Two Meal Delivery Services Head To Head – Full Review From Our Hands-On Experience.
In our hectic times, acknowledging that cheaper isn’t always better is essential. This is even more true for something as important as the foods going into our body and the enjoinment of eating healthy meals after a long working day.
That’s why meal kit services that offer meal planning, pre-portioned fresh ingredients, and delicious recipes delivered directly to your home are compelling.
In this detailed comparison, we’ll give you an honest glance at both Dinnerly and Marley Spoon companies – including ingredients quality, customer service, our experience with cooking and tasting the meals, and why we picked Martha Stewart Marley Spoon as our favorite.
Main Differences That Make Marley Spoon Better
- Martha & Marley Spoon offers exceptionally delicious meals, like real restaurant food! Whereas Dinnerly is more for simple recipes.
- Martha & Marley Spoon provides more generous portion sizes.
- Dinnerly meals come at a more affordable price.
Read our FULL comparison below to see how our decision was made…
Variety of Meal Plan
Winner – It’s a Tie
You can choose a meal plan for two or four people with both meal delivery services, with two to six meals per week. Both also provide the option to make your meal kit delivery 100% vegetarian.
Once you sign up for the service, you can easily manage your account online and change your plan from week to week.
Variety of Weekly Meal Kits
Winner – Martha & Marley Spoon
Both Dinnerly and Marley Spoon offers a massive 45 meal per week, ensuring you have enough variety to choose only recipes you’ll love. This variety includes 8-12 vegetarian meal kits as well as ‘fast’ cooking meals, low-carb meals, prepared meals, and more.
The meals vary in style, from Mexican, Italian, Asian, and American classics.
The Dinnerly recipes tend to be much simpler, including 5-6 ingredients. The Martha & Marley Spoon meals are more complex, often using more ingredients, and always come with a nice twist or upgrade of tradition, all from Martha Stewart’s creative kitchen.
You can check out the menu up to four weeks ahead and pre-choose your deliveries.
Special Diet Support
Winner – It’s a Tie
Both subscription service meal kits offer meals to support some widespread dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free-friendly (no-gluten-added), Dairy-free, low-calorie, and vegetarian meals. You can mix and match as you wish.
We should also note that both weekly menus offer kid-friendly meals and one-pot/under 30 minutes for extra easy cooking on busy days.
Our Tasting Experience – Is It Delicious?
Winner – Martha Stewarts & Marley Spoon!
Our goal at The Meal Kit Review is to perform honest ‘hands-on’ reports on meal kits to help you navigate this industry.
As part of our review process, we make sure to subscribe as actual customers, and our team of tasters cooks and taste recipes from each service for at least three weeks.
After testing deliveries from both services, we can say the key differences are apparent. Marley Spoon is focused on elevated yet easy cooking, using high-quality and sustainable ingredients. Dinnerly is all about simplicity, with satisfying recipes to cook at home at a lower cost.
Tasty Meals We Loved The Most
Low-Carb Cowboy Pork Skillet Hash By Dinnerly
This was a simple dish, yet very comforting, with southern tastes from the BBQ spice blend. We liked the twist of making it low-carb by using onion & zucchini instead of potatoes. The meal prep was easy, as promised, and included only one large pan, so minimal clean-up was needed.
As for the taste, it was simple and comforting, and we liked the added touch of the half-soft baked eggs and the sour relish on top—overall an excellent meal for a tight budget.
Crispy Lemon-Parmesan Chicken Breast And Roasted Broccolini by Martha & Marley Spoon
The first thing we noted when opening the meal kit bag was the fantastic quality of the ingredients! Starting with the clean and large chicken breast, the giant Broccolini heads that looked so fresh and beautiful, and the high-quality parmesan cheese. It was nothing short of a joy!
The portions of this meal kit were very generous. The chicken was more than ample in size. The result was a big dish that could easily fit three people.
The meal prep process was straightforward, as promised. It was an easy meal that could fit perfectly after a long workday!
As for the taste – it was a hit! The thin and moist chicken breast coated with panko breadcrumbs and parm cheese was delightful, and the twist of the dish -the lemony graving – was absolutely amazing. The side of broccolini gave this meal a healthier and lighter feel (we love skipping the carbs, especially for dinner!)
Other Five Meals We Tried From The Menu
Martha Stewarts & Marley Spoon Meals
- 20-Min Chicken Tacos with Creamy Lime Slaw, Salsa & Guacamole
- Steak & Mustard Pan Sauce with Roasted Sweet Potato & Kale Salad
- Sweet Potato Cottage Pie with Ground Chicken, Green Beans & Corn
- White Pizza with Prosciutto, with Hot Honey Drizzle & Arugula
- Hawaiian Loco Moco Burger with Caramelized Onion Gravy & Rice
Dinnerly Meals
- Chimichurri Beef Bowl with Pickled Onions & Sour Cream
- Sticky Crispy Take-Out Chicken with Scallion-Rice
- Popcorn Chicken with Cheesy Broccoli
- Low-Calorie Spanish-Style Chicken & Rice
- Sweet Chili-Glazed Barramundi with Ginger Rice & Roasted Broccolini
Style and Complexity of Meals
Winner – Martha Stewarts & Marley Spoon
In this category, we identified a clear difference in the focus of the type of recipes offered. The Dinnerly menu clearly focuses on the more casual style meals, whereas the Marley Spoon recipes branch out more and offer classics with a twist and some gourmet-feel recipes.
