Meal kit delivery services offer a great way to enjoy home-cooked meals without the hassle of planning and shopping every week. These days, there are so many meal kits to choose from that it can be confusing to pick the option that will best suit you.
That’s where we come in! This review will compare two of our favorite meal kits – Home Chef and Marley Spoon. Both are excellent services, but there are some differences to know when choosing between them.
Home Chef is on a mission to make cooking at home quick and easy. It offers a variety of prep options, from traditional meal kits to oven-ready meals and more.
Meanwhile, Martha & Marley Spoon provides an elevated cooking experience with chef-designed recipes, all in partnership with American home cooking queen Martha Stewart.
Our team revisited both services in 2024, ordering boxes from both companies to see what’s new and how they compare to our past experience. Let’s help you pick the right one with our comparison—Home Chef vs. Martha and Marley Spoon!
Short on Time? Here’s Why We Think Martha & Marley Spoon is Better
- Better variety of weekly meals to choose from
- Overall, excellent taste and style of meals
- High quality of ingredients in every box
- More dietary support options to meet your needs
- Great add-on options in the Marley Spoon Market
What Is Home Chef?
Home Chef is a meal kit company that offers a wide range of prep options to try and meet customers’ needs. They offer classic meal kits, quick 15-minute meal kits, oven-ready meals, and microwave-ready meals so you can get dinner on the table with as much or as little prep as you like.
What Is Martha & Marley Spoon?
Marley Spoon provides chef-created recipes with restaurant-style taste – including the best meals crafted by Martha Stewart herself! Their menu has impressive styles and tastes, with many exciting dishes and even some one-pot, oven-ready options for quicker prep, fun desserts, and fancy brunch options.
Pros & Cons
Home Chef Pros
- Variety of prep options from classic meal kits to express to microwavable meals
- Customize It! option lets you swap proteins for classic meal kits
- Dietary support for calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, vegetarian, and more
- Classic flavors with a twist will satisfy picky eaters
Home Chef Cons
- Fewer weekly recipes to choose from
- Can only customize meal kits, not express, oven-ready, or microwave meals
Marley Spoon Pros
- A diverse menu of recipes to suit every taste
- Only meal kit to offer Martha’s Best recipes from Martha Stewart
- There is a huge variety of options for different dietary needs
- Recipes feel elevated yet are still easy to follow
Marley Spoon Cons
- Very limited fully prepared and oven-ready options
- Some meals require more advanced techniques and tools
Variety of Meal Plans
Home Chef Meal Plans
With Home Chef, you’ll let them know which meal types you’re most interested in, from Express, Oven-Ready, Fast & Fresh, and Meal Kits. Then, select preferences for specific dietary needs to help them make weekly recipe selections for you.
With all that taken care of, you simply choose how many people you’re cooking for, with plans for 2, 4, or 6-person family households, and how many weekly meals you’d like. You can receive between 2 to 6 meals in your box, with the option to mix and match meal kits, express, and other options.
Martha & Marley Spoon Meal Plans
With Marley Spoon, choosing your plan is quick and easy – everything you need is on a single page on their website. Simply select your preferences for types of meals and dietary needs, then choose your plan size.
Marley Spoon offers 2 or 4-person plans, with between 2 to 6 meals in your weekly box. You’ll also have access to the full Marley Spoon market to shop add-ons every week to complete your grocery shop with desserts, sides, snacks, and breakfast items.
Meal Variety
Home Chef
The Home Chef menu is broken out into different categories: traditional meal kits, express meals that come together in under 30 minutes, oven-ready meals, and microwave-ready fully prepared meals. There’s also a section for add-on items like breakfasts, sides, and more.
The number of options varies by the type of meal, with around 10-15 traditional or express meal kits per week and a handful of options for oven-ready and Fast & Fresh microwavable meals. Meals are clearly labeled with icons to show dietary support, such as Pescatarian, Keto, and more.
Marley Spoon
Martha & Marley Spoon’s menu includes over 100 recipes each week, giving them plenty of variety to include different flavors and styles of meals. The menu is easy to browse and has clear labels for diet support, such as vegetarian, low-calorie, climatarian, and more.
