Dinnerly Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Dinnerly advertises as a service that “brings recipes and ingredients to your door for unfussy, affordable weeknight meals”. This makes it one of the many Meal Kits delivery services in the market.

Meal Kits services are the solution to making restaurant-quality food at home, without all the hassles. Restaurant-quality? Think home-cooked meals that are not just healthy and delicious, but also exotic and interesting and will rival that prepared by any top Chef. Without all the hassles? Think no shopping, no excessive chopping, little prep work, little after clean-up, etc.

The big question is whether using Dinnerly is worthwhile. Are its meals good; will you find them delicious and interesting? Does it actually eliminate all the fuss that comes with making exotic food? What about pricing; is Dinnerly actually affordable? Also, as an online service; does Dinnerly offer top services that we’ll expect of the ideal online platform (such as easy ordering, subscription modification, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Dinnerly legit, or is it just another scam platform out to rip off unsuspecting users.

Yes, Dinnerly is legit. We said it is not a scam because there has not been a complaint of customers not receiving their products after making a purchase. But…

This Dinnerly review will examine Dinnerly in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Dinnerly review at a glance

• Website: dinnerly.com
• A cook-at-home food delivery service that spun off Marley Spoon in 2017
• Uses a weekly subscription model – sends meal kits to subscribers every week
• Offers two subscription plan – 2 person meal plan and 4 persons meal plan
• Each weekly meal kit holds 3, 4, or 5 meals
• Thus, the minimum order amount is “2 persons, 3 meals a week”
• Uses minimalist packaging
• Meals are usually simple, so ingredients are few (at most 7), and recipes are basic usually taking about 30 minutes
• Does not include recipe cards in the delivery box
• Customer support is available via email (hi@dinnerly.com) and telephone (888 267 2850)

What is Dinnerly it?

Background

Marley Spoon is an established name in the Meal Kit delivery service. It’s one of the companies out there that’ll deliver to your home a box containing ingredients and recipes for you to prepare home-cooked meals.

Ordering meal kits for preparing home-cooked food did not take long in becoming a trend; as many persons will often want to spice up their kitchen routine. However, the CEO of Marly Spoon rightly observed that meal kits are priced higher than most persons can afford; so Dinnerly was launched to address this. That is, Dinnerly was started as an alternative to budget-conscious “home Chefs”.

In 2017 when Dinnerly started, it was available in California, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah; but by the end of the year, it had expanded to other States.

How it Works

Remember, Dinnerly advertises as bringing recipes and ingredients to your door for unfussy, affordable weeknight meals (aka dinner). This is also reflected in its name – Dinnerly. So Dinnerly does not do breakfast, lunches, or desserts. At least, not at the time of writing. You can only use it for your dinners.

Also, like every other Meal Kit service, Dinnerly is subscription-based. It offers two weekly subscription plans. The first is a 2 person plan which serves 2 hungry people 3, 4 or 5 meals per week; and the second is a family box plan, serves 4 hungry people 3, 4, or 5 meals per week.

This means that the minimum order amount of Dinnerly is 2 persons three times a week. If you’re that loner that’ll want a one-person Meal Kit plan, Dinnerly don’t do loners. It tilts towards the “it takes (at least) two to tango” line. Also, do you think to do home-cooked meals 3 times a week is too frequent? Well, there are some Meal Kits companies that offer 2 meals a week; Dinnerly leaves its weekly minimum at three.

After signing up, and setting up your schedule, you’ll always receive your kits as scheduled. The box will hold most of the ingredients that you’ll need for the meal.

Is Dinnerly legit?

One using online platforms, you never can be too careful. There are so many scam platforms ripping people off that you should determine that a platform is legit before venturing in. That said, the big question here is whether Dinnerly is legit. The simple answer to that is “YES”.

Our first check of a legit online platform is legality. This is because online stores that are backed by a 100% legal company are less likely to be scams. Thankfully, Dinnerly ticks this box. It is owned and operated by Marley Spoon Inc, which is a duly registered Company in the US. Suffice it to say that a scam online service will not be backed by such a high profile company.