We loved the Marley Spoon variety of more unique options and could see Martha Stewart’s touch in the recipes. Yet, the meals are not too complicated to prep and cook, and in many cases, even very easy.
Moreover, we found the Marley Spoon recipes for vegetarians healthier and very tempting, using ingredients like quinoa, lots of fresh veggies, and plant-based meat proteins. In contrast, the Dinnerly vegetarian meals are more with white rice, eggs, and black beans.
Quality Of Ingredients
Winner – Martha Stewarts & Marley Spoon
The Marley Spoon ingredients delivery succeeded in keeping us happy! It was notable that the level of ingredients in very good. The company states to work only with folks it trusts, so you’ll cook with only farm-fresh vegetables & fruits and the best quality proteins.
The chicken has no antibiotics, the beef is grass-fed, and some veggies and other ingredients are organically sourced.
With Dinnerly agenda as a low-cost meal service, naturally, there are concerns regarding the ingredients quality of their meal kits. However, we are glad to report that the quality we observed was very good, and we didn’t have any issues with the ingredients we got. So the vegetables looked fresh, and the poultry and other proteins were of good quality.
Both services will require you to have essential pantry items like olive oil, salt, and pepper. However, with Dinnerly, you will need some extra ingredients we would expect to get as part of the meal kits – such as butter, garlic, all-purpose flour, and egg – at home. This is one way for the Dinnerly service to keep its lower price point.
The Delivery Box
Winner – Martha Stewarts & Marley Spoon
There’s a lot that can go wrong with online food delivery. It’s got less to do with the quality of products and more with delivery issues like keeping the food in good shape and at appropriate temperatures. We review this element and examine the insulated packaging and meal box tracking options. Also, we look to see how recyclable the packaging is.
Both delivery boxes are branded, and inside the box, there’s insulated linen plus a large ice pack on the bottom – pretty safe for keeping the foods in cool temperatures during delivery.
As for Marley Spoon, and what made it the winner in this category, the ingredients per meal kit arrive in separate labeled paper bags to keep it easy to know which bag is for which recipe. The delivery can come with printed recipe cards or digital recipe cards you will get directly to your email before your meal kit box arrives, as you choose.
As for Dinnerly, the ingredients aren’t separated per recipe, so you must sort all the relevant ingredients for each meal.
As for the eco-friendliness of the packaging, both use boxes that are SFI-certified and made of paper sourced from sustainably-operated forests and can be recycled at any paper curbside recycle bin.
The giant ice packs contain 98% water and 2% SAP, a non-hazardous, non-toxic, oil-based polymer material. The Martha & Marley Spoon paper bags are 100% post-consumer recycled paper fibers that can also be recycled.
The Ease Of Use Of App And Websites
Winner – It’s a Tie
Since both Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s and Dinnerly come from the same entities, their app and website have a very similar flow, with easy registration, including selecting your meals.
Online, you can also change meal plans, change the delivery date, skip weeks when needed and cancel your subscription.
Each company’s site and app allow you to view future menus four weeks ahead, including digital recipe cards with a breakdown of ingredients and other information such as nutritional values, allergen information, and what you need from your at-home pantry.
Meal Delivery Service Terms
Winner – It’s a Tie
Both meal delivery services offer a subscription-based service. This subscription has no long-term commitment and ample flexibility – including flexible scheduling and skipping weeks whenever needed or changing your meal plan. This can all be done online through your account setting, so you don’t need to contact customer support.
Canceling your account is also a simple process that can be done online without extra fees. Remember to do it a week prior to your next box’s delivery day.
Add-On Options For Your Delivery
Winner – It’s a Tie
Besides the wide variety of meals per weekly menu, both companies offer add-on options like prepared meals to heat in the oven or microwave (great for lunch at the office), desserts, and tempting fast breakfast options like baked oatmeal or vegetarian breakfast burrito.
Delivery Areas
Winner – It’s a Tie
Both Martha & Marley Spoon and Dinnerly deliver to most US states and zip codes. If you want to see if they deliver to your address, you have two options – enter your zip code at the beginning of the registration process or contact their customer service via live chat through the website.
Customer Support
Winner – It’s a Tie
From our experience, both these meal kit services ensure a good customer support experience for new and active customers.
Both websites offer a comprehensive FAQ section with answers to most questions regarding the delivery, meal plans, the sourcing of the ingredients, and more.
It is also easy to reach out to the customer support team through phone, email, and chat, and the response is very quick.
Dinnerly Customer Service: 888-267-2850
Martha & Marley Spoon Customer Service: 866-228-4513
The Cost
Winner – Dinnerly
Dinnerly is what you can call a low-cost meal kit service, with a price of around $5 per serving.
The price of Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meals is higher (about double per serving), but recipes are more upscaled and include more ingredients, and portions tend to be bigger.
Our Final Verdict For Dinnerly Vs. Marley Spoon
Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon Is Our Winner!
Dinnerly and Marley Spoon certainly have some things in common, but it’s pretty clear that each meal delivery service has a different target audience.
The Marley Spoon meal kit delivery service is best for upscaled classics with the best fresh produce, and Dinnerly is for people who like simple homemade cooking but don’t like to overpay for it.
That said, we recommend trying Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon!
There’s a lot we liked about this meal kit delivery service, starting from the packaging complaints, the fantastic variety of best recipes from the queen of home cooking herself, and mainly the tasty meals. Everything we tried was, simply put – a major success!
It is more expensive than Dinnerly (but not from other meal delivery services like Blue Apron or Home Chef), but it’s 100% worth it. And yet, it’s much more affordable than most takeouts or ordering-ins.
