As much as I consider myself a whiz in the kitchen, for me, there’s nothing worse than having to think about what’s for dinner every night. I’m frequently indecisive, can’t commit to meal prep for fear of taste bud boredom, and I would much rather scroll through DoorDash than try to piece together a meal from ingredients in my pantry.
When the opportunity arose to try out HelloFresh Australia for a month, I was ecstatic. I’m no stranger to HelloFresh (and its subsidiaries, YouFoodz and EveryPlate), as it consistently ranks as one of the best meal kit delivery services globally. It takes the hassle out of dinnertime by menu planning and food shopping for you. The service handpicks ingredients, organises timely deliveries and offers you meals from an expansive catalogue of weekly recipes.
To put HelloFresh to the test, I whipped out my chef hat, dusted off my somewhat dormant cooking skills and selected a variety of recipes for my two-person household. Do note, though, HelloFresh expects that subscribers have some culinary staples and cooking experience in the kitchen to get the most out of it. That said, if you’ve cut a carrot or minced some garlic before, you’ve surely got enough skill for this beginner-friendly meal kit.
I’ll stop with the waffling now — here’s how I fared during my monthlong review of HelloFresh AU.
HelloFresh Australia review: price and availability
Much like other meal-kit providers, prices for HelloFresh will differ depending on how many meals per week you order and how many people you need to feed. The total per-serve cost typically goes down when you opt for more meals.
HelloFresh offers meal kit subscriptions for two to six people, with options of two to six recipes. I purchased six meals for two people to get the most out of HelloFresh’s huge weekly menu. It cost AU$136.50 plus shipping per week, which worked out to AU$11.37 per person per serve.
You can add bonus meals to your plan for an additional out-of-pocket cost. For example, one week, I opted to include another meal on top of our six recipe plan. It worked out to AU$157.68 or AU$11.26 per person, per serve. It’s not the biggest saving — 11 cents per serve — but if you had more mouths to feed, the cost per serving would be significantly less. As per HelloFresh, the cost per serve for a four-person, six-meal week is AU$9.29 (or AU$223 total) and the cost per serve for a six-person, six-meal week is AU$8.83 (or AU$318 total).
You can also add one-off desserts, sides, snacks and family-style catering meals to your plan for an additional fee. HelloFresh owns YouFoodz, a convenience-based meal subscription service, so there were a few ready meal options to choose from in the weekly menu as well.
When compared to the cost of groceries, HelloFresh costs slightly less than our usual AU$200 two-person weekly shop, and it is definitely cheaper per serve than getting our local Chinese takeaway, which is AU$35 for our order. We still had some change leftover to nab our weekly essentials, lunch and snacks.
That said, larger families might get more bang for their buck by heading to the supermarket, as there are more meals than dinner to consider. According to Finder, the average cost of groceries for a family of four is AU$274 per week, so the AU$223 HelloFresh box cost that only covers dinnertime meals might not provide the best value for money.
It is also worth noting that HelloFresh frequently provides discount codes and free delivery for new subscribers. These discounts usually knock off savings over the course of four deliveries, making prices more affordable to try out for a short period.
HelloFresh Australia review: Delivery and customer service
Delivery for HelloFresh is a rather seamless process. Deliveries can occur on any given day during the week, depending on your area, and are conducted via a third-party service. You also don’t need to be home to accept the delivery, as the service will leave your box in a safe location. HelloFresh delivers to most metro, regional and rural suburbs around mainland Australia, but it doesn’t currently offer delivery to Tasmania.
In my case, I could organise delivery for either Wednesday or Sunday, during two timeframes of either early morning (between 12am and 4am) or during the day (between 8am and 12pm). For greater context, my colleague in a neighbouring suburb could only select the early morning timeslot on a Sunday, so I’d highly recommend researching delivery days and times available in your area before you commit to HelloFresh. Additionally, I paid AU$11.99 on top of my boxes for delivery. The fee was initially waived for my first two boxes, as part of a free delivery promotion.
Subscribers can also adjust or skip weekly orders any time up until five days before the expected delivery date. This is particularly useful if you’re away from home for any period of time and simply want to hit pause on your HelloFresh subscription.
In the highly unlikely event that anything happens to your subscription box — such as it arrives with out-of-date ingredients or missing items — you can contact HelloFresh’s customer support team. It is worth noting that you won’t necessarily receive a replacement box or ingredient; however, the team will likely give you a credit or refund should anything go awry.
HelloFresh Australia review: Meals
HelloFresh Australia offers over 45 fresh recipes to choose from in its weekly menu and it varies week to week. Meals fall into different menu categories to cater to dietary needs and preferences. These include: Classic, Vegetarian, Family-friendly, Calorie Smart, Quick & Easy, Carb Smart, Flexitarian and Protein Rich. You can also opt for air-fryer-friendly options or dinners that will take 30 minutes or less to prepare for the ultimate convenience factor.
I selected meals from the Carb Smart and Calorie Smart menus, which feature a variety of cuisines and cater to those who want more balanced dinners with lower carbohydrates and calories. I also selected some heat-and-eat options (more on that below) for late nights when I craved a lazy, decision-free dinner.
Your menu each week is automatically populated with preselected meals that HelloFresh recommends according to your chosen menu and previous orders. However, you have free rein to chop and change meals as you see fit by unselecting them and choosing another option from the recipes on offer.
You shouldn’t expect an entirely fresh menu each week, as HelloFresh will reuse the same dishes week to week. For example, there were some repeat preselected meals in the final week of my subscription, but I simply opted not to include them. For the most part, there were few, if any, duplicate recipes each week, which was ideal for my foodie taste buds.