Another check of a legit online service is visibility and industry-wide recognition. This is because scam online services operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Dinnerly also ticks this box. First, the company has partnered with some influencers and is endorsed by many industry watchdogs. For example, there is the partnership with household name Martha Stewart for the “Martha & Marley Spoon” brand. Also, because Dinnerly provides Meal Kits for cheap and simple recipes, it has gained popularity in the industry. It’s easily one of the first name mentioned among budget-friendly Meal Kits. Suffice it to say that a scam service cannot enter partnerships with top influencers, and cannot gain industry-wide recognition.

However, the ultimate check of a legit Meal Kit delivery service is fitness for purpose. That is, while scam platforms are designed to take your money and disappear, it’s only a legit service that’ll actually regularly deliver your Meal Kit when subscribe. Thankfully, Dinnerly also tick this all-important box. Not only does it deliver your meal kit regularly, but you’ll find its content as described for preparing your home-cooked food.

That said, with Dinnerly operated by a 100% legal company, with it having industry-wide recognition, and with it having an operating record of actually delivering meal kits with as described content, there is no doubt that it is a legit Meal Kit delivery service.

Dinnerly – Is it safe?

Yes, Dinnerly is safe. When it comes to ordering from an online platform, you’ll have to share sensitive data such as your personal information and credit card data. With fraudsters parading the internet, you’ll want a platform that will ensure the protection of such data, preventing it from leaking into the wrong hands. So the ideal online service must not only be legit but also be safe.

In this regards, there is no doubt that Dinnerly employs SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology, which is the industry standard for ensuring the protection of users’ data being transmitted over the internet. It promises other administrative data protection measures, and that it uses users’ data solely for providing the service.

That said; it is safe to say that Dinnerly is safe (in the protection of users’ sensitive data).

You may also read: Alieexpress Review

Ordering from Dinnerly

The ideal online platform should be easy to use. In this regards, Dinnerly advertise ease of use. It says that having your meal is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Where 1 is “you pick the delivery day and recipes”; 2 is “we bring the ingredients in an insulated box”; and 3 is “you cook and feel like a dinnertime wizard”.

The “pick your delivery day and recipes” step actually consists of five steps – selecting a plan, nominating your location, choosing a delivery date, making payment, and choosing meals

• Plan – You’ll have to pick either the Two-Person Box or the Family Box, and the number of meals per week wanted (3, 4, or 5). You also have the option to make your box vegetarian. Then you’ll have to
• Location – All you need to enter here is your zip code and email address
• Delivery – Here, you’ll have to select your delivery date and address. However, it isn’t like you’ll have many choices. Dinnerly the location information entered above, Dinnerly will supply you with the date of the weeks it serves your location
• Payment – Here, you’ll have to enter your payment information to pay for your order
• Meals – Here, you’ll be required to select the meals that you’ll want for each week. If you like surprises, you may choose to have Dinnerly automatically send you meals. But if you want to choose your own meals, each week has its lineup of different meals; simply go to each week’s menu and select three. You can select meals for up to 2 months in advance.

The one bump when choosing meals is that you’ll not find options for dietary restrictions, such as keto, vegan, etc. However, when you click on a meal, you’ll find all the ingredients, and allergens.

One of the good things about Dinnerly is that changing your order is relatively easy. Just log into your account to edit. You can change between plans; you can pause your subscription, and you can cancel your subscription.

There is no option to order meals once or twice a month, but you can use the “pause” feature as a workaround to enable this. After getting the one box; simply go to your account and “pause” your subscription until such a time that you need the next box.

Recipes and Ingredients

The meal kits typically contain ingredients and recipes. However, when you receive your Dinnerly delivery box, it’ll hold the ingredients for your meal. Dinnerly launched as a budget-friendly meal kit, and one way of cutting down is by cutting down on packaging. Unfortunately, this includes cutting off the usual recipe cards.

