13 Best Meal Kit Delivery Services In Canada: Dine in Style with a Meal Kit Subscription
The average Canadian family seems to be getting busier and busier. With so much running around to do, it’s no wonder that meal kit delivery services have exploded in growth. Imagine not having to worry about grocery shopping, or planning what to make for dinner during the week.
These days, it only takes a few minutes to order your meals online and have them delivered right to your doorstep, ready to serve in less than 30 minutes. In this article, I’ll review all of the major Canadian meal kit delivery companies, as well as several smaller, regional offerings.
How Does Meal Kit Delivery Work?
While there are several meal kit delivery services to choose from, most work the same way. First, you need to register and order a meal box to be delivered to your doorstep each week. Most services allow you to order 2-4 meals per box, serving up to 4 people. Some companies have family boxes available for larger orders.
Meal kits are shipped on ice by the meal kit service, in boxes designed to keep the food cool for several hours. If you’re not home, the box will be left on your doorstep, or you can choose to have it delivered directly to a neighbour’s house.
Inside, you’ll find all of the ingredients needed for your meals, along with recipe cards containing step-by-step instructions for preparing the food. Most recipes are meant to be prepared in under 30 minutes, perfect for families on the go. From what I can tell, all of the companies I’ve covered below will allow you to cancel your subscription anytime, at no extra cost, making meal kit delivery a fairly risk-free proposition.
Is Meal Kit Delivery Expensive?
Not surprisingly, as you’ll see in the reviews below, meal kit delivery is a more expensive way to dine. Prices can range from as low as $8 per serving to upwards of $14. It’s going to cost more than the traditional route of buying groceries from the store and planning your meals. Thankfully, most services offer discounts to new members or coupons for free meals with the first order.
“Meal kits are often thought of as paying for convenience,” says Kyle Prevost, personal finance writer and founder of Meal Kits Canada. “What a lot of people fail to factor in is the money saved on restaurant food, as well as the cost of the food they currently toss out because they didn’t use it before expiry,” Prevost says that his family cut their restaurant food bill down by nearly 60% when they switched over to meal kits. “I didn’t use my Skip the Dishes and Uber Eats apps as much anymore, plus we quickly realized just how much less a great meal cost at home where the adult beverage selections run us roughly 25% of what it does in a restaurant.”
So while there is no doubt that meal kits cost more than groceries, there might be some hidden savings built-in as well – especially if you fit the profile of someone who tends to pay others to cook for them or find yourself throwing out expired food at the end of the week.
The following is a review of 13 meal kit services available in Canada. The first five deliver to most locations across the country, while the remainder is only available in certain cities or provinces.
Chefs Plate Review
Chefs Plate was founded in 2014, originally serving the Toronto market, but it quickly expanded to include most Canadian provinces. With Chefs Plate, you have the option of customizing your meal selections from 3 categories: Meat and Vegetables, Vegetarian, and Family. Pricing starts at $45.96 (2 meals, 2 servings), and includes a $6 delivery fee.
The classic meal plan offers the best variety and includes 15-minute meals, as well as vegetarian and seafood choices. The family meal plan is the least expensive of the group, likely due to the more kid-friendly choices, and more simple ingredients. The family plan comes in servings of 4, while the other meal plans give you a choice of 2 or 4 servings per meal.
Features
- Delivery across Canada
- 3 customized meal categories: Meat and Vegetables, Vegetarian, and Family
- Meals boxes serve 2 or 4 people (Family Meal Plan only available in servings of 4)
- No commitment – you can pause or cancel your subscription anytime
- Recipes begin at $8.99 per serving
- Gluten-free menu unavailable
MissFresh Review
MissFresh is a Montreal-based company that delivers fresh meals to locations across Canada. One glance at the MissFresh website, and you’ll notice the focus on social responsibility. They claim to be the first meal kit company in Canada to offer a box-less & paperless packaging option.
Through Our Green Box, customers can transfer meals to their packaging when they pick them up at a designated location. The MissFresh packaging is left behind to be returned, washed, and reused at the store. The company is also committed to donating any food they don’t use in their meals to a local food bank.
MissFresh offers a wide range of recipes, with 12 available per week. Unlike many competitors, they also feature breakfast and snack options, although the breakfast choices are mainly limited to assorted cereal bars and granola. You can order recipes in quantities of 2-5 per week, but unless you’re ordering for at least four people, you’ll need to place a minimum order of three recipes. Their pricing appears to be similar to that of Chefs Plate.
