Reviews

Freshly Review

About Freshly

Freshly Review

Attaining “health” doesn’t always mean making big sacrifices. Sometimes, it’s about the little changes we make. Freshly makes adding a wholesome meal to your day easier with its balanced dishes delivered weekly to your door.

Meal delivery has become an accessible and easier way for people to get properly portioned home cooked meals without having to worry about waste or over buying. According to this analysis[1], 15% of adults across Australia, Canada, Mexico, the UK, and the USA purchase through online food delivery services over the course of a week.

Online food delivery service use was associated with being male; that is younger, highly educated, or living with children. Sociodemographic characteristics of online food delivery service customers were consistent across countries and factors such as stress over limited time for home meal preparation.

Pre-cooked and ready to heat and eat, Freshly meals are never frozen, and each week, you’ll get to choose from a varied menu packed with protein, vegetables, and whole grains. 

The service has attracted a healthy serving of attention since it started cooking things up, including 725K followers on Instagram and over 440k likes on Facebook. They’ve even been featured in notable publications like Forbes and Food & Wine

Daydreaming of delicious, dependable weeknight meals? This service may be able to help. In this Freshly review, we’ll take you through all the need-to-knows about the company and what its delivery service is like, fill you up with customer feedback, and more to satisfy your appetite for information. 

Overview of Freshly

Freshly Review

Freshly has come a long way since its start in 2012. Back then, it was a healthy dream of friends Michael Wystrach and Carter Comstock, who created the company with the intent to provide nutrient-dense dishes[2] that tasted like restaurant meals.

The entire concept of prepared meal delivery[3] was pretty fresh back then, with most options delivered frozen, or asking you to do the cooking. Don’t get us wrong, those meals certainly have their place, but with them comes either the inconvenience in cooking time or the taste that’s akin to something you’d find in the freezer aisle.

What did these two friends have to bring to the convenient meal delivery market? Wystrach has over 10 years of experience in the food industry with additional knowledge in finance. On the other hand, Comstock was simply a self-described “health nut”, trying every diet under the sun. He brought personal experience along with a dream for something more sustainable. 

The brand develops tasty, heart-warming dishes that sneak in tons of veggies like the Beef & Veggies Meatballs with Masterful Mash, featuring vegetables in the meatballs themselves, in the sauce, the mashed potatoes, and on the plate. 

And yet, the service creates meals people actually want to eat and by that, keeps them healthy and coming back for more. The Texas-based brand was recently scooped up by Nestle in 2020, but on the outside, nothing has changed. The brand still delivers affordable, wholesome dishes[4] around the country — freshly.

Chomping at the bit to find out what these recipes are like? Don’t worry, this Freshly review will get there in just a few scrolls. For now, take a peek at the brand’s highlights to get a taste of what’s in store: 

Highlights

  • Fresh, nutritious ingredients & balanced meals
  • Rotating menu, always something new
  • Has banned 85+ ingredients
  • Freshly promo code for students available
  • Refer a friend deal
  • Option to skip up to 3 weeks
  • Flexible subscription terms, cancel anytime
  • Gluten-free, plant-based, vegetarian options
Freshly Review

By now, you may have gotten the feeling that Freshy does things a little differently than your average meal delivery plan. Opting for natural sweeteners and whole foods, the service packs in a high level of body-friendly nutrients, muscle-building protein, and doesn’t skimp on flavor. 

The next section of this Freshly review will walk you through how the fresh and friendly service works and what your meal plan options are. Ahead of that, we’ll dive into its most popular, lip-licking dishes to get you dreaming of all the easy weeknight dinners ahead.

Freshly Meals Review

Once you land on Freshly’s home page, you have the option to browse its plans and menus. If you’re satisfied with what you see, the steps to signing up are much easier than planning, shopping, and preparing meals for the coming week — plus, you’ll get all of your meals delivered right to your doorstep.

Freshly offers 5 different plans, serving up 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 meals per week, and if you have certain dietary restrictions, you can browse the menu according to your needs whether they’re dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, or otherwise. 