Thus, when you get your Dinnerly Meal Kit, you won’t find recipe cards included. To prepare the meal, you’ll have to go to the Dinnerly website or app and follow the recipe. Alternatively, you can download and print the recipe. Spoiled with having a physical recipe card, having to go hunt down the recipes in the Dinnerly website has proven to be a little inconvenient to many customers.

You’ll not find any surprises in the recipes of Dinnerly. The menu of Dinnerly is usually very basic. Another thing is that the Dinnerly menus are always almost kid-friendly. For example one of our first picks: Ginger Caramel Chicken with steamed Green beans and rice. When it’s ready, sweet-tangy ginger-caramel sauce coats tender chicken and green beans and spills over onto a bed of jasmine rice.

The Dinnerly delivery box had only 5 ingredients – Tamari Soy Sauce, Chicken breasts, green beans, fresh ginger, and jasmine rice. We needed to provide pepper, salt, and vinegar.

Going for the recipes online; unlike the other meal kit companies, the Dinner recipes do not have step-by-step pictured illustrations. It only had huge numbers that indicate the steps. Because Dinnerly is all about simple meals, we found the numbered steps sufficient. Crucially, there were only 5 steps for preparing the meal. Dinnerly had advertised 20 – 30 minutes for preparing the meal; and it didn’t take 30 minutes. Also, cleaning up was relatively easy as limited utensils were used.

Summarily, you’ll always find the:

• Menu (meals) to be interesting but basic
• Ingredients to be simple and few; usually about 7 at most
• Recipes to have only a few steps
• Overall time to prepare meals to be relatively short (about 30 minutes)
• Prep work and cleaning up to be relatively easy

That said; the dishes you’ll get from the Dinnerly kit are basic. Yes, interesting, but not exotic. Yes, delicious, but not overly flavorful. If you’re a real foodie, Dinnerly may not serve you. But if you just want an interesting yet simple alternative from your normal kitchen routine, then it’s all yours.

Delivery and Packaging

If you subscribe to a Meal-kit service, when your order is due, the ingredients (and recipe) will be packaged and shipped from the store’s facility to your shipping address. So shipping is an important consideration. Some of the shipping elements to consider are:

Shipping Destinations

If a Meal Kit service does not ship to your location, your order will almost definitely not process. If you plan to use a workaround to receive the package, it’ll be unnecessarily difficult. Thus, one of your first checks should be whether the service serves your location.

In this regards, Dinnerly ships kits to all the United States including the 48 contiguous states as well as Hawaii and Alaska.

Delivery

Another important consideration is when you’ll receive your orders. This is because you won’t want to be sitting around waiting for your package. In this regards, delivery is good because Dinnerly is subscription-based. When signing up, you’ll have to set your delivery schedule; which is the day of the week that you prefer to receive your deliveries, and the week of your first delivery.

However, know that in this regards Dinnerly has a very narrow delivery window than most other meal kit delivery services. Dinnerly advertises that delivery days and times depend on your location. You’ll find which days are available during sign up after selecting a plan and entering your ZIP code and email address. But you’ll always find this very limited. Some persons reported having only two days of the week available for receiving their orders; but when we entered our Alabama Zipcode, we had only Tuesdays available. We didn’t like that the delivery of our Dinnerly boxes was limited to only Tuesdays.

Dinnerly always deliver the first Meal Kit on the day chosen as the “first delivery date”, while subsequent boxes are delivered every 7 days (as long as there’s no pausing or cancellation of the subscription).

When testing Dinnerly for this review, the earliest first delivery date we were given was 11 calendar days away. If you have to make changes to your subscription, you’ll have to do that between 5 or 6 days before your usual delivery date. Thus, while the delivery window is narrow, you should not have delivery issues with Dinnerly. Your package will always come fast and on time.