Features
- Delivery across Canada
- Breakfast and snack options are available
- Meal boxes serve 2, 3, or 4 people
- Ability to pause or cancel your subscription at any time
- Gluten-free menu not available
HelloFresh Review
If there were a premium meal kit delivery service, HelloFresh would probably be it. They are the only Canada-wide option offering both gluten-free options and 100% hormone-free meat in their menus. They also offer free delivery to most locations. However, the premium features seem to be reflected in the price as HelloFresh is more expensive than most competitors. For example, three recipes for two people cost $13.33/serving.
With HelloFresh, customers choose from 5 meal plan categories: Meat & Veggies, Family Friendly, Vegetarian, and Smart Meals, Quick & Easy, and Pescatarian. While popular dishes are often repeated, HelloFresh has between 25-30 meal options to choose from each week.
Features
- New customers get $100 in savings, including free shipping
- Delivery across Canada
- 25-30 recipes available per week
- 100% meat without added hormones
- Free delivery available
- Gluten-free options available
Papa Earth
Papa Earth launched in 2016 as an Ontario-based organic meat delivery service. Since then, they’ve expanded Canada-wide and are now one of the leading meal kit companies across the country. Papa Earth specializes in providing meals to satisfy a carnivore diet by offering a wide variety of meat and fish. According to their website, Papa Earth ensures that their meals are “free of food dyes, preservatives and no water chilling or pumping.” They claim to “only source the highest quality products and use artisan butchers.”
Meals are frozen and delivered in an insulated box to your door. Meal kits range between $124.90 and $498.00 per week, with services for 1, 3, or 5 people. The average per serving price ranges between $8.30 and $12.49, with $8.30 being the price per serving for three people and a medium box. If you reside outside of Ontario or Quebec, you have to pay for shipping, which is a definite drawback. The shipping cost to Manitoba is $25, but it’s $200 to Newfoundland & Labrador.
Features
- Deliver to all Canadian provinces (free delivery to Ontario and Quebec)
- Easy to follow recipes
- Plenty of meat options
- Includes organic produce
- Focus on local ingredients (Ontario)
- High shipping costs to most provinces
Goodfood
Goodfood has only been around for four years, but they’ve quickly become one of Canada’s largest meal kit companies, with more than 1,000,000 meals delivered each month. They currently deliver to nine Canadian provinces, except Newfoundland & Labrador. Goodfood’s recipes are made for 2 to 4 people, with a choice of 2 or 4 servings per week. There are three meal kits to choose from Easy prep basket, Classic basket, or family basket.
With a price per serving as low as $5.99, Goodfood is one of the most affordable options on our list. New recipes that include meat, fish, and poultry are created every week. A the time of writing, some of the current recipes include Greek-style chicken, seared steak, and cod in a brown butter & almond sauce.
Features
- Low-cost meal kits
- Delivers to 9 provinces
- Low carb and vegetarian options are available
- Meals designed to stay fresh one week after delivery
- Cancel or skip a week anytime
Regional Meal Kit Options
The meal kit delivery field is a crowded one. In addition to the Canada-wide options I’ve featured above, several regional players are vying for your food dollar. Here are some smaller meal kit companies making waves:
Cook it (Quebec and Ontario)
Residents of Ontario and Quebec should consider Cook it when searching for a meal kit delivery service. Not only do they offer the largest selection of weekly recipes (14), but their pricing is very competitive. Like HelloFresh, they offer gluten-free menu options and 100% hormone-free meat. Cook it has large families covered too, with meal boxes available to serve as many as seven people. Too bad it’s only available in central Canada.
Fresh Prep (Select locations in AB and BC)
Fresh Prep is a meal kit delivery service catering to select locations in AB and BC. You can order their meal boxes to serve between 2-12 people. Like Cook it, they offer antibiotic and hormone-free meat in their menus, focusing on fresh local and organic ingredients. They are currently offering new customers two free meals upon sign-up, and free delivery is available.
Prepd (Toronto)
If you live in the Toronto area, you’ll want to add Prepd to your list of available meal kit delivery services. They offer competitive pricing, as well as free delivery. One selling feature is their menu customization, as Prepd gives customers the ability to choose from any recipe on the menu. One drawback is their website, which I found less user-friendly than many of the competitor sites. For example, there were no prices or discounts on the main page, and I had to dig a bit to get the necessary information.
Rooted (Calgary)
Rooted is a meal kit delivery service catering to Calgarians. Judging by its name, it should be no surprise that Rooted features plant-based meals for the health-conscious consumer. You can order from one of 2 meal boxes each week. The ‘Peas In A Pod’ box is ideal for 1-2 people, while Rooted designed its ‘Bunch Of Carrots’ meal box to serve a family of 5-6. Rooted does have gift cards available, making it easy to give the gift of convenience to someone you love.