I gravitated towards Asian-inspired dishes, quick dinners and easy, but delicious protein-based recipes throughout my review. Out of the 26 recipes I made, my favourites included Chermoula Honey Roast Lamb, Salt’n’Pepper Salmon and Lemony Greens, Homestyle Chicken Schnitzel and Mustard Mayo and Singaporean Prawn and Noodle Stir Fry.
It’s also worth mentioning that HelloFresh does an excellent job with clearly listing allergen information for its recipes, with details on its website and app for each recipe.
On the subject of allergens, when you browse the menu on either the website or app, not only can you filter dishes by cuisine, but you can select ingredient types to not include. The only slight issue I found with this is that nuts, for example, is listed as a singular category. If you’re allergic to peanuts, say, but can eat cashews and almonds, you can’t filter to such a granular level.
You can also swap out the default protein in the meals for something else, if you’d prefer. For our chosen menu, our preselected options usually included chicken, so we opted to swap for pork or salmon a few times. You can also swap chicken thigh for chicken tenderloins or breast, for example, if you prefer white meat.
HelloFresh Australia review: Recipes and ingredients
Inside the box, HelloFresh ingredients are packaged in brown paper bags with a corresponding number for each recipe card. The cold ingredients — i.e. meat and dairy products — are stored separately in an insulated cold bag with ice packs. This bag isn’t sealed, which I found a little disappointing, because if you’re able to receive the box for some time and it’s left outside, it could be more susceptible to warming up. The box also includes some discount codes for friends and family, as well as discounts for other businesses supported by HelloFresh. All the ingredients I received came fresh with no issues and didn’t go to waste.
Each bag provides most — but not all — ingredients for the recipe. You’ll need to have some basic kitchen staples on hand, like butter, oil, salt and pepper. You’ll also need utensils, like sharp knives, pots, pans and cooking utensils to make each dish. For most recipes, I had everything I needed, but I had to purchase white wine vinegar before making two meals. You can also check the recipes online to make sure you have any extra ingredients ready to go.
The recipe cards are pretty straightforward and easy to follow, with some even offering handy kitchen tips. There’s a handy picture guide that walks you through step-by-step, and there’s even a QR code so you can read the recipe online if you’d prefer. And, while it didn’t apply to my household, I appreciated HelloFresh offering tips aimed at children who may want to get involved with the cooking process.
Throughout my review, I found estimated prep times to be accurate, but you might need to budget more time if you’re new to cooking or specific techniques. There was only one instance where I felt it was a bit off. For example, when roasting lamb for the Chermoula Honey Roast Lamb recipe, I was instructed to sear the lamb rump for 12 minutes in a pan before transferring it to the oven for an additional 25 minutes.
At the time, I had not roasted or seared lamb before, so I had little experience of what it should look like. It took me a while longer — around 16 minutes to full sear — pushing out the prep time to around 57 minutes, instead of the budgeted 40 minutes. Despite this minor hiccup, the meal turned out perfectly.
Another meal we particularly enjoyed was the Crumbed Mexi-Spiced Chicken & Corn Tacos, which came with a small bottle of Cholula hot sauce. This meal was made easy by using an air fryer to cook the chicken, and came with a can of sweet corn for ease. If you don’t own an air fryer, the recipe also provides details on how to pan-fry the chicken.
The recipe gave me great advice on how to crumb the chicken without making too much of a mess — by separating the crumbs, spices and egg into separate bowls — and how to chargrill the corn with a pan without burning it. This recipe budgeted 25 minutes from start to finish, and it was pretty accurate.
(Image credit: Future / Lucy Scotting)
Further, I did opt to include some ready meal pasta dishes to our weekly boxes and it was very interesting to say the least. As someone who had tried YouFoodz before, I was familiar with some of the recipes, and the options that HelloFresh had to offer were very much in line with the previous YouFoodz I’ve had. I did use these for a lazy dinner on a few evenings, and the instructions were as simple as expected — peel back the lid and pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. Flavour-wise, the meals were pretty good and satisfied my hunger, but they definitely weren’t Michelin-rated.
The only real gripe we had was flavour and portion sizes. We’re self-proclaimed foodies, and love trying new dishes, so we were thrilled to have such a range of cuisines to choose from. However, we found we need to add more than just the provided spice mixes to enhance dishes. The flavour depth was slightly lacking, which might disappoint those who prefer bold, heavy seasoning.
The other niggle we had was portion sizes. As you can imagine, being foodies means we like to eat and some of our protein portions didn’t quite sustain us. In some cases, we ended up making two meals and eating them family style to feel fulfilled. Now, HelloFresh suggests opting for a larger meal kit size if you’re worried about this, but you can always upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. There are some recipes that come with ‘premium’ protein ingredients for an additional fee, too, with larger meat/protein allocations, but we didn’t feel the need to pay for these recipes.
HelloFresh Australia review: Verdict
HelloFresh does exactly what you expect — takes the stress out of figuring out weekly dinners and offers the convenience of handpicked ingredients. I still had plenty of choice in what meals we got in every week, but it took immense pressure off hitting the shops after a long workday. Plus, with constant coupons offering savings for new subscribers, you could spend less than you would on takeaway every week.
Aside from that, the delivery was pretty seamless and I had no issue with editing meals or my order at any time in the lead-up to my next box. That said, I did spend some extra time prepping than allocated in some recipe cards, and portion sizes felt small, but overall, HelloFresh’s meal kits didn’t disappoint. And now with a more expanded range that includes air fryer-friendly meals and heat-and-eat dinners, there’s much more accessibility on offer with HelloFresh’s service.
So if you’re looking for a simple and easy alternative to indecisive dinners, HelloFresh is a subscription box to consider.
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