Dairy free alternatives have been scientifically proven to encourage happier skin. Eliminating dairy can lead to drastic improvements in the skin and a happier stomach. According to this study[5], recent evidence suggests that intake of dairy products was associated with reduced risk of childhood obesity. In adults, however, intake of dairy products was shown to improve body composition and facilitate weight loss during energy restriction.

Gluten free meals have also been shown to have a healthful impact on those with wheat intolerance and essential for the rising number of people with celiac disease. Although gluten free diets can be at risk of being low in certain nutrients, an international study[6] on gluten free food ingredients showed a wide variety of grains and high vegetable intake can compensate for the lower intake of fortified wheat flour products. 

Once you’ve selected your plan and your menu, the rest of the process involves inputting your delivery address and then waiting for your meals to arrive on the day you choose. 

You can even skip or cancel your deliveries altogether at any time during your subscription, and Freshly gives you the ability to set up your shipments up to 3 weeks in advance. Each week they’ll send you a notification about deadlines for orders, which arrive about 5-6 days before it ships out. 

The way Freshly’s plan pricing works is that the more you order, the less each dish costs. Take a peek at the pricing for all plans below to start estimating what your convenient meal plan will look like:

  • 4 meals/week $11.80
  • 6 meals/week: $10
  • 8 meals/week: $9.50
  • 10 meals/week: $9.30
  • 12 meals/week: $9

Your meals don’t have to be just for you! Enjoy up to 4 days of family (of 3) meals when you choose the largest option. Now that you know how things work around the service’s kitchen, this Freshly review will get into what you really came here for, the food.

Freshly Menu Review

For us, picking out food options for the week is exciting. We may or may not be obsessed with food, but there’s something alluring about imagining all of the amazing dishes we will soon be partaking in knowing we don’t have to lift a spoon or boil a pot of water. 

The Freshly Menu changes slightly every week, but for the most part, keeps customer favorites. You’ll find a list of those favorites below, accompanied by ingredient details and nutrition facts to give you an idea of the kind of recipes you may be soon digging into. 

Freshly Steak Peppercorn with Sautéed Carrots & French Green Beans Review

We totally get why this dish is a best seller — just look at it. Meeting all the mouth-watering credentials of creamy, saucy, savory, and juicy, Steak Peppercorn with Sautéed Carrots & French Green Beans is a well-rounded weeknight staple.

It includes a grilled flat-iron steak sitting atop fluffy mashed potatoes and fragrant, sautéed herb and garlic green beans and carrots. The whole delicious dish is smothered in a creamy peppercorn sauce that uses healthy yogurt and porcini mushrooms for a grounding flavor. 

You’ll get a total of 500 calories from this gluten-free and soy-free meal, along with 29 grams of protein, 38 carbs, and 26 grams of fat. 

Freshly Homestyle Chicken with Masterful Mac & Cheese Review

Shake n’ Bake is a household staple. It’s seasoned well and gives chicken the perfect crust while keeping it juicy. The Homestyle Chicken with Masterful Mac & Cheese is like that, just a bit healthier, gluten-free, and soy-free. 

The crust for the chicken is made from an almond flour batter packed with a blend of herbs and spices — flavors that pair perfectly with the brand’s signature Mac & Cheese and a simple serving of garlicky green beans.

A wholesome meal like mom used to make, this delicious dish is the perfect food to look forward to after a long, hard day. And since it’s high in protein too — a whopping 46 grams — it’s super satisfying, providing 560 calories, 35 grams of carbs, and 27 grams of fat.

Freshly Beef & Veggie Meatballs with Garlic Broccoli & Masterful Mash Review

A truly satisfying dish, Beef & Veggie Meatballs with Garlic Broccoli & Masterful Mash puts a healthful spin on a traditionally meat and potatoes dish. It gets in as many vegetables as possible, mixing them into your meatballs along with a beautiful array of one of the healthiest cruciferous vegetables on the planet: broccoli. 

Think this one is going to be too healthy tasting? A smooth but smart herbed gravy is poured over top — and by smart, we mean that it uses cashew butter for a healthy kick. But that’s not the only intelligent aspect of this tasty dish. 

