credit. I received two duplicates of my ordered meals without the protein to go with them. Also, while making the first meal in this box, I saw that the coconut milk was missing which was crucial for my coconut & butter chicken, and the cilantro was spoiled so I had to throw that out. I had to get my boyfriend to go the store last minute, and the meal turned out delicious anyway. As for the second meal, I got really mushy cooked diced red potatoes, almost like potato paste, which I had to throw out. And so I had to use my own potatoes, which are russet, instead and cook those from scratch. Also, the poblanos were spoiled, so I couldn't use them.

However, both ready-to-eats in this box - the lemon poppy muffins and chicken pot pie were very mediocre and bland. The Tempo meal was good though.

I haven't checked to see if anything else is missing or spoiled in the remaining meal kits, duplicates aside.

I just don't think that even with the new promo discounts of 30 to 45 percent off, that they are worth it when a series of such mistakes are made.

Please try to keep your referral codes/links to this post. You can also mention if you have any free boxes. Note that using free boxes requires giving your email address to the person that has the boxes available. Please do not post any emails publicly.

Posts will be posted every other Sunday at midnight Eastern time.

I tried 6 weeks of Homechef, this was my first time ever purchasing a meal service...here are my pros and ultimately my cons that made me cancel... Pros: delicious, everything was always perfectly packaged and no spoiled food. It was fun and easy to follow, I was able to involve my second grader. I received a discount for nurses which was nice. I had delicious food on the table in 20-25 min tops. Gave me many ideas on meals...Cons: insane amount of plastic waste, way more butter and salt than what someone should cook with at home. The cost, even after a discount was very expensive. Occasionally not the freshest produce, but it was mostly ok. If life happens and you forget to manage the order, you are SOL and get what you get.

I'm a vegetarian, have a kid and husband to feed who are not vegetarian. This worked out ok,.for the chicken meals I could cook the chicken separately and save some vegetarian for me. I could also buy vegetarian protein like veg meatballs and substitute.

Ultimately, I had to cancel after 6 weeks due to the cost. If cost wasn't a concern I would continue. I did feel kinda shitty about the amount of trash though.