Packaging

Another thing to consider when shopping online (especially Meal Kits) is the packaging. You’ll not want your items to arrive all smashed. Dinnerly provides budget-friendly meal kits. One of the things it does to achieve its low-cost objectives is offering simpler packaging. Dinnerly strips off many of the excesses of regular sturdy Meal Kit packaging.

For example, while each Kit will have ingredients for 3, 4, or 5 meals (depending on the chosen meal plan), ingredients are not packaged per meal, but everything is “lumped” together in the one big Dinnerly delivery box.

It is not just the “all in one” delivery box of Dinnerly that makes its packaging minimalist. The individual ingredients in the box have basic but sufficient packaging. For example, you’ll find meat having only one layer of plastic packaging, as well as minimalist ice packs and more; also you’ll find some of the items free in the box.

This “all in one” packaging of Dinnerly means there is few packaging materials for disposal. If you are an avid environmentalist, this will appeal to you as it means less environmental waste. While the less waste that the packaging will generate is a big plus, we didn’t like that the ingredients for the different meals were not in separate bags. This will have you doing some sorting. As mentioned earlier, it is because of this cutting down on packaging that Dinnerly does not include recipe cards in its delivery box.

Another important thing is that all that constitutes the minimalist packaging of Dinnerly are recyclable. The delivery boxes are SFI certified, which means they are made from paper sourced from sustainably managed forests; the box insulation liner is 100% paper made from brown paper and recycled newsprint; Bottles and containers are made of recyclable plastics, and the ice packs are made of 98% water and 2% super absorbent polymer.

Shipping Costs

The total cost of online purchases is made up of the listed price and shipping costs. Thus, even if an item is acceptably priced, if its shipping cost is too high, it can easily become too expensive to acquire. Thus, the ideal online delivery service should have shipping costs that are as low as possible.

The lowest possible shipping cost is $0.00, which is free shipping. Unfortunately, Dinnerly does not offer free shipping. The service charges a flat rate of $8.99 for shipping every box.

Thus, you’ll find in some platforms that the advertising is a little deceptive in Dinnerly because it pushes that it charges a little under $5 per serving, but that if the $8.99 shipping cost is factored in, the true cost per serving jumps well over $5.

However, while free shipping is not offered, even with the $8.99 shipping cost, Dinnerly still comes out acceptably priced.

Pricing

Money does not come easy, so naturally, shoppers will not want to throw money away. As a result, customers gravitate toward services that are priced as low as possible.

Thankfully, Dinnerly does well in this regards. In fact, the CEO of Dinnerly says the sole purpose for its launch is to solve the affordability issue that was plaguing the Meal Kit industry. That said, you’ll expect Dinnerly to be budget-friendly, and it is.

At the time of writing this review; the meal plans were priced as follows:

• 2 Person Box: $4.99 per meal for the 3 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $38.93); $4.89 per meal for the 4 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $48.11); and $4.79 per meal for the 5 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $56.89)
• Family (4 Person) Box: $4.99 per meal for the 3 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $68.87); $4.69 per meal for the 4 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $84.03); and $4.49 per meal for the 5 meals a week package (adding $8.99 shipping, total per week is $98.79)

There is no doubt that Dinnerly is the cheapest meal kit you’ll find around. It cost $4.49 – $4.99 per serving. To put this in perspective, meal kits typically come at $10 per serving.

Even if the shipping cost of Dinnerly is factored in, it still comes cheap. For example, the Dinnerly minimum order requirement, which is a Dinnerly box holding 2 servings of 3 meals a week, is $38.93 per week (including shipping). With the typical $10 per serving, 2 servings of 3 meals a week will come at $60 (assuming free shipping), which means Dinnerly gives a cost-saving of $21.07 per week.

Customer Support Service

When using any online platform, there are times when you’ll have questions, and there are other times when you’ll have issues with your order or account. That said, you’ll want the service to have an effective customer support service for answering the questions and resolving the issues that its customers will have.