The Masterful Mash is made from a combination of cauliflower, potatoes, and Greek yogurt, a blend that piles in more veggies and gut-friendly dairy. Hearty, filling, and gluten-free, this meal has 580 calories, 30 grams of carbs, 38 grams of fat, and 31 grams of protein. 

Freshly Beef & Broccoli Bowl with Garlicky Stir-Fry Sauce Review

Beef & Broccoli is like a good friend… always there for you promising the same, dependable experience. And in this dish, Freshly pumps its flavors up a notch. 

By piling in the veggies and using a special sauce sweetened with sap from coconuts, the service cuts out the regular white sugar you’d find in Asian takeout. The dish is bursting with authentic flavors too, with its savory, citrusy notes of lime, ginger, garlic, and sesame sitting aside a sizable portion of basmati rice.

One of the service’s lighter dishes, the Beef & Broccoli Bowl with Garlicky Stir-Fry Sauce clocks in at 380 calories, 53 grams of carbs, 7 grams of fat, and a whole 22 grams of protein. The best part? It’s also dairy and gluten-free too!

Freshly Masterful Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash & Two Cheeses Review

Masterful is truly the right word here. Not only adding a serving of delicious butternut squash to one of your favorite, classic dishes, this Mac & Cheese recipe is completely gluten-free, made with brown rice noodles. 

The Masterful Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash & Two Cheeses melds spicy pepper jack cheese with creamy mild cheddar to create a gooey, satisfying meal, side, or snack. 

It’s a 15 oz dish, providing 2 servings if you’re making it a side, but mix in a little chopped up sausage and a few veggies and you have an easy, wholesome meal. Order this option just as you would any of the meals, or add a few chicken breasts to your menu to create an à la carte dinner.

The Mac & Cheese is soy-free and vegetarian in addition to being free from gluten with 470 calories per serving, 38 grams of carbs, and a whopping 18 grams of protein. 

Who Is Freshly For? 

Freshly Review

People choose meal delivery for all kinds of reasons: convenience, lack of cooking skills, busy schedules, etc. — the list goes on. You’ve seen what makes Freshly different from other services, and it’s precisely those reasons that may attract you to this service rather than another. 

Freshly delivers fresh prepared meals to your door weekly. Its service is flexible, and it offers plans for up to 12 meals per week, meaning you can take care of lunch and dinner for yourself for 6 days or feed your family of 3 four times per week. 

With a healthy mix of plant-based, gluten-free, and peanut-free dishes, Freshly is a great option for those following a specific type of lifestyle. And since the service is full of fresh veggies and clean proteins, it’s a smart choice for those who want a healthier meal.

Freshly Reviews: What Do Customers Think?

Freshly Review

Meal delivery services are kind of like takeout mixed with meal prep. They’re wholesome and convenient — and those two things are usually the same across the board no matter which service you sign up for. 

To see what makes this particular service stand out from the crowd, as well as find out if it’s as beneficial as its creators say it is, we’re going to need to hear from those who have tried it. 

In this section of our Freshly review, you’ll discover ratings and read a variety of comments to bring to light to important factors about the service like the quality of food and what delivery is like

Our first serving of feedback came from Consumer Affairs which showed an overall rating of 4.4/5 stars from 353 customers. The comments section is full of happy stories about how the service has been life-changing, and one Freshly review we think sums it up:

I know how overwhelming it can be when you are looking at a meal service. I can tell you from experience that Freshly is probably the best one. I’ve never used the services with recipes, so I can’t speak for that. But for ones with ready made meals, Freshly hits it out of the park.

That quote comes from a single woman who said she has struggled with dieting and meal choices for a long time. The reason we think this comment is so beneficial is that her struggle is a common one — but it’s not just limited to women. 

Folks of all shapes and sizes struggle with feeling good about what they’re eating and choosing something that’s actually satiating, and that’s one of the things we really love about Freshly, is the quality and content of its meals. 