Most Marley Spoon recipes come as traditional meal kits, but there are some one-pot time-saver meals and a few oven-ready and microwave-ready picks each week. The Marley Spoon market adds even more variety, with add-ons for breakfast, snacks, dessert, and more.
Our Experience – Is It Tasty?
Our team has extensive experience with Home Chef and Marley Spoon over the past six years. In 2024, we re-tested both services for two weeks to evaluate their new offerings and update our review from the past.
With both Home Chef and Marley Spoon, we received well-packaged and clearly branded boxes with high-quality, pre-measured ingredients. The boxes were well organized and easy to unpack, with full-color recipe cards included. It was well noticed that the produce and proteins in both kits were fresh and of good quality.
Home Chef
We enjoyed the Thai Pork Spring Roll in a Bowl from Home Chef. This dish is sure to take you on a trip across the world, all the way to the sunny beaches of Thailand. Plus, the Asian-style meal took only 15 min to cook! If you love peanuts, this dish is a sure thing for you.
To begin with, the nutty aroma of the delicious satay sauce was a pure delight. Satay sauce is a typical Thai flavoring that contains ground roasted peanuts or peanut butter (smooth or crunchy), coconut milk, soy sauce, tamarind, galangal, garlic, and spices such as coriander seed and cumin. It was absolutely delicious!
Another thing we loved about this dish is how light it is. It is served in a bowl rather than fried in a spring roll, making it perfectly suitable for a nice, light summer dinner. Plus, it is low-calorie, with only 558 calories per serving!
Marley Spoon
From Marley Spoon, we were impressed with the Fast! Chicken Shawarma Hummus Bowl with Israeli Salad. The Middle Eastern flavors of this dish really stood out – and it truly was fast, as promised, taking just about 15 minutes to make.
The marinated shallots elevate this dish, bringing together the fresh and flavorful Israeli Salad for a light yet flavorful pop. The Baharat spiced chicken comes pre-chopped, making it easy to make yet perfectly moist and tasty. Everything is served on delicious, creamy hummus, which really brings the dish together.
With the hummus and chicken, this meal is a great high-protein option that leaves you satisfied but not overly full.
Other Top Meals To Try
Home Chef Meals to Try
- Roasted Garlic Butter Sirloin with Bacon-Cheddar Broccoli
- Barbecue Chicken Breast with Spicy Mayo Corn
- Pesto Parmesan Salmon with Lemon Butter Rice Pilaf
- Beef Cheeseburger Soup with Bacon and Cheddar
- Red Pepper and Italian Sausage Penne with Parmesan Cheese
- Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Bake with Rice and Crispy Onions
- Blueberry Muffins with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
- Green Chile Pork & Cheese Tamales
Marley Spoon Meals to Try
- Thai Lemongrass Salmon with Coconut Rice & Pickled Cucumbers
- Chicken-Friend Chicken & Warm Potato Salad
- Pulled Pork Souvlaki Platter with Pita & Greek Salad
- Mushroom “Bacon” Carbonara with Walnut-Arugula Salad
- Martha’s Best Sausage & Broccoli Rabe Gemelli with Toasted Pine Nuts
- Broiled Baharat-Spiced Eggplant with Cauliflower Rice & Currants Over Greens
- Bacon & Swiss Egg Bites
- Ready Made Ginger-Miso Chicken with Jasmine Rice & Vegetables
Style and Complexity of Dishes
Home Chef
With Home Chef, meals tend towards easy-to-cook classic recipes with a twist. You’ll often see dishes like salmon and potatoes, maple bacon sirloin, and taco salad. That said, quite a few different cultural cuisines are represented, with Mexican, Greek, and Japanese-inspired recipes, to name a few. There’s a good mix of options for family-friendly meals or more fancy dinners for date night.
The add-on options also tend to be classic and familiar items for breakfasts, snacks, and quick lunches. You’ll find items like jalapeno poppers, Mexican-style chicken tortilla soup, or Italian-style ciabatta dinner rolls.