Online platforms respond with a combination of self-help resources and direct help channels. Dinnerly does the same. For self-help, it has an FAQ section, which holds short articles that answers many of the questions that customers have asked in the past. The articles are arranged under the subjects: About Dinnerly, Recipes and Ingredients, Delivery, and Membership and Boxes.

If you’ll need to directly contact the support service, Dinnerly supports an email service and a telephone service. For email, you can send your submissions using the email address: hi@dinnerly.com; and to use the telephone service, you can call: 888 267 2850.

Dinnerly Complaints

The “complaints” section is an important part of all our reviews, as it provides valuable insights into whether the reviewed service is worthwhile. That is, too many complaints could be the warning light that the service is not worthwhile, while very few complaints maybe the green light that the service is worthwhile.

For this section, we looked at the top online customers’ reviews platforms especially Trustpilot. Interestingly, the average rating of Dinnerly is relatively good. For example, at the time of writing this review, in Trustpilot, Dinnerly has been reviewed by 1,082 customers, and it scored 3.9 out of 5.00.

With the relatively good rating, you’ll expect to find some positive reviews; and they came in plenty. In terms of the meals, customers expressed satisfaction with simplicity, short prep and cooking time, as well as the pricing.

However, there were many complaints also found. These include late delivery, poor packaging, poor customer support service, and more.

Late Delivery and No Delivery

One of the most popular complaints about Dinnerly is customers not receiving their boxes or receiving them way later than expected. For example:

• Ariana Gordon in Trustpilot says “Don’t bother”. The review continued “Only use this service if you enjoy waiting for food that will never arrive or will arrive in an unusable condition. I liked the recipes, but my delivery was delayed almost every order and by the time the box arrived (if it arrived at all) the food could no longer be used…”
• Anastacia in Bader Trustpilot says “…Second, the box came in 2 days late, with all the ice melted and my 3 meats were 61F. Slimy spinach, yellowing brocolli, and room temperature ‘frozen’ peas…”
• Ripley in Trustpilot says “Missing box, customer service won’t respond” The review continued “Food is always delicious. However, customer service is terrible. It has totally been nonexistent so far. We never received our box that was supposed to come a week ago. I figured it was just a delay, so I emailed asking for an update and that I understand delays happen. They assured you that you will receive a response in 24 hours. Here we are, 5 days later – no response. I reached out again and told them they have one more opportunity to make things right…”
• Renee in Trustpilot says “I was really excited about Dinnerly when I saw the price and the food that was offered… I was incredibly disappointed, not with the food or the customer service but the reality that they never delivered the product. The first week, they did not send the order, and I had to call to get a refund. Week 2 was great. Week 3, they again did not deliver, did not know where the shipment was, and could not guarantee when it showed up late, the food would be safe to eat. (it was supposed to come Tuesday and I am now told it will be Thursday)…”
• Cynthia Lewis in Trustpilot says “What a worthless company! We were supposed to receive our order on Monday. It did not show up and we received no notification of any kind that something was wrong. In fact, we received an email on Monday saying to expect our order that day and where the recipes were located. Late Monday night (after ordering pizza since our planned Dinnerly dinner failed to show up) I finally clicked on the tracking button from a previous email, and it showed repeated notations throughout the day about how the order had been misrouted on the part of LaserShip. I emailed Dinnerly and asked if it would even be safe to eat since it would be arriving late. I received an automatic message that they would reply to my message within 24 hours. No one did. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, I sat on hold and then chatted with a rep from Dinnerly. He said the package had been damaged in shipping and would not be safe anymore. They couldn’t send another box this week. I had told him clearly from the beginning that I wanted a refund…”
• Julie Ortiz in Trustpilot says “Deliveries constantly late and spoiled. Very disappointing”

“No-delivery” and “late delivery” are huge concerns because they spoil dinner plans; you’ll have to go scrambling for something else for dinner. If the issue is late delivery, then there is also the problem of whether the ingredients are still safe when they finally arrive.