ZestyKits (Saskatchewan)
ZestyKits partners with local farmers to bring fresh produce to residents of Saskatchewan. But while they focus on organic produce, ZestyKits has a lot more on the menu. As I’m writing this, the weekly recipes include Beef tacos and roasted beet & sausage pizza. Each week, they create 3 new recipes to serve 2, 4, or 6 people. In addition to a Carnivore and Clean Food Plan, ZestyKits offers plant-based and vegan meal options. They aren’t the cheapest option – the lowest cost per serving I could find was $10.33 – if you live in Saskatchewan and want to support the local economy, ZestyKits might just be right for you.
Longos (Ontario)
If you live in Ontario, you might be wondering how Longo’s made it onto our list of best meal kit delivery companies – they are, after all, a grocery store chain. It’s because Longo’s makes their own meal kits. Now, you can’t subscribe for a weekly meal kit delivery, but you can have the meals delivered to you, as long as you are present when the food is delivered. Each week, there are 8-10 delicious meals to choose from. If you live in Ontario and shop at Longo’s give their ready-to-eat meals a try.
Fresh City Farms (Toronto – food delivery, including meal kits)
Fresh City Farms is another company servicing the Toronto area. The Fresh City menu extends beyond meal kits and includes a wide selection of food items available for delivery. You could probably fill your entire grocery order from their website. Their meal kit menu is vast, as I counted no less than 51 different recipes. Prices are easy to find and seem reasonable, with meals starting under $10.00 per serving.
Spud (Select locations in AB and BC – food delivery with some meal kits)
Spud is another company specializing in food delivery and is an excellent option for those looking for a little more than meal kits, although they have those too. Their service is available in select locations in Alberta and BC and offers a broad selection of meal options, including keto and vegan recipes. Local delivery is free, and new customers receive $10 off their first order. One thing I love about Spud is its website, which is colourful and easy to navigate.
Are Keto or Gluten-Free Meal Kits Available in Canada?
Unfortunately, no major food subscription box offers a true keto or gluten-free menu. They may have some non-gluten or keto-friendly meals, but they’re not guaranteed to be available every month. Some vegetarian menus are available, which may provide what you’re looking for, but I’d love healthy meal kits that cater to these different dietary needs.
Convenience Has A Price
When deciding whether or not to subscribe to a meal delivery service, you need to figure out just how much you’re willing to pay for convenience. After all, that’s what meal kit companies are all about. Sure, they stress the benefits of their healthy recipes and fresh ingredients, but a savvy shopper can get all of that from their local grocery store.
People use meal kit services to save time and avoid the hassle of preparing their own meals. And for many, that’s worth something. But at an average meal price of $10-12, it’s important to recognize that you are paying a premium for the added convenience.
Our Pick For Affordability – $5 Meal Plan
If you like the idea of ordering from a meal kit company but feel as though the price is a bit too steep, the $5 Meal Plan may be just the thing for you. It’s a solution that combines the convenience of advanced meal planning with the cost savings of shopping for your groceries from wholesale stores like Costco. Here’s how it works.
For $5 month, you’ll receive meal kits right to your email inbox, with everything you need to create delicious and healthy meals for your family for as little as $2 per serving. The meal plans are designed so that all ingredients can be purchased from one store, like Costco. They include a complete list of ingredients and full recipes. Following the plans provided, meals can be prepared in advance and stored in your freezer until you need them.
Comments
Someone needs to come up with a meal kit delivery plan for seniors who live alone.ie single servings.
I thank you for taking the time to list out some differences in these services. I personally would have liked to hear from users who had experience with some of these and what they had to say. Regards
Meals on wheels deliver healthy meals to seniors three days a week,they consist of a main meal chicken,pasta,fish etc a soup,bun and dessert for $6.50 per meal some clients say there is a lot of food so they have soup bun and dessert for lunch and have the main meal for supper that’s a deal
Chefs Plate, Hello Fresh and Good Food do not have gluten free menus. Good Food WAS marking recipes as gluten free but they just stopped without notification so you have to search through the ingredients to see if they’re suitable. Chefs Plat and Hello Fresh don’t have any indication of gluten free and none of them guarantee you’ll have GF options every week
Great article to compare. I’m on the carnivore diet. I see some good meat delivery companies in the article and Hello Fresh has some good all-meat options as well, however, when you consume steak the way I do it makes more sense to buy at whole sale prices. Came across Farm Club Meats, https://www.farmclubmeats.ca/
They offer meat and fish at great prices and are the best priced meat delivery service in Toronto as far as I know.