Marley Spoon
On the weekly Marley Spoon menu, you will see plenty of kids-friendly crowd-pleaser meals like simple parmesan-crusted chicken breast or Martha’s Best beef stroganoff. But more adventurous palettes can rejoice in many cuisines like spiced chicken and hummus platters, vegetable borscht, and more.
The Marley Spoon market has plenty of options for quick lunches, easy shortcut dinners, and healthy breakfasts. These also range from basics like pizza to more adventurous options like tamales.
Quality of Ingredients Used In The Meals
Home Chef and Martha & Marley Spoon deliver high-quality, fresh, pre-measured ingredients to customers’ weekly boxes.
Home Chef uses a diverse range of suppliers, focusing on sourcing seasonal ingredients of the best quality. They do not guarantee organic produce, though items are sometimes organic. The Customize-It tool lets customers opt for organic chicken when it is available.
With Marley Spoon, ingredients come from trusted suppliers who partner with the brand. All meat, except grass-fed beef from Australia, is sourced from the USA. Not all produce is organic, but priority is placed on freshness and high quality.
The Delivery Box
Home Chef provides information on how to recycle and reuse their materials, but we couldn’t verify if items are made from sustainably sourced or recycled materials.
The paper box, dividers, and plastic trays can be recycled curbside. The plastic ingredient bags, portion cups, and freezer packs can be recycled only at special plastic facilities. Home Chef encourages the reuse of many tougher-to-recycle items.
Marley Spoon prioritizes sustainability with its delivery boxes, reducing waste by being mindful of package size and transportation.
Their boxes are certified as sourced from sustainably managed forests and can be curbside recycled. Most liners and produce trays are made of paper and plant-based foam and can be recycled. Ingredient packaging is made of recyclable plastics but must be processed at a particular facility.
Subscribing & Managing Your Account
Home Chef and Marley Spoon make it easy to sign up for a flexible online subscription or use their mobile app. In a matter of minutes, you answer a few questions, select your preferences, and then choose your meals online.
We will say the sign-up process for Marley Spoon is more streamlined. With Home Chef, you have to click through a few more screens before signing up and picking meals.
Once you sign up with either Home Chef or Marley Spoon, you can manage your account totally online. Picking meals, skipping weeks, and even canceling your subscription is relatively easy and straightforward.
What Do Customers Say About Home Chef and Martha & Marley Spoon?
What Customers Say About Home Chef
Home Chef customers appreciate the variety of meal kit options you can mix and match and the tasty recipes.
@Disastrous_Award_875 on Reddit says, “This week, I had two meal kits and one oven ready. I love the oven-ready meals. So easy and less clean up!”
Redditor @Gizmo_McChillyfry loved the Dolly Parton collaboration menu options. They said, “We don’t rate many meals with 5 stars but we felt the two we had deserved it.”
What Customers Say About Marley Spoon
With Marley Spoon, customers like that the recipes teach them new skills and have consistently tasty flavors.
When asked about their favorite Marley Spoon menu item, Reddit user @7h4tguy says, “Too many to list. But especially the ones where they teach you something new. Like they had bao buns a while back.”
Redditor @Morbins says, “When Marley Spoon delivers, they really deliver.”
Customer Support
Home Chef and Marley Spoon both have great FAQ pages that answer many common questions about delivery, ingredients, and more. If you still need help, here’s how to reach customer service for both companies.
Home Chef has a contact form you can fill out, a contact phone number during business hours, and a 24/7 virtual assistant.
Marley Spoon offers a contact phone number during business hours or a contact form to report issues.
Delivery Areas
According to their website, Home Chef delivers 98% of the United States. Similarly, Marley Spoon delivers to most of the continental United States.
When signing up, double-check your zip code with both companies to confirm that they can offer meal kit delivery to your area.
Bottom Line: Our Winner is Martha & Marley Spoon!
Both meal kit companies have something to offer, but Marley Spoon comes out ahead for us. We love the variety of recipe options and different meal styles, the great dietary support, and the high-quality ingredients. Plus, the company partners with great chefs like Martha Stewart to provide amazing recipes that teach you new cooking skills and flavors.
No matter which meal kit company you choose, we know you will love the convenience of receiving pre-measured ingredients for a unique menu every week.