It should be noted that there are many persons who reported being satisfied with the delivery of their orders (saying boxes arrive on-time). However, late-delivery was also mentioned by a significant many, that it comes out as a significant problem facing Dinnerly.

No Recipe Cards

Another complaint that we found among Dinnerly’s customers is that recipe cards are not included in delivery boxes. For example:

• Anastacia Bader in Trustpilot says “Would not recommend” The review continued “I tried Homechef, Hellofresh, and BlueApron, and Dinnerly in comparison is just horrible. First of all, you do not get recipe cards (and their online recipe cards do not have pictures on them)…”
• Not my Favourite in Trustpilot says “No recipe inbox!” the review continued “For poor end-user management. This was sent as a gift and ‘luckily’ for me, there was no recipe to make the food inside. Then I have to bug the other person to send me recipes. Worse, do they think everyone owns a printer? Do you think I want to have my computer next to me as I cook? Some businesses don’t deserve to last”
• San Diego Chef in Trustpilot says “Good food and prices but more seafood options would be nice. Also, sending a print out of the recipes with each box would save consumers time printing on their own”

As mentioned earlier, while other Meal Kit services deliver you a box that includes ingredients and recipes, the Dinnerly box has only ingredients. With Dinnerly, you’ll have to go online to follow the recipe; alternatively, you can print it out.

However, not having recipe cards in delivery boxes is not an “error”, but a matter of policy. Dinnerly was specifically launched to be a budget-friendly Meal Kit, and one of the conscious efforts to reduce the cost for customers is to strip down on packaging including cutting off recipe cards.

The customers’ reviews show that not every customer is happy with this. That said if you’ll want a recipe card in your delivery box; then Dinnerly is not for you.

Missing Ingredients

Another complaint that was found here and there is that the Dinnerly kits sometimes do not have all the ingredients. For example:

• Tracey in Trustpilot says “I have been a Dinnerly customer for about 6 – 7 weeks now. While I give the actual meals a good rating as they taste good and are easy to prepare, I am giving a bad star rating due to the packing of meals. In the last 3 weeks, I have had 2 of those weeks where the ingredients weren’t all there. The first week I had 3 meals and didn’t have any meals that had all the ingredients. One of the meals was called stuffed broccoli-cheddar tacos and the only ingredients I received for that entire meal was the ranch dressing and garlic. The word broccoli and the word Taco was in the title and you guessed it; I didn’t receive taco tortillas or broccoli. The other 2 meals from that box were missing about half of the ingredients also. The other box I just opened today and you guessed it. Only one of the meals came with all of the ingredients. Well, I guess it is back to the grocery store…”
• Rick in Trustpilot says “Always missing ingredients” The review continued “I have used 5 different meal delivery and I have to say Dinnerly was by far the worse. In 3 months we only had 3 boxes that had all the ingredients it was supposed to… It is cheaper for a reason. We cancelled our service after 3 months. Not worth it”
• Sheryl in Trustpilot says “I love the recipes and convenience …On the downside, I have received veggies that are nearly spoiled or had an occasional missing item…”

It should be said that when you use virtually every meal kit service, you’ll have to provide some ingredients such as salt and pepper.

However, remember that Dinnerly is all about stripping down everything; as such its meals usually require only 6 or 7 ingredients. One of the downsides of this simplification is that with Dinnerly you’ll sometimes find yourself having to provide more ingredients than with most other meal kits. So expect meals requiring eggs, where you have to provide your own eggs, etc. However, the customers’ reviews suggest that the problem is not only the box not having ingredients needed to prepare the meal, but it missing ingredients that it should have as per the specification in the site.