For our next spoonful of feedback, we checked out the Freshly reviews page on Influenster. 1,344 Influensters awarded this brand an average of 4.3/5 stars. We learned that 97% of people are either overjoyed or satisfied with the service — which is pretty huge if you ask us. One Freshly review really emphasized how useful its meals can be read:

I told [my stepson] that I would never eat that kind of food because it contains too much vegetables. I have never eaten my meat or chicken with vegetables, until I tried these…believe it or not here I am eating vegetables. It certainly has shut my mouth and I feel that my diet is changing for better choice of food.

Vegetables aren’t a common staple in everyone’s diet. Preparing them can be foreign and it can be hard to try something you’ve never had before. Since Freshly makes sneaky swaps with veggies (think: spiralized vegetable noodles and cauliflower rice), it makes getting in a healthy serving that much easier. 

Considering you’ve heard about the benefits of the service and how it can change people’s lives, we’re now going to take a look at an in-depth Freshly review that walks us through the entire ordering process.

The review comes from a blog called The Happy Arkansan, and here’s what it said about what showed up on their doorstep: “One thing I must congratulate Freshly on is the packing of their meals. They did an excellent job making sure everything got to me quickly while being cool.” 

Since the meals were shipped from Texas to Arkansas (which, according to Google Maps, is an 8.5 hour drive) that’s a pretty large amount of time for fresh food to be in transit and it’s good to learn that it arrived cool and fresh.

The first dish that The Happy Arkansan ate was the Shrimp & Andouille Paella. Verdict? They loved it and wrote: “I was pleasantly surprised just how big the shrimp were and how many of them there were…there was way more andouille sausage in the package…Overall, there was lots of spice and flavor.

They posted a picture of the meal and they were right — the shrimp are sizable and there is lots of meat, which is another thing we love about this service and probably why people say its dishes are so satisfying.

Overall, the feedback for this brand is highly positive and we learned a few things about this brand that set it apart from others. Sizable portions, smartly integrated vegetables, and on-time, fresh delivery are things that keep customers coming back for more.

Is Freshly Worth It?

Freshly Review

Freshly is one of the few fresh prepared food delivery services on the market. If you’ve ever bought a frozen meal, you know it tastes ok, but it’s never excellent. Freezing food changes its molecular structure and alters the texture and taste. To make sure something tastes as good as possible, it’s important not to freeze the final product.

That’s just one of the things we’ve come to love about Freshly, along with its sizable portions, wide array of options, and good-looking dishes that include a large portion of protein and always a delicious-looking sauce. 

The perks of choosing Freshly are clear to us, and of course, its feedback certainly speaks volumes. Catering to your dietary, scheduling, and frequency needs, and offering affordable prices, we believe this service isn’t one to be missed.

Freshly Promotions & Discounts 

Freshly Review

We love meal delivery services for the way they save us time and frustration. But surprisingly, they also save you money, preventing expensive last-minute takeout on late work nights or when that casserole doesn’t quite turn out to be edible (we’ve all been there). 

In addition to being downright helpful, during this Freshly review, we spotted a few other ways that the brand helps customers save, like its Refer a Friend program in which you’ll give your pal $90 (yes, $90) and you’ll get $30. The best part? You can repeat this process for as many friends as you have.

We also discovered that the service has a Freshly coupon offer available for students. It gives them $80 off their first 5 orders (cumulatively, so like, $16 off each week). 

Where to Buy Freshly

Freshly Review

To get your plan started and your tasty meals cued up for delivery, head right over to Freshly.com and click ‘Sign Up’. 

FAQ

Freshly Review

Who owns Freshly?

Freshly was created by Michael Wystrach and Carter Comstock in 2012, but as of October 30th, 2020, the service is now owned by Nestle, giving a nod to just how popular it really is. Though Nestle is in the picture now, the service’s prices, menus, and overall MO have remained the same.

Can I cancel Freshly anytime?

Totally, but you can skip orders too if you’re not 100% sure you want to cancel. The skip option lets you change your order up to 3 weeks ahead and you can do this from within your account under ‘Deliveries’. 

