Is Hungryroot Worth It?
Hungryroot claims to be a “one click grocery trip” that also plans your meals for you. Does their claim live up to reality?
Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review, or given free product. I paid for this box just like anyone else would.
Hungryroot Service Overview:
Hungryroot is advertised as a healthy grocery service with simple recipes, with personalized recommendations. They imply that you won’t need to go to the grocery store anymore, and they will meal plan for you!
Sounds amazing! But do I think it stacks up as a Registered Dietitian who wants to eat good food without spending too much time deciding what to make?
Spoiler alert if you don’t want to keep reading: I hated this meal service. Don’t get it. Get Sunbasket instead
Meal Kit Ordering Process:
You can’t see the menu options or look at the options before you sign up. BIG negative for most people. I had no idea what I was signing up for before I paid. That’s a scary feeling
When I did sign up, I didn’t like any of the recipes recommended for me, so I had to comb through their library of thousands of recipes. You could narrow it down a bit - but as you can see there were 429 recipes that were just stir fries!
I think it took me about 40 minutes to sign up and choose my first recipes in a process that left me frustrated. I get overwhelmed with too many choices and this was not what I thought I was signing up for.
Meal Kit Delivery
I did really like this email, it was super cute and got me really excited for the meals.
The box came with a piece of paper with all my meals and recipes on it. Nothing fancy, which is fine, but also not very impressive compared to other services.
Price Breakdown:
Specifics: 4 meals for 2 people, with no discounts was $115 after shipping. $14.38/serving.
Hungryroot really tries to hide what you are actually going to pay and what you will actually receive. In theory you can get more meals for the same cost, as each meal has a “point” value. If you choose mostly sandwiches/wraps, you can get an extra meal out of the same number of points, which would put each meal at $11.50 per serving for a wrap or similar.
I felt like I was in algebra again trying to figure out my points.
This ended up being WAY too expensive for us, especially since foods were very simple and could easily be gotten at the store for FAR cheaper. We only did one box and did not re-order.
I understand that the convenience of meal services mean that you pay a bit more, but this took it to another level.
In the thai peanut chicken with veggies meal below, I estimated that a similar meal would cost $6 per serving from the grocery store with similar quality ingredients and would give you leftovers (pre-cooked chicken, fresh stir fry veggie mix, full bottle of organic Annie’s Thai Peanut sauce)
Thai Peanut Chicken
+ Veggie Stir-Fry
Pro of this meal: It came together in under 10 minutes. My husband did all of the cooking while I did some yardwork and it was done in a flash!
The chicken was pre-cooked, and not really chicken? It was the pressed chicken patty that is made of chicken but doesn’t have the chicken texture.
This did help the meal come together quickly though.
Hungryroot’s calorie and macro totals don’t line up with each other at all. So I can’t be sure, but I think that the meal was 330 calories and 28g protein.
Hungryroot says 440 calories and 40g protein, so a pretty big difference
I was hungry after this and had to go scrounge for more food.
Nutrition
The nutrition facts were wrong. Super wrong. It was so obvious that it was wrong - like a recipe would have a side of rice and then list 5 carbs.
So in trying to be simple, it actually made it harder because I had to go back and enter everything into My Fitness Pal separately which might not be a factor for some people, but it was for me at the time.
There were a lot of vegetables which is fantastic! I did really like that. Many of the meals were lacking in protein though, and high in carbs.
Recipes were highly customizable though based on your dietary needs, with many vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and dairy free meals.
Recipe Example
Here’s an example of a recipe - simple enough, which is nice. But also so simple that I don’t see why I’m paying $30 for 2 servings.
This is also what you get in your email - the printed version won’t have photos but will have the ingredients and instructions.
Cooking Confusion
Hungryroot would send 2 servings of one thing, 5 servings of another (like the sauces) which sounds great but is confusing in the moment when you’re trying to make dinner in a hurry.
That being said, the biggest plus of this service (the only plus in my mind to be honest) is that it was actually VERY fast. I don’t think any recipe took more than 10 minutes to throw together.
Some of the meals were pretty…. sad though. I was still hungry and felt like I just had a snack and not dinner. Clint was gnawing his arm off.
Disappointing Hungryroot stir fry
This meal looks like a lot of food - but was actually 2.5 servings of chicken. Why would they give us 5 servings of chicken instead of 2? I have no idea. But you can see that with 1/3 the amount of chicken that this meal would be…. sad
Expensive, Sad Hungryroot Meal
Lots of rice (this was a heat for 90 seconds kind of rice) and loads of green beans! But only 2 ounces of salmon per person, at almost $15 for the meal…. its not enough.
Also that sauce on the salmon was not good I scraped it off.
Grading Time!
Customization…….C
Delivery/Packaging…….D
Nutritional Value…….C
Ordering Process…….D
Price…….$14.38/serving (inc shipping)
Flavor…….C+
Texture…….C
Ease of Cooking…….A
Meal Variety…….A (or F if you get overwhelmed)
Amount of Food……..F
Final thoughts: No. Just don’t do it. Get anything else. This is the most expensive meal service I’ve tried so far and did not impress. Their marketing is on point, and nothing else is.
I don’t know who actually pays for this beyond 1-2 boxes.
Try Sunbasket instead.
PS: Check out my other reviews for Gobble, Hello Fresh, and Freshly.