Poor Packaging

Another complaint about Dinnerly that’s popular is that its minimalist packaging is sometimes found wanting. For example:

• Pat Jackson in Trustpilot says “[The] food is not bad but the service is terrible. I received a box where all the insulation had busted and was all over my food. They told me they would credit my next box; well they gave me a whole $8 credit…”
• Becki in Trustpilot says “I love the recipes but my box always comes not fully sealed. And my ice has melted even in the cooler weather”
• Alexandra Cooke Walden in Trustpilot says “Get what you pay for”. The review continued “…I’ve tried about six meal kits, this one is pretty much what you’d expect for the price point… The packaging is a mess. One week the inner lining of the box came in pieces, all over the food. The meals are not packaged separately, they are just lumped together in the box so it’s kind of annoying finding which ingredients go with which meal. If there are carrots in your meal, they are not wrapped in plastics so they’ve always come soggy and soft – not very appetizing”
• Kathleen in Trustpilot says “I love the recipes and the price is good, but I’ve had some ingredients smashed and ruined in practically every box”

As mentioned over in this review, one-way Dinnerly’s is able to offer its great prices is by coming with bare-bone packaging. Well, this does not always come out great, as there are many complaints that mention poor packaging. These complaints take different forms.

One form of the complaint is that ingredients per meal are put in separate bags. Since each box will hold at least ingredients for three meals; it often leaves customers confused as to which ingredient is for what meal. Another form of poor packaging complaint is that the ingredients get damaged. You may find that certain roaming free in the box is smashed, or the ice all melted in the minimalist ice packs, etc

Poor Customer Service

With the issues of no-delivery, late delivery, poor packaging, missing ingredients, et al, you’ll expect that the customer service will be inundated with submissions. However, it appears that customers don’t always get the expected resolution. For example:

• Ariana Gordon in Trustpilot continued “…Customer service is garbage – I’m still waiting on a refund for the most recent box that didn’t come after having contacted the company 3 times”

It should be said that there are many reviews of persons who reported getting needed assistance from the Dinnerly customer service.

Conclusion

Dinnerly is a meal kit delivery service that was launched by Marley Spoon in 2017. Dinnerly was launched as a budget-conscious meal kit to solve the affordability issues that were plaguing the industry.

So Dinnerly’s goal is to “brings recipes and ingredients to your door for unfussy, affordable weeknight meals”.

Dinnerly largely lives up to this promise. Starting at $4.49 per serving, you’ll find it the cheapest meal kit in the business. Recipes are only a few steps long, and there are usually only a few ingredients (at most 7), so it usually takes a short time (about 30 minutes) to prepare the meal. Importantly, you’ll find the meals interesting and delicious. Thus, the Dinnerly selling point is simple yet delicious food that comes with time-saving and cost savings.

However, this simplicity of Dinnerly means something gives. While mostly delicious, the food is usually not exotic, and you may not find them very flavoured. Also, the Dinnerly delivery boxes come with minimalist packaging. Resulting from this is that: there is no recipe card, ingredients for different meals are lumped together in the box, and some ingredients may be damaged. The big bump on the road is that delivery sometimes takes longer than expected; spoiling dinner plans, and making some ingredients unusable when they arrive.

The bottom line is: Dinnerly provides affordable meal kits for simple yet interesting meals that are super fast to prepare.

Also read: iTailor Review

Pros

• Prices are virtually the lowest in the industry
• Menu (meals) are usually interesting but basic
• Ingredients are usually few
• Recipes have a few steps, and preparation time is usually about 30 minutes
• Prep work and cleaning up to be relatively easy
• Minimalist packaging means less environmental waste
• Delivery box and almost every other packaging material is recyclable
• It is relatively easy to cancel subscriptions
• Customer support is provided via email (hi@dinnerly.com) and telephone (888 267 2850)

Cons

• Do only dinners (no breakfast, lunches, or desserts)
• No one time purchases (is subscription-based)
• No options for restricted diets
• Ingredients for different meals are “lumped” together in the delivery box and not put in different bags
• Does not include recipe cards in the Meal Kits; you’ll have to follow the recipe in the website
• Recipes do not have step-by-step pictured illustrations
• Does not offer free shipping
• Delivery narrow is usually narrow (we got only Tuesdays)
• Too many complaints of late delivery

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