If you’re sure you want to cancel, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your Freshly account
  2. Go to ‘Settings’
  3. Under ‘My Subscription’, select ‘Cancel Subscription’
  4. Answer a few questions about why you’d like to cancel

How many portions are Freshly meals?

All of the brand’s meals have one serving that’s designed to feed the average adult. Freshly meals weigh about 13 oz and have about 500 calories each on average. In general, the service’s dishes range from 300-650 calories and you can look at the menu to pick out which ones suit your preferences. 

Does Freshly accommodate dietary preferences?

When you browse the Freshly menu, you’ll see exactly what’s in each dish, along with tags that denote the category it falls under (vegetarian, gluten-free, <360 cal, etc). 

When you sign up, you can also set your own dietary preferences in your account and easily search for the meals within your diet. Have additional questions? Shoot the brand an email at [email protected]

How long do the Freshly meals last?

Since Freshly meals are delivered fresh—never frozen—they have a refrigerated shelf life of around 3-5 days. The company will put a little sticker on any meals that should be eaten first (for example, dishes like seafood). 

Other than that, you’re free to eat your meals over the next five days or by the use-by date on the back of each dish. If you don’t finish a meal and want to save it for later, simply stash it in the freezer until ready to eat.

What is Freshly’s Shipping Policy?

Freshly ships its meals to the lower 48 states (excluding Hawaii and Alaska) and shipping fees are calculated at checkout, and will vary based on your location. Depending on where you live, you may have a certain delivery window in which you can get your meals delivered. When you input your zip code at checkout, those options will be shown to you. 

Your meals will arrive fresh in individual reusable containers and safely nestled inside a chilled box. Shipping takes anywhere from 1-2 days, but there is enough dry ice in the box to keep them fresh until they make it to your door, plus an additional 12 hours in case you’re not home when your box arrives.

When your order ships, you’ll get a confirmation email with a tracking link you can use to see where your meals are. This happens each week, and you’ll continue to get your meals on your preferred day for as long as you continue your subscription. 

What is Freshly’s Return Policy?

Freshly meals are, well, fresh. For that reason, they can’t be returned but you can cancel your subscription anytime you need to. With that being said, if there is anything wrong with your order, the company will make it right by either a refund or a replacement. 

How to Contact Freshly

Have questions that weren’t answered in this Freshly review? You can get in touch with the brand 24/7 by using any of the contact methods below:


If you are looking for more ways to get meals delivered to your home, here are a few other options to consider:

Factor 75

Blue Apron Weight Watchers

Everytable

Veestro

Dinnerly

Article Sources

  1. Keeble, M., Adams, J., Sacks, G., Vanderlee, L., White, C. M., Hammond, D., & Burgoine, T. Use of Online Food Delivery Services to Order Food Prepared Away-From-Home and Associated Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Cross-Sectional, Multi-Country Analysis U.S. National Library of Medicine International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(14), 5190
  2. Drewnowski, A., Dwyer, J., King, J. C., & Weaver, C. M. A proposed nutrient density score that includes food groups and nutrients to better align with dietary guidance U.S. National Library of Medicine Nutrition reviews, 77(6), 404–416
  3. Cho, M., Bonn, M. A., Moon, S., & Chang, H. Home chef meal kits: Product attributes, perceived value and repurchasing intentions the moderating effects of household configuration U.S. National Library of Medicine Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 45, 192–202
  4. Bessems, K., Linssen, E., Lomme, M., & van Assema, P. The Effectiveness of the Good Affordable Food Intervention for Adults with Low Socioeconomic Status and Small Incomes U.S. National Library of Medicine International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(7), 2535
  5. Thorning, T. K., Raben, A., Tholstrup, T., Soedamah-Muthu, S. S., Givens, I., & Astrup, A. Milk and dairy products: good or bad for human health? An assessment of the totality of scientific evidence U.S. National Library of Medicine Food & nutrition research, 60, 32527
  6. Saturni, L., Ferretti, G., & Bacchetti, T. The Gluten-Free Diet: Safety and Nutritional Quality MDPI Open Access Journals Nutrients, 2(1), 16–34

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